evidence: Irish nationalists and republicans believe that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has only itself to blame for the political and economic damage of Brexit. It campaigned for Brexit, and then refused to back former Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal with the European Union that would have eliminated the prospect of a ‘hard’ border. When the European Union continued to insist that a customs and regulatory land border on the island of Ireland was a deal breaker for an EU-UK trade agreement, Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to put one – under a joint UK-EU Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) – in the Irish Sea instead, something he previously claimed that no British prime minister would ever contemplate. [...] First, Dublin should be more attuned to unionist sensitivities over the NIP. Diplomacy in Belfast may reassure more moderate elements within the DUP that the protocol can be turned into a workable, and in some respects, advantageous instrument for Northern Ireland. Micheál Martin, the Irish Taoiseach, has already helpfully suggested that a proposed poll on Irish unity should not be considered in the next few years given the political tensions and uncertainty caused by Brexit.