in northern ireland in early may. there's a lot of tensions there at the moment. in the republic of ireland, they are celebrating at the moment 100 years since the signing of the treaty between the uk and ireland which set up irish independence and also effectively led to, or cemented, the creation of northern ireland, carving that out from the island of ireland, so a lot of these big political issues that have been there between ireland and britain are really coalescing around this northern ireland brexit discussion, so i think that's something to watch over the next few weeks. both sides are hoping for a breakthrough but i think the people of northern ireland really do need to get that settled. just a quick thought on that, suzanne. there are northern ireland assembly elections coming up in the spring. is there a sense in both brussels as well as in london — and in dublin as well — that they really want to get this sorted before that campaign starts? absolutely. i think that's the new deadline for this. the dup, the main unionist