THE lot now falls to the Alliance Party and Fianna Fáil.

It has been clear for some time that together they hold the keys that decides the future.

That conundrum, that unattended constitutional question, the future political shape of this island, is what creates most of the ineptitude and shoddiness of our present politics in the north.

It is the pulmonary vein that runs through every aspect of our politics. We cannot move forward nor back without falling over that conundrum, condemning us to a torturous political future, unless...

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It would be comforting and pleasing to believe that the responsibility and power that the position bequeathed to Fianna Fáil and Alliance is in good hands. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Fianna Fáil should need no analysis. Their raison d’etre is to resolve the constitutional question – or at least it used to be.

All their eggs now are in the Shared Island project. Very worthy and helpful, but devoid of a political cutting edge – and politics always changes........

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