As the political turmoil in Northern Ireland continues, the divided Democratic Unionist Party looks set to install its third leader in six weeks

As Ken Murray reports from Dublin, the expected new leader will face the same issues as his two predecessors suggesting that the coming months will be fraught with challenges that could mark the end of unionist dominance in the region.

This week marks the 100^th anniversary of the first sitting of the Northern Ireland Parliament which sat for the first time in Belfast City Hall on 22 ^June 1921.

The centenary should be an occasion of celebration for pro-British unionists who, 100 years ago, persuaded British PM David Lloyd George to give them their own parliament for the six mainly protestant counties of Northern Ireland while still remaining in the UK.

The mainly catholic 26-county Irish Free State would be given its own parliament in Dublin and dominion status within the British Empire.

However instead of jumping up and down for joy this week that NI still has its own parliament 100 years on and is ruled, in the main, by the Government in London, unionists are at war, none more so than the dominant right-wing Democratic Unionist Party!

As one DUP voter in the mainly protestant town of Ballymena, once home to the Party’s founder Reverend Ian Paisley, told BBC NI last week in a vox pop, “they’re a shambles.”

The disgruntled interviewee was referring to the sensational development last week when DUP Leader and religious zealot Edwin Poots was forced to resign from his position after only 21 days in the job!

Poots, who organised a coup to remove his predecessor Arlene Foster after she abstained on a vote to ban gay conversion therapy, said upon obtaining the leadership that he would listen to the concerns of party members and conduct business by democratic means!

However, as the high noon deadline was approaching to appoint DUP colleague Paul Givan to the position of First Minister, Poots agreed to a last-minute deal with London that would see the Conservative Government introduce a Cultural Act if the Northern Ireland Assembly had not legislated for it by the end of September.

The Act, amongst other things, would see the provision of a Commissioner, budgets, personnel and promotion for the Irish Language, a development that has angered DUP members who see it as another incremental step towards a united Ireland.

To make matters worse for Poots, the decision reached with the London Government and agreed with his approval, had not been approved with the DUP executive and when they called for a special meeting on Thursday June 18^th, the Party Leader and his chosen First Minister Paul Givan, walked out before contributions from the elected representatives were completed.

Seen as going back on his promise to ‘listen’ to all Party members before decisions were reached, the perceived decision by Poots to go on a solo run without consulting with his angry colleagues, sealed his fate and he was forced to resign later that day.

Darren Causby, a DUP Councillor resigned from the Party next day telling reporters, “The DUP is not the party I joined and I have been unhappy for some time.

“We can’t allow Sinn Féin to dictate what happens and that has been the case for some time.”

In the meantime, Party officials have advised Paul Givan to resign so that his successor will be DUP Leader and First Minister simultaneously as had been the case since the 90-seat Northern Ireland power sharing executive was set up in 1999 following the British-Irish Peace Agreement one year earlier.

All eyes this week will be on Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP who is expected to be confirmed as the new DUP Leader without a contest.

He was defeated by Edwin Poots for the Leadership on May 14^th by 19 votes to 17, an election result that has split the parliamentary party right down the middle and one that has strained old friendships and strong loyalties with many feeling that Arlene Foster was treated abysmally.

Assuming Donaldson takes over, he will have to mend severely broken bridges by trying to ensure that elected colleagues from the Poots wing are offered ministerial positions in any future administration.

While all this is going on, the turmoil in the DUP has resulted in a number of its councillors defecting to the smaller but more hard-line unionist party the TUV-Traditional Unionist Voice thus splitting its potential vote even further.

Donaldson faces an uphill task to appease rebels in the Party that see the pro-Irish unity party Sinn Féin continually gaining significant concessions from the British Government.

Elsewhere the Loyalist Communities Council which represents pro-British protestant paramilitaries, have entered the fray by calling on the DUP, “to end concessions to Sinn Féin even if it meant bringing down the Stormont [Northern Ireland] Parliament.”

With Sinn Féin on course to surpass the combined unionist vote for the first time in 100 years after next May’s Assembly elections, angry working class British loyalists protesting on the streets over the NI Brexit Protocol and Scottish nationalists pushing to exit the UK, this week’s so-called celebrations at Belfast City Hall will be rather muted.

All the signs suggest that a 200^th anniversary celebration in 2121 will be highly unlikely.

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