SINN FEIN president Mary Lou McDonald called today for political leaders in Ireland to “recapture the spirit and determination” of 1998.

Speaking in advance of an event in Stormont to mark the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Ms McDonald said: “This weekend we mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, an agreement that delivered peace and transformed Ireland. 

“To this day, it stands as a historic, international success story in peace making — a blueprint for the resolution of even the most intractable of conflicts.”

Ms McDonald said that the courage shown by political leaders to reach an agreement means that “a generation has grown up free of conflict, in a very different world full of hope and opportunity.”

But almost a year after assembly elections made Sinn Fein the biggest party for the first time, the Democratic Unionist Party has blocked the power-sharing institutions.

Ms McDonald said: “We need to see that same courage and determination today. Today’s political leaders need to recapture the spirit and determination that was seen on this weekend twenty-five years ago.”

She added: “We need to restore the political institutions. We need progress. We need ambition.”