I’m calling my removal from office ‘the great betrayal’

I’ve always maintained I go to Fermanagh for sanity, and after the past few months, I need a return to sanity more than ever. Fermanagh is by far the least populated of Northern Ireland’s six counties and it’s beautiful. I grew up here in the countryside, playing in fields, and now live near Brookebrough in the east of the county. From the sanctuary of Fermanagh I think about the fact that the new DUP leader and his team will now have to negotiate with Sinn Fein to get the first minister nominated again. Once I resigned, it meant that the deputy first minister was also out: for both ministers to be appointed there has to be agreement between the parties. This is not an easy process, as you might imagine. Sinn Fein are adamant that Irish language rights have to be legislated for before all else (health service recovery, economic renewal etc), and they are making the most of the leverage they’ve got. In Irish, Brookebrough means ‘Field of the Blackbirds’. I walk round the fields with my better half, in the evening sun. It feels good for the soul, and I think to myself: life is not too bad.

Life is certainly better than it was when I was growing up. Back in the 1970s, innocent people were being killed all the time. But I do worry about protests and the possibility of a return to violence. The disaster which is the Northern Ireland protocol continues to loom large in political discourse and it has an effect on the street too. Brexit was supposed to be about taking back control, but all that Northern Ireland has taken back is a great pile of EU red tape. We have been left with EU rules and regulations without even the ability to voice our objection as the rules are made in Brussels without any voice from NI.