The American bishop Fulton Sheen once made the humorous comment that hearing nuns’ confessions was a bit like being stoned to death with popcorn.

There was plenty of popcorn thrown in Stormont this week, when Sinn Féin’s coalition partners made a remarkably restrained attempt to query the party’s role in the “I didn’t see Michael McMonagle” scandal. No-one wanted to create a crisis which might risk collapsing the Assembly.

Just as Sinn Féin doubled down to protect itself, its executive partners doubled down to protect Stormont.

Welcome to the cosy chat room on the hill, where 79 of the 90 MLAs are in a government devoted to self-preservation.

Pat McArt: That old British hypocrisy is still going strong

Patrick Murphy: Sinn Féin, the Michael McMonagle scandal and preservation of the popcorn parliament

The original issue in Sinn Féin’s case was that a member of staff was involved in criminal activity.

That was not the party’s fault. When charged, normal human resource practice would be to suspend the member........

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