Consensus politics is paramount

THE political landscape of Northern Ireland has been radically transformed and a new era of uncertainty ushered in

While it comes as no surprise, the move will put the North’s fragile democracy under severe strain, testing the resolve of politicians and the resilience of the peace agreement to the utmost. The dilemma now facing the North’s divided community is a blunt choice between violence and democracy.

It has been a depressing measure of the failure of the political system that, for the fourth time in under three years, ordinary, decent people who live with the reality of violence on their doorstep have witnessed the collapse of institutions specifically set up to bring some sense of normality to life in a troubled society.