We should praise politicians when they work together, especially in Northern Ireland

The coronavirus crisis seems to have given Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill a chance to show leadership, writes John Rentoul

Arlene Foster said she worked well with Michelle O’Neill despite holding such different views and coming from such different traditions (PA)

This has not been commented on as much as it should have been, and certainly not by London-based journalists, but the partnership between Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill in Northern Ireland is a wonder to behold.

It was pretty extraordinary when Ian Paisley Sr and Martin McGuinness worked together as first minister and deputy in 2007 – one the founder of the Democratic Unionist Party who built his career on saying No; the other a leader of Sinn Fein assumed to have been a member of the IRA’s “army council”.

And the difficulty of the two parties working together was illustrated by the suspension of devolved government for three years between 2017 and January this year.