Newry and Lisburn are set to become cities. The new status of the two towns has been granted by Queen Elizabeth to commemorate her golden jubilee.
Six towns in the North had entered the competition and only one was expected to be successful. Preston in England, Stirling in Scotland and Newport in Wales have also been chosen as cities. Belfast, Derry and Armagh are the only other cities in the North, with the award to Armagh being made in 1994.
The Northern Secretary who is in Washington congratulated the new cities. Dr John Reid said it was a tribute to the new Northern Ireland that two towns had been chosen and showed how far they had come in economic and social regeneration during the peace process.
The news was welcomed by the chair of Newry and Mourne District Council Davy Hyland, who also congratulated Lisburn.
Gerard O'Hare of Newry and Mourne Chamber of Commerce said they had gone from being one of the top unemployment black spots to become a model of urban and rural regeneration and inward investment.
The North's Environment Minister congratulated the two successful towns on their new status as cities. Dermot Nesbitt said there had been stiff competition from Ballymena, Carrickfergus, Coleraine and Craigavon and he thanked them for their gallant participation and hard work which he said would help to bolster civic pride in their towns.
Ulster Unionist Assembly member Danny Kennedy said that the sense of togetherness and enthusiasm throughout the project had been heartwarming. He said the award was richly deserved.
He said that Newry boasted a dynamic economy which had continued to evolve successfully in recent difficult times, helping it to maintain its position as a major trading centre for people on both sides of the border.
Ulster Unionist Assembly member Ivan Davis praised the success of Lisburn and said the award was a triumph for a dynamic community project, which he claimed had drawn citizens even closer together.
Lisburn Sinn Féin Councillors Micheal Ferguson and Paul Butler said they had made it clear beforehand that their decision not to oppose the bid for city status would depend very much on the response by Unionists to issues such as the Irish language.
They also wanted to see evidence that the economic fruits from achieving that success would be spread out to the most deprived areas of the Borough, including the predominantly Nationalist estates of Poleglass, Twinbrook and Lagmore, where one-third of the district's population live.
