It is seven days since Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s bombshell resignation as leader of the Democratic Unionist party following his arrest on sexual offences charges that he denies. For the largest unionist party in Northern Ireland to have survived such a week without any further political damage is no small achievement, given Sir Jeffrey’s previous dominance of the party and the DUP’s internal divisions. That it has done so is compelling proof of the collective peril that faced the party – and unionist politics more generally – following his announcement. For once, though, the DUP acted decisively, and as one. Now, its more enduring challenge begins.
Sir Jeffrey was DUP leader for only three years, but he was the party’s pivotal figure for much longer than that. Forty years ago, he worked for Enoch Powell, a doctrinaire intellectual unionist. Last week, he was still working with Michelle O’Neill, a staunch republican. Sir Jeffrey was, within his limits, a pragmatic politician in a party that is reflexively suspicious of compromise. He was also the decisive voice in the DUP over the past decade. Having collapsed the devolved institutions two years ago in protest at the Irish Sea trade border checks in the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol, he was the indispensable deal-maker who made resumption of the power-sharing executive possible in February.
