A “culture war” between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin is said to be the main obstacle to restoring power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

As talks in Belfast aimed at restoring a cross-community coalition reach their final phase before Thursday’s deadline, the main point of contention is Sinn Féin’s demand for an Irish Language Act.

Sinn Féin wants the act to focus solely on the rights of Irish speakers and putting Gaelic on a par in law with English.

The DUP meanwhile, fearing criticism from more hardline unionists, has argued for a more all-embracing Culture Act that would not only guarantee the rights of those who speak Irish but also Ulster Scots speakers as well as incorporating aspects of Orange/Protestant culture.



DUP sources told the Guardian that division on the issue was “the main sticking point” with less than 24 hours to go.

There is internal opposition within the Democratic Unionists to a “standalone” Irish Language Act because this would, according to party sources, “not provide political cover” for the DUP, which is facing claims that it has sold out from still-more-hardline unionists.



On Tuesday night Sinn Féin’s chairman, Declan Kearney, himself a fluent Irish speaker, accused the DUP of blocking moves towards equality during discussions at Stormont.



“The DUP have not moved on any of the substantive issues which sit at the heart of this crisis. They haven’t moved on any of the fundamental rights and equality issues that require to be embraced,” he said.



If the parties cannot agree then the Northern Ireland secretary, James Brokenshire, will have to decide on Thursday whether or not to reimpose direct rule on the region. This would entail London-appointed Tory ministers running Northern Ireland’s devolved departments and also carving up the £1bn-plus aid package the DUP extracted from the Conservatives as a price for putting Theresa May back into Downing Street.



Brokenshire’s other option will be to put devolution into so-called “warm storage” and allow local top civil servants to run the Stormont ministries over the summer. This would carry on until early in the autumn when there could be a fresh round of negotiations between Northern Ireland’s parties over a period of four to six weeks aimed again at restoring power sharing.



In Westminster on Wednesday, Brokenshire said failure to strike a power-sharing deal in Northern Ireland would have “profound and serious” implications.

He told MPs: “Our focus is on seeing that an executive is restored and I have been clear on not wanting to pre-empt what may happen should that not be the case.

“Obviously there would be profound and serious implications in that context.”



Stormont negotiations will continue in the Northern Ireland secretary’s absence and are expected to last through most of Wednesday and then into the early hours of Thursday.

On Thursday the assembly will meet for the first time since the March elections in Northern Ireland but if no deal has been reached the house will fail to elect a speaker and a first and deputy first minister, leading to the freezing of devolution once more.