Northern Ireland ? Negotiations to revive a Catholic-Protestant administration for Northern Ireland resumed Monday after a 14-month hiatus caused by the IRA’s alleged record-breaking robbery of a Belfast bank.

In the interim, the Irish Republican Army handed over its weapons stockpiles to disarmament officials and pledged never to resume “armed struggle,” major achievements on the road to lasting peace in this long-contested British territory.

The governments of Britain and Ireland, which jointly oversaw Monday’s discussions with rival local leaders at Hillsborough Castle near Belfast, hope that such reconciliatory actions by the IRA will eventually permit Protestants to work again with Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party that represents most of Northern Ireland’s Roman Catholic minority.

After Monday’s meeting, officials in both governments said they would reconvene talks Feb. 20 and set an April target for a deal to revive power-sharing, the central aim of Northern Ireland’s Good Friday pact of 1998.