THE Brexit result in June 2016 was a game-changer for Northern Ireland politics; and that’s because neither Sinn Féin nor the DUP expected Leave to win.

It wasn’t until shortly before the referendum that Sinn Féin finally abandoned its long-standing opposition to EU membership and ongoing integration and decided to back Remain.

The decision was also tied to the fact that Ireland had done well from EU membership and that nationalist support for continuing membership was strong on both sides of the border.

That being the case, it wouldn’t have made strategic sense to find itself on the same side of the debate as both the DUP and Nigel Farage.

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The DUP was fairly certain that Remain would carry the day, as it had comfortably done in the previous referendum in 1975.

But it was also determined to build new and stronger links across the expanding right of British politics, as well as putting red, white and blue water between itself and the UUP, which had, ‘on balance’, opted for Remain.

The victory by Leave, as well as quite the shock for both big parties, was quickly seen as providing them with new opportunities.

© The Irish News