evidence: However, cooperation was short-lived. Foster stepped down in April 2021 after facing pressure over new trade checks on goods traveling to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK as a consequence of the Northern Ireland Protocol. She was replaced by the DUP’s Paul Givan, who in turn resigned in February 2022 in protest against the protocol. May 2022 elections made Sinn Fein the largest party in the assembly for the first time, but the DUP’s continued boycott kept the government out of commission into 2024. In January 2024, the UK government reached a deal with the DUP to update the protocol and pave the way for a restored government under Sinn Fein’s O’Neill as first minister. [...] But the protocol has spurred backlash from unionists. The DUP, which supported Brexit as a way of drawing closer to the UK, now sees the Irish Sea border checks as driving a wedge between them; many rank-and-file unionists likewise interpret London’s support for the protocol as a betrayal. This grievance helped spark riots in April 2021, the worst violence Belfast had seen in decades, and has caused the DUP’s ongoing boycott of the Northern Ireland executive.