The minister restored the funding the following month, but the damage had been done. Givan’s mistake coupled with RHI was too much for Sinn Féin. Martin McGuinness resigned as deputy first minister on 7 January 2017. The Assembly didn’t return for three years.
In removing Foster and appointing Givan, the DUP is replacing one disaster with another. The party’s future is still its past. It can’t detach itself from Foster or Givan’s legacy because they’re unable to reckon with their own mistakes.
Even before the Líofa debacle, Givan was already notorious. He has been a thorn in the side of every progressive in Northern Ireland for many years. In appointing him, the DUP is doubling down on its fundamentalist roots.
In 2015 Givan tried to introduce a Freedom of Conscience Bill in the Assembly. The Equality Commission said it “would significantly weaken protection against discrimination in Northern Ireland for lesbian, gay and bisexual people when accessing goods, facilities and services or buying or renting premises”.
Northern Ireland has made significant progress when it comes to LGBT and abortion rights. Givan, like a lot of DUP MLAs, voted to maintain Northern Ireland’s abortion laws, which did not allow abortions in cases of rape and incest. In February of this year, he proposed a bill to restrict access to abortion in cases of severe foetal abnormality. Activists believe this is the start of a right-wing pushback against hard-won gains.
If Givan becomes first minister, he will have a larger platform to push his conservative views. LGBT, abortion and language rights activists are ready to fight back.
The stage is set for political drama
In an ironic twist of fate, the Irish language has once again become a political hot topic. Givan could be at the centre of it all.
Last year’s New Decade, New Approach agreement states that Irish language legislation will be brought forward in the Assembly. Poots has given assurances that his party won’t block a language bill. Some fear that the party is dragging its heels and is about to renege on what was promised. Irish language activists, quite rightly, want answers.
In recent days, Sinn Féin assembly member and Northern Irish deputy first minister Michelle O’Neill has demanded more than “fluffy words” to reassure her party that Irish language legislation is forthcoming. The stage is set for political drama.
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