It could have been a moment of great jeopardy for power-sharing at Stormont.<\/p>\n
The moment when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) bowed to pressure and effectively collapsed the Executive. <\/p>\n
But the party moved quickly to remove that threat within hours of the Orange parade being banned from the Garvaghy Road. <\/p>\n
Party leader Gavin Robinson insisted they “will not sacrifice the stability of Northern Ireland and plunge it into further crisis”.<\/p>\n
To do so, he said, would allow “Sinn F\u00e9in an escape route from the spotlight and accountability”. <\/p>\n
For the DUP, pulling down the institutions was high risk with an election on the horizon.<\/p>\n
History shows parties who walk away from Stormont pay a heavy price at the polls. <\/p>\n
Especially before a budget is agreed to approve public sector pay rises thus avoiding strikes. <\/p>\n
The DUP has opted instead to keep the focus on potential lawbreaking by Sinn F\u00e9in ministers. <\/p>\n
It allows for more tough talking in the chamber even though the punishment if convicted will result in fines.<\/p>\n
Though some in the DUP question if the institutions can be “sustainable” if First Minister Michelle O’Neill and her executive colleagues are found to have broken the law.<\/p>\n
That will be a calculation for another time and much will depend on the proximity of polling day.<\/p>\n
But the Drumcree dispute has delivered for Sinn F\u00e9in. <\/p>\n
It provided the platform to supercharge its election campaign and helped deflect from questions around delivery at Stormont. <\/p>\n
Though the court ruling clearing the way for the A5 has eased some pressure on the party. <\/p>\n
But it delivered on its promise to residents to ensure no parade down the Garvaghy Road. <\/p>\n
In truth any prosecutions they may face for standing with residents will be viewed by many within the party as a badge of honour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It could have been a moment of great jeopardy for power-sharing at Stormont. The moment when the Democratic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-798411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}