Politics have changed on this island and that change is something that has happened at a pace some are understandably struggling to process.
Unionism no longer has a clear majority in the north, changing demographics and a swing by soft unionists to Alliance shows the no, nay, never politics of the past have decreasing appeal.
In the south an electoral earthquake was caused by a different type of societal change.
Sinn Féin’s remarkable performance was a result of growing anger at a disparity in the distribution of wealth and the growing financial inequality in a booming economy that is only benefiting the few.
The people have spoken, their voices have rocked the establishment and sent a signal to those who thought they could live lavishly from the spoils of the workers’ toil and give little back.
The Sinn Féin bounce may well be a protest vote, it may well be votes on loan from people willing to turn their backs on decades of tradition and take a punt in the pursuit of change.
What the party must now do is prove they deserve the position they have been put in and deliver.
To do that they will need to think long and hard about what kind of coalition they intend to be a part of, and what impact their partners in government will have on the delivery of their manifesto promises.
Priority number one is sorting Ireland’s housing crisis.
While middle income earners struggle to get into a property market that is increasingly impenetrable, those on low incomes, often working in the engine room jobs that keep any society functioning, struggle to even get on the rental ladder.
This change has not only caught the establishment political parties on the hop but also came as something of a surprise to sections of the media who used language that even the most hard-line northern unionists abandoned long ago to describe a conflict they have no real knowledge of and therefore no concept of how their words sound to those of us who have.
We’ve always been considered a place apart, the ‘Dark North’ but a little knowledge of your subject matter before putting ink to print wouldn’t go amiss.
We’ve come through a damaging and traumatic time that has caused hurt to so many, the causes of that conflict are not as binary as some would have you believe.
Using victims - one section of victims for those murdered by loyalist and state have no political capital - is not only retraumatising but it hasn’t worked.
They were clearly out of touch with voters who put housing and health as their top priorities, not a conflict that started over 50 years ago and ended over 20 years ago.
Slugger O’Toole’s David McCann summed it up with this remarkable observation: “The Sinn Fein I grew up with were a growing party in the north and marginal in the south. Now they hold representatives in every single city on the island, except for Lisburn.”
This new political landscape must also be considered in an all-island context and what effect this rise in republican nationalism has in the north.
Unionism is understandably nervous; Brexit has been a disaster for the Union and uncertainty over trade arrangements has many feeling concerned for their future.
There are those with only short-sighted goggles who dismiss this concern.
There are those who seek to be poacher turned gamekeeper, the ‘slap it up them’ style of republicanism that is as nasty in its origins as those who sought to persecute a once nationalist minority following partition.
This changing island must consider the wellbeing of all those who live on it, whether that’s a future unionist minority or those who have made this tiny little place their home in more recent years.
And unionism needs strong and reassuring leadership, those who will ensure their voices are heard but not use change to destabilise the peace we now have.
This week I’ve been reading a book about a section of loyalism who took a small estate in Old Warren in Lisburn and turned it from a no-go area to a desirable post code with a housing waiting list.
Conflict to Peace: Our Community Transformation is a remarkable look at a section of loyalism often ignored, confident and forward thinking, not afraid to work with their nationalist neighbours to better their own future.
This week of all weeks it is the kind of leadership that is more important than ever as we step into a new and still uncertain future.
