Opinion

Fionnuala O Connor: DUP refused to understand what Brexit would do to the Union and are paying the price

DUP leader Arlene Foster and deputy leader Nigel Dodds. Picture by Aaron Chown/PA Wire
DUP leader Arlene Foster and deputy leader Nigel Dodds. Picture by Aaron Chown/PA Wire DUP leader Arlene Foster and deputy leader Nigel Dodds. Picture by Aaron Chown/PA Wire

A bounce that went wrong? Or did Boris Johnson just heave the DUP overboard when loss of patience halted further guesswork?

Calculation of the numbers he would have in Westminster tomorrow never felt solid in any case. As this is written Arlene Foster and company are still saying no, with much angst about ‘the integrity of the Union’. But it’s only teatime on Thursday.

The DUP refuse to learn, as they refused to understand what Brexit would do to the ‘precious Union’. As the past few fractious years have proven, a union including Northern Ireland is precious only to them and other northern unionists; not to a majority in the UK, the Tory party, even to Brexiteers. Professed NI unionist loyalty would be pathetic, if only arrogance didn’t hit eye and ear first.

The Conservative and Unionist party is the party which again and again has hit them where it hurts most, in their belief that their Britishness is the real thing, their objections the only ones that count; the 1972 dissolution of Stormont, the first imposition of power-sharing, on and on, the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

This is an orphan people, very much as are northern nationalists. Neither community is beloved of its parents, but for the most part nationalists have fewer illusions. After the disaster of the Brexit vote, the worst damage to the DUP has been caused by their freak significance, born of Theresa May’s hopeless election campaign. As they lost their majority inside Stormont they pranced into the House of Commons spotlight. Disliked throughout Westminster, their ten votes have kept them centre-stage. That has further stalled any willingness to look at their position, and rethink.

For now, the DUP cries foul, betrayal and most plaintively of all, that the proposals undermine ‘the integrity of the UK’ and ‘drive a coach and horses through the professed sanctity of the Belfast Agreement.’

This might be called having your cake, eating it and then maintaining it was cake with no calories. ‘Professed sanctity’? Never so professed by the DUP, who fought David Trimble and the 1998 Agreement as Trimble staggered with it to the finish line. Their jeers, on top of IRA manoeuvring, forced Trimble into his own undermining tics instead of championing his deal. When the guldering stopped and Ian Paisley signed up in Trimble’s place, on it went.

From badmouthing ‘north-southery’, refusal to send ministers to meet southern counterparts, to the pettiness of making Sinn Féin’s nominee Mitchel McLaughlin, mannerly Mitchel, wait for his turn at being Stormont Speaker.

But ‘professed’ sanctity smooths out the contradictions in their position and takes Allister off their backs? Of course not. Allister notes every squirm and will never tire, while they never summon the nerve to ignore him.

The BBC website’s usually calm ‘Explainer’ section began yesterday with a blurted ‘So what the hell has happened now?’ Foster and co are well adrift of northern farming and business sectors. Faithful DUP voters – surely? – must have watched yesterday’s happenings with fingers over their eyes.