evidence: Northern Ireland appears to be a unique case in the UK (United Kingdom) in terms of voting behaviour. while the rest of the UK’s voting behaviour is much more malleable to short-term factors like Brexit, Northern Ireland has remained deeply prioritised long-term factors like the cultural divide between Unionists and Nationalists. While the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) and SF (Sinn Fein) remain dominant, short-term factors can determine which party receives votes from each community and the rise of Alliance which is a cross-community party shows that the long-term voting priorities may not be as influential as they once were. [...] Northern Ireland has a significant historic divide that lessens the impact of short-term factors. The historic divide between unionist/ protestant communities, who usually support the union with Britain and the nationalist/ catholic communities, who usually support a united Ireland, overshadows any short-term factors that would normally affect voting behaviour. Voting behaviour in Northern Ireland largely follows identity politics. The political divide between unionists and nationalists dominates northern Irish politics and in turn also dominates the voting behaviour of the population. The long-term factor of whether Northern Ireland should remain part of the UK or unify with Ireland is a crucial part of most of the parties in Northern Ireland. A unionist community will always vote for a unionist party even if their economic interests lie with a nationalist party and vice versa with a nationalist community and a unionist party. The strong identity of the two communities does not allow voters to be malleable when short-term factors arise.