All eyes are now focussed on the Democratic Unionist Party ( DUP ) of Northern Ireland and the ten seats it holds in the United Kingdom parliament. Theresa May will need their support if she is to continue as Prime Minister in a minority government.
This party was founded in 1971 under the auspices of the Reverend Ian Paisley and it has strong links to paramilitary loyalist groups that openly battled the IRA. Eventually both DUP and Sinn Fein reached an uneasy alliance to form the devolved government in Belfast. This contrast in opposing views will now play out on the national scene.
The planks of the DUP manifesto signal trouble for the Conservatives. One of their aims is to abolish the license fee that funds the BBC and that might get a very mixed reception. They strongly oppose abortion - for any reason - and are quite implacable in rejecting same sex marriage. The fact that other British political parties are either headed by Gays or contain many Gay members seems to ensure that this will be hugely divisive.
Their domestic agenda calls for an increase in the national living wage and the establishment of " free ports " in Northern Ireland to create a frictionless border after Brexit. Strangely, they demand a corporate review to abolish the twenty year time amnesty in prosecuting terrorist offences, and obviously this would reopen old wounds in the battles between the IRA and the Ulster Defence Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force. The peace in Northern Ireland would come under fresh pressure.
Other aims are more manageable. They want the Olympic team renamed from " Team GB " to " Team UK " and some of their members have expressed doubts on the validity of global warming, but a lot depends on how hard they flex their muscles and use the power this hung parliament has invested on them.
The one thing that is certain now is the form of Brexit has changed. A " hard " Brexit is no longer attainable because the parliament lacks the strength to force through unpopular " concessions " that are inevitable as both sides thrash out this messy divorce. The outcome may even end with the dissolution of what formed the heart of the former British empire.
One of the founding truths of politics was the wise maxim that " You never ask a public question unless you are absolutely certain what the answer will be " ? That was ignored when the question of remaining in the EU was put to a vote, and the virtual disintegration of the nation started from that point.
How all this finally works out - will be in the history books of the future !
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