We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
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.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
ALMOST A WEEK ago, a source watching the internal leadership play within the DUP thought out loudly about a tie – and the rules in the event of such an outcome.
He was explaining how “tight” this contest to succeed party leader Arlene Foster had become.
That it could come down to a vote either way – how 18-18 could become 19-17.
I published his thinking on the eamonnmallie.com website the following day – an assessment that was spot on.
A divided DUP
The race was between Stormont agriculture minister Edwin Poots and the party’s Westminster leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Poots emerged the winner, but by the narrowest of margins. It was a photo finish.
He now leads a deeply divided party in one of those periods of broken politics in the North.
On the morning of the vote – Friday last – a different set of figures was floated from inside the Donaldson camp. The high number had him winning comfortably – the lower number by a margin of two.
Those numbers had been around for about 24 hours; with one source suggesting that Donaldson may well have “outfoxed” Poots. It was a misread of the party mood.
The BBC Political Editor in Northern Ireland Enda McClafferty had predicted an outcome that could create “a border down the middle of the DUP”. It turned out to be the perfect description of events.
Two borders now illustrate the brokenness of our politics. How the DUP was fractured in that leadership vote, and that post-Brexit Irish Sea border that has caused a tremor within the unionist/loyalist community.
Brexit, Stormont & The Union
In this centenary year, there are louder questions about the future of the Union, especially with Boris Johnson as UK Prime Minister. He is accused of betrayal – that sea border creating further difference and distance between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Poots – as well as the new leader of the Ulster Unionist Party Doug Beattie – have to find some way out of the mess. Is there such a thing as getting rid of the sea border? How do you undo a deal negotiated by Johnson and the EU?
The big decisions will be taken at a higher level in politics. Poots and Beattie can make their arguments, but will Johnson listen? He is not good at that. Words and actions can be two very different things, especially with this Prime Minister.
In the fallout, a poison has once again seeped into our politics. The pandemic is what has kept the Stormont Executive together, but only just.
Are the old arguments about the Irish language and how to address the questions of the conflict years about to become new battles? Poots has been around long enough to know that Stormont only functions in a working relationship with Sinn Féin.
But he also knows the mood inside the Unionist/Loyalist community on that issue of the sea border.
Can Stormont – will Stormont – survive?
It was given what should be its last chance in the New Decade-New Approach agreement of January 2020.
Yet, here we are again, a little over a year later, with Stormont again being walked to its very edge.
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
The political wing of the old testament
Did he click his heels together before doing that gesture?!
@Bill Spill: I believe we are heading back to Never Never Never Land
@Bill Spill: yeh not a good look
it will be no no no all the way now until the dup are gone at the next election
@frank_1916: I can only see the DUP getting stronger at the next election as I loyalist/ unionist opinion becomes even more entrenched. Not sure how some commentators are suggesting that alliance will take from the DUP. Their policies and voters are poles apart
@frank_1916: 400 years later and unionism is more entrenched. They have never been so vulnerable so expect a lot of trouble from them
@Paul Furey: I agree. The cynic in me thinks they’d love to see the assembly collapse and rule returned to Westminster. Although a majority of the unionist vote would be against that, so it’ll be interested to see what toys Poots and Beattie throw from their prams.
@Stephen Mccarney: The Alliance is already taking voters from the DUP. Moderate unionists are moving away from the extremes of the DUP.
Correct me if I’m wrong but the way they are waving looks quite familiar to another hateful salute
He’s a believer in creationism.
Say no more, say no more.
The Nazi salutes seem very appropriate
How can anyone expect change from a 5000 year old dinosaur
@Garreth mc mahon: No he doesn’t believe they ever existed
It’s all down to the British decision to seek the hardest possible exit from the EU. Which is in actual fact an English nationalist decision, which the loyalists would love to go along with, buth they can’t, because they don’t understand what English nationalism means in the context of unionism. Since there’s no English devolution it means English supremacism, and that means that anyone in any of the other nations, including the meaninglessly more British than the English loyalists, can go to hell. If only they started having the sense to realise this basic fact, then perhaps they might begin to get somewhere.
Wouldn’t be any fan of Johnson’s, but I don’t really get the sniping at him in this article. Just because Johnson may not do what Poots wants him to do doesn’t mean he’s not listening, or not good at listening. Johnson didn’t come up with the protocol all by himself, it was the result of months of negotiations with the EU. He knows that in any divorce settlement there’s give and take. Poots/DUP idea of a reasonable, fair divorce settlement is one where you get the kids, the house, the money, the car and the pets while the ex gets a cardboard box and a worn blanket. Anyway, there’s a vibe going on in NI that’s not good, and with summer marching season just around the corner it could well turn into a shltshow that’s hard to stop. All the leaders need to get the blinkers off and take a look around them.
@Tommy Roche: In order to ‘get Brexit done’ was no need in principle for a divorce settlement that included leaving the customs union, which is only meant to serve the ‘global Britain’ fantasy of trade deals, and is in that sense as much a nostalgic fantasy as the DUP itself.
@Tommy Roche: It’s because Johnson lied about it to the unionists saying there would be no border down the Irish Sea, when clearly there had to be some level of border as Johnson had agreed to it in the protocol. Whether one thinks the EU is enforcing it to hard is a moot point- maybe it could be softened- but there is no question of unrestricted access.
Is he making the nazi salute?
Heil to the chief ! A photo tells a thousand words !!
Heil Méin Fuhrer!
Poots will be happy if Stormont fails again and direct government from Westminster resumes. Anything to stall progress and keep nationalists, republicans, moderate unionists and alliance out of politics. The DUP/UDA and other hard line loyalists are driven by their visceral hatred of everything Irish and Catholic. They would chew their own limbs off it it meant keeping their fleg flying over the north and their sectarian marches and fires going. I pity the brits and our own government as there is no working with these people, I pity more the rest of the people in the North having to put up with these knuckle draggers. One small point, I think poots is carrying all his weight at the hips, it’s a bit creepy and weird.
@Welk wrangler: It is up to moderate unionists to stop enabling them. If they vote for an alternative, the DUP problem goes away.
Will Donaldson form a new Unionist party?
That’s a great photo to start his command, just missing a pair of jack boots, an SS uniform and a monocle…
That’s a very Hitlery pic…
@JustMeHere: Yes, a bit unfortunate all right.
What a poot show
have your say