The Democratic Unionist Party is nothing if not intransigent. For many years, the DUP provided a masterclass in judging the past, and tying it round the neck of the future. Its founder, Ian Paisley, was best known for uttering the same word three times: ‘Never! Never! Never!’. But now that the party has once again started the hard yards of governing Northern Ireland with Emma Little-Pengelly as deputy first minister, there are signs that the DUP is radically changing.
Donaldson has not gone soft on the Union
It is still not quite four weeks since the Northern Ireland Executive was appointed after the devolved assembly at Stormont had sat idle for two years. Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin became first minister and leads a ministerial team jointly with Little-Pengelly. Yet it was a speech given by party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson yesterday that appears to show the shift the DUP has undergone.
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