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Chimes after midnight...

Mark Devenport | 11:00 UK time, Friday, 5 February 2010

There's no better way to fight exhaustion I find than a second breakfast. I'm sat in the corner of Chime's Cafe at Hillsborough, which has become such as regular haunt over the last two weeks of marathon talks that they now bring me scrambled eggs and mushrooms without having to ask for an order.

We're all just beginning to look at the fine print of the Hillsborough Agreement. The politicians intend to start work quickly with the appointment of a working group on parades this coming Monday and a meeting of party leaders to identify a future justice minister on the same day.

Then, the timetable continues through a March cross community vote and in April, transfer of justice powers and a December law putting into place new parading structures.

Of course, this deal is just as important for what won't happen as what will.

We will now not see Martin McGuinness's resignation or the collapse of the Stormont Assembly.

Amidst the high-flown rhetoric, it's wise to still inject some notes of caution. The Ulster Unionists have yet to declare their hand, although one imagines their allies, the Conservatives, will pressurise them not to stand in the way of the deal.

Also, this remains only an interim measure - remember that the law providing for the cross-community appointment of a justice minister has a sunset clause, meaning it will expire in 2012 if the parties do not agree on its extension.

But for now, I think commentators can be forgiven a sense of jubilation - that's not a political statement, just a human reaction for the prospect of getting some time off.

PS - Martin McGuinness said that today could be the day politics here comes of age which prompted me to suggest on the TV that if that is the case we could all be midnight children, given the drama at Stormont last night. A friend texted that I look nothing like that Salman Rushdie.

Also, Peter Robinson had quite a good joke about Northern Ireland entering the negotiating team who should be favourites to take a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics. But as he noticed, they would have to agree which flag should fly and which national anthem should be played at the medals ceremony.

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