Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE RESIGNATION OF Stormont First Minister Paul Givan was in the tea leaves. Well signalled. Easily read.
We didn’t need to look inside the cup.
DUP party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson had repeatedly warned of the possibility.
So much so that his lines started to sound like a broken record.
Stretched over a few months. This huffing and puffing that Stormont could be blown down.
History repeats, again
The developments of the past 24 hours do not represent the complete collapse of 2017 when Martin McGuinness resigned as deputy First Minister – a response to the RHI cash for ash episode of that time.
Givan’s resignation means the Executive cannot meet.
In the way of these things, no First Minister means no deputy First Minister.
Others, including Health Minister Robin Swann remain in post. But there can be no new decisions.
Sinn Féin positioning
The Assembly will sit for now. But politics is broken again.
We wait to see what Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald means in her comments that her party will not facilitate such a scenario.
Sinn Féin wants an early election – the results of which could create the real crisis in our politics.
What if the results see Sinn Féin as the largest party? In a position to be First Minister?Would unionists nominate a deputy First Minister in such circumstances? If not, then Stormont cannot function.
What we have now are pre-election headlines. They could become bigger, louder, as this story develops.
There is nothing certain. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson wants to return to Stormont. Wants to be First Minister.
But politics here is no longer as predictable as it once was.
There is a pattern.
The 2017 Assembly election in which unionists lost their overall majority at Stormont.
The 2019 European election when Alliance leader Naomi Long took a seat.
Then, the 2019 UK General Election, the results of which show that unionists no longer hold a majority of the Northern Ireland seats at Westminster.
All of this explains the nervousness of now.
The latest fine mess. A politics here that has never really settled since its collapse in 2017.
Thinking today about the vast number of women & men in Northern Ireland who love where they live, celebrate the unique agreement that has won & maintained peace & who are at ease with shades of grey rather than black & white. This majority will prevail. Keep the faith.
— Julian Smith MP (@JulianSmithUK) February 3, 2022
It is a little over two years since Stormont was rescued. Saved from itself in a joint initiative involving the British and Irish Governments.
Then NI Secretary of State Julian Smith and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney were the lead players then.
The New Decade-New Approach agreement was offered as a take-it-or-leave-it deal.
And the Stormont parties were pushed back into Stormont after a three-year absence of government.
Boris Johnson came running to steal a slice of the success.
A later agreement, that Johnson made with the EU, is at the heart of the latest political crisis. The Irish Sea border, which in the minds of unionists is not just about the additional paperwork of trade, but creates further difference and distance between this place and the rest of the United Kingdom.
A threat to the Union itself, and an earthquake moment that turned what was meant to be a 2021 Centenary year of celebration into something representing chaos. A convulsion in politics.
Current impasse
Inside that unionist/loyalist community there was talk of collapsing Stormont.
Go for an early election.Use that centenary moment and the fears about the Union, about a border poll and about a possible Sinn Féin First Minister to try to energise the unionist vote.We have staggered through to now.
The Protocol is of course an extension of Brexit. The play out from the agreement.
The part that is left out of the script.
A reminder that politics is not just about what you want, but what comes with it.
In the turmoil, we have watched the DUP as ‘a family at war’. A description I have borrowed from the BBC political correspondent Gareth Gordon.
A party with three leaders in 2021. All the arguments and rows on the lines and in the lines for all to see.Donaldson is trying to manage a mood both inside his party and across that community.
He was waiting to see results in the UK-EU negotiations – talks that some time ago took on the look of a marathon run, rather than some short-term fix.
His patience tried, Donaldson tired. Thursday’s resignation of the First Minister Givan a result of that.
Unionists, of course, are watching the polls in the South and the polls in the North.
Seeing Sinn Féin at the top of both.
Not saying it out loudly, but in quiet conversations, worrying about where this is leading.
All of this is the latest crossroads in our politics. All adding to the cross words of now.
Times changing.
Old certainties gone.
Stormont getting ready for another last stand.
Brian Rowan is a journalist and author. He is a former BBC correspondent in Belfast. Brian is the author of several books on Northern Ireland’s peace process. His new book, “Political Purgatory – The Battle to Save Stormont and the Play for a New Ireland” is out now at Merrion Press.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Did they not check on the demand for these houses before they spent £8 million doing them up?
I only have £1.03 to spare, f**k!
It’s ok, Leo has €3 so he’ll have them snapped up…twice.
Imagine in 25 years time this place became the most sought after addresses in that part of the country….you bought a big lump of it for under £2.
The idea sounds good but that could mean 25 yrs of rates and house tax for 136 houses! That’s a rather large sum to commit to on a bet
This is what thatcherite policies did the North, rip out its biggest industry
And yet Durham has a lower unemployment rate than Ireland.
A heavily subsidised industry that was losing a lot of money. It would be closed by now even if Thatcher hadn’t done it.
Never liked her but it doesn’t mean everything she did was wrong. The unions were at least partially to blame for the problems.
Long term the mines made no sense but you can’t remove the one think that lets a town exist and not replace it. The closing down should have happened gradually with training for new jobs and attracting new business to the area occurring at the same time
Yes because Co Durham includes town like well Durham which have the university etc. which reduces the unemployment rate, but go outside of that area and it gets pretty grim
“Grim” is how the (English) north markets itself. If tweren’t grim, twould be some soft-as-shite southern place.
I’d be up for changing it to an Itchy and Scratchy Land. Nothing can possiblay go wrong.
Will it have a monorail?
I hear those things are awfully loud!
It glides as softly as a cloud
Feck it. I’m buying it for a £1..!
Im gonna fence it off and rent it to movie companies as set for disaster/zombie movies…
I’v gotta leave old Durham Town.
Beirut is a beautiful city, very unfair to compare areas of England with it. If anyone is offering places in Beirut for £1, I’ll take them all.
I bet they weren’t expecting this when the brought in that ‘bedroom tax’.
It’s crazy to penalise someone because they have a spare bedroom…..http://www.bromford.co.uk/customer/changes-to-benefits/bedroom-tax/
Looks like Aleppo what a kip
have your say