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Article: Not everyone in Belfast is laughing Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness have such opposing aims their coalition, inevitably, will be in conflict, believes Jenny McCartney
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- May 13, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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What a picture it was, last week at Stormont. What an eye-
popping, mind-boggling vision. There was Ian Paisley, First Minister,
clutching his thighs and baring his great tombstone teeth in an
irrepressible convulsion of laughter. And sitting right next to him,
similarly creased up at the joke, was Martin McGuinness, Deputy First
Minister. There were media hallelujahs all round at this miraculous
sight, and multiple spontaneous outbreaks of Seamus Heaney verse
among journalists (they tend to save bursts of Yeats for the bad
times). The wider public laughed in shock and relief, the way that
children do when they suddenly see a picture of a much-feared