No one, it seemed, wanted this election.

Since the collapse of power-sharing at Stormont in January, Northern Ireland endured what much of the Irish media disdainfully characterized as a divisive and toxic campaign. The right-wing Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), whose erstwhile dominance gave them little cause or talent for self-reflection, had just enough wit to realize they would be facing a base disgruntled by scandal, a re-energized Sinn Féin furious at the imposition of Brexit, and an austerity-hardened electorate whose oft-mythologized sectarianism is, while still extant, no longer as reliable as in years past.

A brave-faced Sinn Féin, contrary to conspiratorial mutterings that they had engineered the vote to give Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness an excuse to retire, were not eager for another election just ten months after their previous disappointments. Theresa May’s Conservative government, maniacally committed to Brexit, had no desire to be distracted from planning a future free from immigrants and human rights by the unrewarding quagmire of Northern Irish politics.