Contrasting fortunes for Sinn Féin and DUP ahead of Westminster election

The North’s two main parties go into the UK general election on the back of starkly contrasting fortunes.

For Sinn Fein the poll represents the chance to solidify its recently assumed status as the largest party in the region, after displacing the DUP in top spot in both Assembly and local government elections over the past two years.

Michelle O’Neill became Northern Ireland’s first ever nationalist First Minister in February when devolution returned to Stormont after a two-year hiatus and the party’s vice president will be hoping to take that momentum into the July election.

If Sinn Fein enter the campaign in confident mood, there will be nervousness within the DUP hierarchy as to how unionist voters will react to its decision to drop its boycott on powersharing at Stormont, and to the recent political earthquake that saw former leader Jeffrey Donaldson quit in March after he was charged with a series of historical sexual offences – charges he denies.

The DUP had…