Prepare for a surprise - DUP may be the party to do a deal with SF

NORTHERN IRELAND politics has had a busy August. The word processors and wordsmiths of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin have been particularly busy.

In the last three weeks, Danny Morrison had articles published on this page, Gerry Adams and Peter Robinson have penned articles for the Irish Times, Nigel Dodds contributed a piece to The Guardian and Martin McGuinness’s thoughts were given a full page in the Irish News.

This exchange of op-ed pieces was the backdrop to a session at the Parnell summer school in Avondale last Friday morning when the four main Northern political parties had the opportunity to give their current perspectives on the peace process.