For many Northern Irish people, waking up on Friday morning felt almost like entering an alternative universe.

While British journalists and voters frantically googled “what is the DUP”, those of us living in England spent the day educating the people around us on the policies and positions of the Conservative Party’s new friends. In case you haven’t heard – they’re anti-abortion, anti-same sex marriage and some of them don’t believe in climate change.

Illegal in Northern Ireland

On a normal day, no one in Britain pays much attention to the fact that gay marriage and abortion are both illegal in Northern Ireland, which can be incredibly frustrating for those of us campaigning for change. Yesterday however, was different.

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I grew up in one of the safest DUP seats in Northern Ireland – North Antrim, represented in Westminster by Ian Paisley Junior, the son of the party’s founder.

The DUP’s roots lie in hardline, evangelical Christianity and a historic rejection of power-sharing agreements with nationalists.

They campaigned against the Sunningdale Agreement of 1974, the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 and the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which secured Northern Ireland a fragile peace.

In March 2007, the DUP entered a power-sharing agreement with Sinn Fein, leading the devolved government at Stormont until earlier this year, and remaining the largest party after the last assembly elections in March.

‘Draconian’ approach

Whilst the opinions of many of the Democratic Unionist Party’s MPs on climate change and LGBT+ rights are frankly shocking, the party’s firm opposition to any reform of Northern Ireland’s draconian abortion laws means women actually end up before the courts.