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BELFAST - Hardline Protestant cleric Ian Paisley suffered the first defections from his Democratic Unionist Party today after agreeing to set aside decades of animosity and share power with predominantly Catholic Sinn Fein.
The two parties held their first, historic meeting on Monday, agreeing to jointly administer the province's day-to-day affairs from May 8.
More compromises will be needed from both sides in the months ahead if they are to make the power-sharing deal work -- something that will inevitably spark anger among hardliners on both sides of an often bitter sectarian divide.
On Tuesday, the DUP's only member of the European Parliament, Jim Allister, quit the party saying the DUP had "jumped far too soon" into a deal with Sinn Fein, political ally of the IRA paramilitary group.
"Sinn Fein in my view is not fit for government, nor will it be fit within a few short weeks," Allister said, pointing in particular to the continuing existence of the IRA as an entity.
A more junior DUP member, local councillor Sam Gaston, also left the party on Tuesday in protest at the deal.
The IRA, which pledged to disarm in 2005, was responsible for around half of the 3,600 killings during Northern Ireland's 30-year sectarian conflict.
The Belfast assembly was set under 1998's Good Friday peace agreement, which aimed to end the bloodshed between majority Protestants and Catholics.
Common ground
The 80-year-old Paisley, famous for his fire-and-brimstone sermons and "No surrender" war cry, has spent his life opposing both Sinn Fein and power sharing and, according to his wife, had not found it easy to sit down with nationalist foes.
"I didn't like it and of course Ian's not happy about it either, fully. But what are we to do?" Eileen Paisley told the BBC, pointing out that the people of Northern Ireland had made their support for a deal clear in elections earlier this month.
Securing a six-week delay to power-sharing -- which the government had wanted to start on March 26 -- has pacified most of the party's hardline waverers.
Paisley will be First Minister in the assembly, with Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, a former IRA member, as deputy.
After Monday's historic meeting, McGuinness said he expected more talks in the coming weeks to prepare for government.
"I have to say Ian Paisley was very civil and cordial and the meeting was conducted in a very work-person-like fashion," said McGuinness who stressed earlier this month the best government comes when there is lively, but constructive, debate.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, who is a former anti-apartheid campaigner, has pointed to South Africa as an example of how deals between the "most polarised parties" had the best chance of sticking.
Constitutional disagreements aside, the two sides will also have to reconcile DUP free-market economics with Sinn Fein's socialist support for the redistribution of wealth.
Elsewhere, the DUP wants a selective education system while Sinn Fein favours a comprehensive system that treats everybody the same way regardless of their academic achievements.
However, there is some common ground.
Both parties have mastered the art of community-based politics and their elected representatives make a point of being on first-name terms with their constituents.
They have both voiced strong opposition to London's plans to introduce unpopular water charges in the province and both have campaigned for improved infrastructure and public services.
- REUTERS
