Time and thought is needed before there is any Stormont deal

That is a good thing – there is no time to lose.

But it is essential that there is no rush into any deal.

There is three weeks to reach an agreement, and it would be alarming if a sudden understanding was reached within days given the gulf between the DUP and republicans.

Sinn Fein has behaved in a calculating and highly damaging way. It feels that its tactics have been vindicated by the narrow result. But the nationalist vote percentage has in fact barely moved over the last decade so in fact their position is no stronger after 10 years in which the Catholic population in Northern Ireland has edged up.

A rushed deal would merely embolden Sinn Fein the next time it wants to cause a crisis – and there will certainly be a next time.

There are serious lessons to be learned for unionism from this election, and it will take many months, if not years, to understand those lessons.

The position of unionism is weakened but by no means hopeless. They still have a larger bloc of MLAs, and crucially the DUP has major clout at Westminster in this parliament.

Further, as anyone could anticipate but as Chris Moncrieff confirms on the facing page, the Conservative government has good reason to be alarmed at the rise of the political wing of the IRA as soldiers face Troubles trials.

There are clearly tensions in the DUP at the moment. Its MLAs, like MLAs from other parties, would not be human if they were not tempted to support a deal that keeps them in their jobs.

But these are perilous days for Northern Ireland, amid a rampant Sinn Fein.

That party could easily over-reach itself. If the country goes to the polls again, it is likely that unionist turnout will be high.

Therefore it would foolish in the extreme to give swift and significant concessions to republicans now.