Good Humor Marks N. Ireland Meeting

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Protestant and Roman Catholic politicians broke new ground in Northern Ireland on Monday as they debated how to govern this long-divided land together--and shared a few laughs as well.

Seamus Mallon, the Catholic deputy leader of the British province’s new legislative Assembly, told its 108 members--who sat divided, with Irish Catholics on the left and British Protestants on the right--that a new era has begun.

“We have to move from criticism to construction, from making demands to making choices, from claiming rights to taking responsibility for our own lives,” he said.

David Trimble, the Assembly’s Protestant leader, said after the session in the Stormont British government complex here that the upbeat atmosphere during the daylong debate “shows you how far we’ve come” since April’s peace accord.

The two leaders indicated Monday that they are likely to delay appointing the rest of the administration until November.

First, they plan to hold a summit with the Irish government, launching formal cooperation between both parts of Ireland, and to tour the U.S. in mid-October.

Gerry Adams and other members of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, began their new careers inside Stormont by pointedly debating in Gaelic, the ancient Irish tongue that most Protestants consider foreign and don’t understand.

This triggered good-natured repartee across the divide, with one unionist noting that Adams’ command of Gaelic appeared to be suspiciously peppered with English.