DUP Is Finally Ready To Decide Whether To Return To Power Sharing

After many months of painstaking negotiations, flash points and false dawns, Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has finally indicated the party is ready to reach a decision on whether to restore power-sharing.

Early on Friday morning, Donaldson caught virtually everyone by surprise, including those in his own ranks, when he called a meeting of the party's twelve senior officers. A source close to talks described them to PoliticsHome as a "deal or no deal" situation. Crunch time.

Even as late as Thursday, hopes on both sides of the Irish Sea that the region's largest unionist party would soon agree to return to power-sharing seemed to have hit a new low. 

Shortly before Donaldson summoned key DUP figures, David Sterling, the former head of the Northern Irish civil service, posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, that he feared the power-sharing institutions would never sit again.

Standing outside Northern Ireland's seat of power, Stormont, which has been out of action for nearly two years, Sterling wrote: "Despite the bright sunshine, there’s a sad end of days feel in the air. Can’t help thinking if the Assembly has met for the last time, it will be Unionists who come to regret it the most."

Julian Smith, the former Northern Ireland secretary who remains an influential figure when it comes to Rishi Sunak's approach to Northern Ireland, struck a slightly more upbeat tone in response: "Sometimes it's darkest before the dawn," he replied. Was he right?

The DUP is faced with the existential question of whether to accept the UK government's offer of alterations to post-Brexit trading arrangements, thrashed out over months of talks with officials in Westminster, plus £3.3bn for a restored Stormont to