Northern Ireland

Deirdre Heenan: DUP must stop the threats and look for a face-saving deal to return to power-sharing

The party and its leaders are clinging to the last vestiges of power, unable to accept that the world around them has fundamentally changed

Simon Coveney, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Chris Heaton-Harris, Britain’s secretary of state for the North: Heaton-Harris struck a conciliatory note, stating that it was ‘good to refresh a great old friendship’ with Coveney. Picture: PA

It is finally dawning on the DUP that Liz Truss cannot and will not deliver their demands around the Northern Ireland protocol. Regrettably, the party is still in the Brexit denial stage and has responded with tantrums, threats and sabre rattling. Its fantasy of putting it up to the EU and the Irish government has, predictably, gone pear-shaped.

In very short order, the fairytale of Trussonomics has been brutally exposed. Following the omnishambles mini budget, ...