Pledges on alliances are worthless - After the votes are counted

EUROPE’S monarchies were adept, until World War I at least, at clinging to power — or extending it — by any means possible. Murder — poisoning was a favourite — and marriage were common tactics. Marriages often bordered on the incestuous but such delicacies were easily overlooked in the pursuit of territory or the consolidation of power.

The Habsburgs were so very focussed on territorial acquisition through inheritance that the habit was expressed as a mission statement: Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube! (‘Let others wage war. You, happy Austria, marry!’) The marriage of Queen Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten (born a Prince of Greece and Denmark) in 1947 was not arranged but it is a modern example of dynasties coming together.

The principle of a beneficial union, unlike many of old Europe’s monarchies, is alive and well in politics today but we call it a coalition rather than an arranged marriage. And today the matchmakers of all Irish political parties are busy calculating possibility, identifying opportunity and ensuring that lines of communication between each other are open and working well. Each is as focussed as the other on the road to power — and ultimately they are not particularly bothered about who they might have to share the taxi with.