It is time for the DUP to forgive Sinn Féin over June’s IRA funeral scandal, not because Sinn Féin is asking for forgiveness or particularly deserves it but because it would be the wise thing to do.
First and foremost it would help with managing coronavirus. A second wave is building across Europe and the assembly has returned this week from its summer recess. This is the moment for the executive to reassemble a united front to convey its public message.
While most people do not get their pandemic information from Stormont press conferences, they do pick up on the political mood.
During the first wave, when Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill hosted briefings together and appeared to be genuinely warming towards each other, this clearly assisted with public compliance and morale.
There is no question Sinn Féin alone wrecked this good work in June in the most egregious fashion. Some signal of displeasure had to by sent by the rest of the executive - all other parties were as aghast as the DUP. An end to joint press conferences by Foster and O’Neill was a minimum response and necessary at that point to maintain the credibility of lockdown messaging.
However, that was three months ago. Keeping Sinn Féin outside now just looks at best like a huff and at worst like hopeless Stormont dysfunction.
The DUP might be able to count on its supporters holding the IRA funeral against Sinn Féin indefinitely but June’s wider consensus will inevitably dissolve along unionist and nationalist lines, with Foster blamed for excluding O’Neill by Sinn Féin’s supporters.
Although this has not happened yet, perhaps surprisingly, O’Neill has laid the groundwork for it by taking her punishment responsibly.
She could have complained last Thursday as she stood outside Stormont, forced once again to conduct her half of an Executive Office briefing on her own.
Instead, O’Neill made a point of saying she and Foster had the same message on coronavirus even if they were not making it jointly.
“We’re both on-message, we’re both delivering the same message,” she insisted.
A cynic might say this will stand Sinn Féin in great stead once it moves to play the victim, at which it is highly adept.
The DUP’s lack of guile looks naive by comparison.
“I just feel that there needs to be an acknowledgement from Sinn Féin and the deputy first minister that damage has been done,” Foster told the media last Thursday, also while standing outside Stormont on her own.
Why is that needed when every other party and most of the population have already acknowledged the damage? How long before republicans start grumbling that the DUP just wants sackcloth and ashes?
A cannier move would be for Foster to rise above it all and let Sinn Féin deal with any lingering perception of double standards.
Some unionist figures have mentioned police investigations and council inquiries into the funeral. There is no reason to wait for any of that to conclude before resuming normal service at Stormont, given there are four PSNI investigations still ongoing into RHI, for example. If anything, inquiries by others conveniently remove a subject from the political front-burner.
Elections last year proved to the DUP and Sinn Féin that it is in both their interests to have a functioning Stormont, requiring a professional working relationship between them.
When Stormont was not functioning, the DUP believed this was harming unionism more than nationalism.
It seemed to be Foster who had taken these lessons most on board after devolution was restored. Today, she and her party risk appearing to have forgotten them.
Deserved or not, the DUP gets more credit when Stormont works and is more exposed to blame for failure. As the executive’s largest party, it is branded as first among equals and treasures that misleading distinction.
So a return of the Chuckle Sisters is in order, all the more sincere for being driven by self-interest - the purist political motivation.
Far smarter to patronisingly bestow forgiveness than to petulantly demand an apology, especially when an apology will never be forthcoming.
