Irish Examiner view: Worrying time for NI politics

Foster departure

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Brandon Lewis appears to have a better grasp than some of his predecessors of the political situation there.

The departure of Arlene Foster from her role as Northern Ireland’s first minister marks a worrying time for politics in the North in general, and the peace process in particular.

Whatever one may say about how successful or not Foster was as first minister, it is becoming clear that, while seen by many people in the Republic as a hardline unionist, she actually comes from the more pragmatic wing of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and sought to rule by consensus rather than division. She was hardly a dove, but she was no hawk either, and her attempts to find compromise on sensitive issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion placed her under pressure from the hard-right in her own party.