What I have never understood about the DUP is why they haven't made any attempts to move into the mainland.
The result is that they create a situation where Unionists in Northern Ireland are disenfranchised on issues like education, health, taxation and finance, foreign policy, law and order, any many other policies applicable to the entire UK because they have had to take whatever the party in government in Westminster gives them. The DUP MPs play very little part in formulating such policies as they are outside of the political establishment and there has never been a DUP cabinet minister. In effect, the DUP turns Northern Ireland into a colony of the UK rather than an integral part of the UK.
A member of UKIP told me about the flawed situation with the Unionist parties in Northern Ireland and how he hoped that UKIP could rectify it. UKIP candidates have an attractive feature in Northern Ireland that they provide Unionists with a facility to have more control over policies applicable to the entire UK as UKIP MPs representing constituencies in Northern Ireland will work together with UKIP MPs representing constituencies in the mainland. The Lib-Lab-Con parties are free to ignore Ulster folk if they are unhappy with them in government because they have nothing to lose in a general election as they do not field candidates in Northern Ireland. If UKIP has MPs in Northern Ireland then they will have to listen to the concerns of Ulster folk in exactly the same way as voters in the mainland.
Something I have thought about is whether there is a certain degree of support for the republican cause not out of wanting a united Ireland but wanting to be in a position where Ulster folk have a real say in how their country is run rather than languishing as a colony of the UK governed by political parties that have no presence in Northern Ireland and treat its people as second class citizens to those in the mainland.