Irish reunification back on the agenda as DUP falters

One of the most significant successes in the general election is of a party that will not be represented in the House of Commons. The historic achievement, instead, will be used by Sinn Fein in its campaign to get Northern Ireland out of the United Kingdom.

- KIM SENGUPTA

The Irish nationalist party has become the North's largest Westminster party. It is already the largest party at the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont and in local government in the country, with its main rivals, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), in disarray after losses on an unexpected scale.

The DUP lost three of the eight seats it secured at the last election. The most surprising defeat - and a greatly symbolic one - is that of Ian Paisley Jr in North Antrim, which had been in his family for more than 50 years. It was previously held by one of the most controversial figures of the Troubles, his father and former Northern Ireland first minister the Reverend lan Paisley.

The party also lost the Lagan Valley seat which had been vacated by its former leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who faces sexual offences charges, and saw its majorities reduced elsewhere; Sinn Fein came within 179 votes of taking East Londonderry, a hitherto staunch DUP seat. Sinn Fein will not be taking up its seats in the Commons, as has been the case for more than a century, to show its opposition to British rule in Northern Ireland. It will instead use its position of strength to press the new Labour government to agree to a definitive timeline for a referendum on Irish unification.