It takes a lot to unite nationalists and unionists in the North on any political issue, but the genuine and widespread sense of annoyance at the southern political establishment’s response to the Sinn Féin surge has been something to behold.

Unionists, long conditioned to being preached to about the need to embrace powersharing and demonstrate maturity by moving beyond a fixation with the past, find themselves lining up with northern nationalists to cry foul at the breathtaking degree of hypocrisy that has characterised the reaction from a political class and commentariat yet to pick itself up after being floored by the electorate’s verdict three weeks ago.