Peter Robinson's impending attendance at a Requiem Mass is certainly newsworthy, but it also provides the opportunity to point out that neither he nor Ian Paisley is or has ever been a member of the Orange Order. Or of the Ulster Unionist Party, or of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland.
Nor has Robinson ever been a member of Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church (which in reality has little or nothing to do with even the most conservative strands of Presbyterianism such as its unrelated Scottish namesake), but the main point is that the DUP, despite the enormous vote that it now commands, is not a product of mainstream Ulster Protestant culture and is at least arguably still not a part of it.
Alas, that might very well be the best way to understand this decision. Could it be that, just as whichever of the DUP and the UUP is not providing the First Minister at the given time will always be more Agreement-sceptical, hence the UUP's resistance to the devolution of Policing and Justice, so it will also be more separatist in relation to "the Other Side" generally, such as not attending Requiem Masses?
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