APPARENTLY some unionists are affronted that nationalists believe that Stormont is not up and running because they cannot handle the republican woman from Coalisland, Michelle O’Neill, being in the position of First Minister. And apparently saying that unionism doesn’t want Michell O’Neill as First Minister might be “dangerous” because it would suggest that the DUP is sectarian.

Well, knock me down with a set of blinkers! From the day and hour the power-sharing institutions were put in place we have seen an attempted assertion of sectarian dominance. It begins in constituencies where unionism encourages pacts to keep the latest version of Fenianism out. It works into the corridors of Stormont where the veto, designed to protect minority interests, was used by the DUP to prevent progress on basic human rights. It worked its way into speeches delivered by erstwhile DUP First Ministers who referred to the late Martin McGuinness and Michelle O’Neill as “my deputy”. This was always a pretence of course, given the parity of the powers the First and deputy First Minister posts have. But it was a Let’s Pretend in which Peter Robinson and, in particular, Arlene Foster loved to dress up.

Does anyone really believe that if Jeffrey Donaldson had been in the majority position he would not have retained his MLA seat and walked into the position of First Minister? It might have been a little bit tricky to stay there with the nest of vipers that seem to occupy the floor of the DUP leader’s Throne Room, but that is a different, if related, matter.

Again and again, since the attempts to veil the Irish sea border in an invisibility cloak began, there have been highlighted examples of where unionism not only cooperated in differences between the internal jurisdictions, but promoted them. The obvious examples are in the frames of religious fundamentalism and the denial of rights. But also in practical areas such as protecting livestock from foot and mouth disease. Does anyone really think this argument is more about parity between the islands than it is about destroying parity between mandates?

This state was founded on sectarian headcounts. It was maintained by manipulating those counts to preserve unionist dominance. Nationalist second class citizenship was secured by state and state-sanctioned murder and legal impunity. There has been no evidence in the years of power-sharing that this dogma has been replaced with commitments to equality and human rights. Quite the opposite. Look at the efforts to quell the modest requests of streets for bilingual signage, an easy way to indicate goodwill consistently rejected by the DUP.

If there are dangers at the minute, they lie in the promotion of minority extremist views as legitimate influence. The facilitation of dissident anti-Good Friday Agreement loyalist paramilitary groups, and their spokespeople, as the “contextualisation” for DUP inaction is what is  actually dangerous. That the DUP seem to not only frame their inaction but take their guide from those spokespeople is even more dangerous. 

That the DUP will be led by the extreme right in Westminster when voting on Rwanda, for example, or led by the views of loyalist paramilitary 'stakeholders' while in Belfast tells us all we need to know. They might want to reside in a sectarian Jurassic Park, but that is gone, and gone forever.