Deirdre Heenan: DUP’s increasingly desperate behaviour has all the signs of a party looking at the political wilderness

The DUP’s decision to dissolve the executive is an act of narrow, naked self-interest, which is unlikely to rescue it or return it to its former dominant position

Paul Givan announced his resignation last week as the first minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Picture: Pacemaker

What on earth is going on in the DUP? It appears to have the long-term strategic nous of a mayfly.

The decision to have Paul Givan resign as first minister, triggering the collapse of the political institutions, came just 24 hours after Edwin Poots’s bungled attempt to stop Northern Ireland protocol checks at the ports.

It seems barely credible that just a few years ago, the DUP held the balance of power in London, with ...