The party, which still doesn’t even use the term ‘Northern Ireland’, has become its largest

There’s a reason you had to bet £100 on the prospect at a bookmaker to only make a £5 profit. But the result is still sensational.

My phone didn’t stop ringing all week, with calls from journalists from different countries, fascinated that Sinn Féin – a party whose controversial history they seemed to know – was close to “victory”.

The party, which doesn’t even use the term ‘Northern Ireland’, has become its largest and provides its first minister. That counts.

One day there will be, but a border poll is not imminent.

Michelle O’Neill has been very vague about the timing of the BBC executives debate. The party’s manifesto calls for a date, but Brandon Lewis won’t delete his diary.

In any case, his next 24 weeks will be filled with trying to form a government that the main union party will not join. Good luck with it.

Even the biggest Sinn Féin optimist might not have expected a triumph in East Derry. It used to be about field two, get one.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood had a point when he argued that some of his own constituents switched to Sinn Féin because they wanted a nationalist first minister, not a DUP veto one.

But it was still a smart, flawless campaign from Sinn Féin.

The sound came from the other side. And that commotion wasn’t entirely disastrous for the DUP, but the crown is lost.

The DUP topped the polls, in which the party had just 20 percent, just short of the 21.5 percent it landed in the first preference vote.

There were some late rallies for the Donaldson cause. But Sinn Féin’s share of the vote easily exceeded expectations.

Predictably, Alliance has made significant progress. The opinion poll suggested it would hit new heights at 15 percent in the general election, and it delivered. An upper limit for the growth of the alliance has yet to be reached.

There have been occasional highlights for the UUP, such as Robin Swann leading the poll in North Antrim.

But it will be the next election before I understand the cognitive processes behind the decision to risk the party’s lone female MLA in Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

Reducing the number of female MLAs to attract more males doesn’t look good.

Mr. Eastwood must be wondering what he must do. He did best in TV bosses debates, but also when starring as a lead Derry girls his party might have fought. A single digit percentage vote was worse than anyone predicted.

In fact, the SDLP battled for fifth place with TÜV, which more than tripled its percentage from 2017.

While Jim Allister clearly outperformed his runner-up from North Antrim, the performance of the party in Strangford at the BBC studio caused quite a stir.

Beyond the drama of Sinn Féin’s triumph, the election confirmed a single strong party in each of the three electoral blocs, nationalist, union and other.

The logic is that UUP and SDLP form a cross-community opposition. You have nothing to lose.

But three strong pillar parties perhaps make no more of a unified executive than has been apparent over the past quarter century. And that’s when we get one.

Jon Tonge is Professor of Politics at the University of Liverpool