Clinton optimistic Northern Ireland govt will be revived

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Former U.S. President Bill Clinton says he’s optimistic that one of Northern Ireland’s main political parties will soon end a boycott that has kept the regional government on ice for more than a year. Clinton said he met Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson on Monday, and “I left that meeting more optimistic than I entered it.” Clinton spoke in Belfast Tuesday. He’s there this week to mark 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement ended decades of sectarian bloodshed. Northern Ireland has been without a government since the DUP walked out to protest post-Brexit trade rules that imposed a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.