Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said earlier this week that the DUP will negotiate with his party after the election, despite its claims the contrary.
Interestingly, former Sinn Fein publicity director Danny Morrison takes the opposite view in his Daily Ireland column today:
If Paisley really wants power he too will have to do what the Ulster Unionists did and sit with Sinn Féin in an executive with links to the Dublin government. I have long been of the opinion that he cannot do that and that his victories will have all been empty ones, which will deliver no progress or prosperity for the unionist people.
Of course, there isn’t going to be any pressure on the DUP unless the IRA stands down, but if that happens, then the party will be expected to go into the compulsory power-sharing arrangement envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement.
The DUP manifesto says it won’t do that under any circumstances. We will find out in the next couple of months whether that is just electioneering, or whether they really just can’t share power with nationalists.
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