The two important words in Northern Ireland are POWER SHARING. The unionists and nationalists signed up to that in the famous Good Friday Agreement. Unfortunately, many unionists had difficulty in translating what power sharing meant. Even Arlene Foster for years thought it meant "What We Have We...
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... Hold" and what's left will be shared with nationalists. Let's cut to the chase here the situation is Unionists -V- Sinn-Féin.
Unionists never wanted to deal with former gunmen/bombers (Sinn Féin) and even now many still refuse to deal with them. Hey Matt, what does that actually mean? We're getting into the Marching Season where unionists march wherever they wish showing assertion of their authority to their faithful and intimidating those nationalists whose streets they insist on marching through. The marchers must apply in advance for planning permission to march through nationalist areas but refuse to do so because some of the representatives of the nationalists are former IRA members.
The Irish language is important to many nationalists. Arlene Foster scoffed at the language for years and often referred to nationalists as crocodiles (e.g. "feed the crocodiles and they always come back for more"). It took Arlene Foster too long to conclude that she was feeding the hunger of extremist nationalists doing more harm to the unionist cause and without Sinn Féin having to say a word. Simply, Arlene Foster set herself up as a stool pigeon and the only people shooting against her were her own unionists. Easy win for nationalists! Own goal after own goal scored by the unionists while the nationalists just passed the ball around midfield.
Unionism has put its own back against the wall and most of them can't see this but continue to blame the nationalists whose numbers have been getting quietly stronger and stronger over the years. Whoever succeeds Arlene Foster will automatically become Northern Ireland's First Minister and will have to appease unionists more tan he/she thinks (probably a he where a she is needed).
The foregoing is a simplification of the whole situation. No doubt a die hard unionist would get dug into me insisting I'm wrong no matter what. But, unionism is tumbling down in NI and when they feel threatened they will be the first to raise arms and that is inbuilt in their thinking.
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