Fancy seeing you here, Arlene…

A GLORIOUS summer’s day, the prospect of some great football… and a catchup with a familiar face. What more could you ask for on a Sunday afternoon?

DUP leader Arlene Foster, standing left, was in Clones, Co. Monaghan, to cheer on her native Fermanagh in the Ulster Football Final – and took her seat near her Sinn Féin counterpart Michelle O’Neill, seated right.

Senior DUP ministers have attended GAA games before – but none as high-profile as the Ulster final, and none in the Republic.

Mrs Foster, the former first minister of Northern Ireland, was greeted by Enterprise Minister, and local TD, Heather Humphreys. Fermanagh fans clapped as Mrs Foster entered St Tiernach’s Park, good-naturedly singing, ‘Come on, Arlene.’ Mrs Foster, who stood with the rest of the crowd for Amhrán Na bhFiann, said her party was seeking ‘a shared society in Northern Ireland’.

Unfortunately for Enniskillen woman Mrs Foster, Fermanagh lost the final to Donegal.

MORE than 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement was signed, the situation in the North is worryingly fraught.

Against that backdrop, that Arlene Foster attended yesterday’s Ulster GAA final is to be regarded as a positive step. So too is the fact that she shook hands with Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, even if the body language between them appeared less than comfortable.

It may well be that the encounter between the two leaders was only for the optics. Even if that is the case, however, it is better than nothing.

For whatever reasons, the stalemate has gone on for far too long. Nor were matters helped by last week’s less than constructive meeting between Mary Lou McDonald and Theresa May. Anything that seems like progress deserves to be welcomed.