A fifth attempt to introduce same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland has failed after a majority vote in favour was blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

For the first time since Members of the Liberal Assembly (MLA) began repeated drives to legislate on marriage redefinition so as to bring the North into line with both the Republic of Ireland and Britain, a majority of 53 MLAs backed the Sinn Féin/SDLP motion, with 52 against. Crucially, however, with just four of the majority coming from the unionist side of the house, the DUP issued a petition of concern, a legal device open to parties concerned at any vote offering too much to one community in the North over the other. The vote was thus blocked and the legislation stalled.

Speaking to the BBC after the vote, Sinn Féin’s Catriona Ruane said it had been an “historic day” for the North as a majority had backed same-sex marriage. However, the DUP’s Peter Weir pointed out that people were “notably quick to dismiss the other four occasions that a majority rejected this same proposal”.

“If it requires a process of attrition to alter a result it does not demonstrate a great deal of force behind the argument,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Church of Norway is to celebrate same-sex marriage ceremonies after a unanimous vote in favour of the move by its General Synod.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Norway since 2008, but the government appeared to offer the Church of Norway an opt-out by giving it the right to develop its own specific liturgy for same-sex ceremonies, something it has declined to do until now. In 2013, when the issue came up for discussion at the General Synod, bishops decided that a blessing ceremony was the way to proceed on the matter, thus avoiding the risk of splitting the Church.

With the vote of the Church’s 12 leading prelates in favour of hosting ceremonies at places of worship nationwide, the work will now get under way on the required liturgy, meaning same-sex weddings in churches in Norway could be a reality with the next two years. At the same time, however, the Church has retained the right to allow priests and church staff to cite conscientious objections to participating in any ceremony they object to. The bishops’ vote will be ratified in April 2016 when the General Synod next meets.

The move sees Norway follow the line already adopted by churches in Sweden, which ruled in favour of same-sex church weddings in 2009, and Denmark, which followed suit in 2012 with a legal requirement on all churches to provide for same-sex ceremonies.