Rishi Sunak’s meeting with his Irish opposite number, Micheal Martin, in Blackpool may have something of a historic edge to it. Obviously it comes at a time of renewed tension, with the Northern Ireland parties seemingly as far as ever from restoring peaceful self-government to the country, and the threat of fresh – but potentially equally stalemated – elections in the air.
Hopes of a breakthrough shouldn’t be exaggerated. It is not a special summit, which is the kind of thing arranged only when the diplomats have done all the groundwork required to justify such a high-level event. Instead, the pair will be meeting as members of the British-Irish Council, the “east-west” pillar of the Good Friday Agreement.
Representatives from the UK and Irish governments, the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the governments of the crown dependencies of the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey get together regularly for a British Isles talking shop. Normally it’s a low-key affair, and a British prime minister hasn’t attended since Gordon Brown in 2007, so it’s a signal that Sunak takes the issue seriously and wants it sorted out. So does the Irish side, and so does the EU.
