The results of the European Parliament elections mark the end of an era in Northern Ireland. Dr Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and Mr John Hume, as leader of the SDLP, have dominated the constituency as MEPs since the first directly-elected European elections in 1979.
The Ulster Unionist Party won the last seat in those years. That era has now ended with the retirement of the figureheads who were the polar axis of politics for 25 years. There is a new political landscape with an enhanced vote for the DUP's Mr Jim Allister, the election of the first Sinn Féin MEP, Ms Bairbre de Brún, the re-election of outgoing UUP member, Mr Jim Nicholson, and the loss of Mr Hume's SDLP seat.
Before analysing what the new era may bring, a tribute must be paid to the template which the old Europe, its conflicts and its post-war relationships have contributed to the new dispensation in Northern Ireland. Mr Hume always recognised what the European Union could bring to a conflict-ridden society and transported that political vision to Northern Ireland.
The latest election results bring a shiver of apprehension to all democratically-minded people throughout the island of Ireland. The Belfast Agreement was designed to be driven by the constitutional centre, comprising the nationalism of the SDLP and the moderate unionism of the UUP. This was the democratic model which the British and Irish governments - and probably most of the population - signed up to in the referendums.
All of that has now changed. If truth be told, there is plenty in the track record of the DUP and the republican movement to cause concern. The reality of democratic politics, however, is that if it is the case that Northern Ireland has become a two-party hegemony, this is the basis on which we have to proceed. It may be depressing but it is the brutal reality.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, once said that the requirements of the paramilitaries would become very demanding over time. The Northern elections signal that the centre has become so eroded that both communities have opted for the extremes. In a perverse way, this simplifies the story. It makes the goal of a stable democracy much more stark and clear.
In the wake of the results in Northern Ireland, it now behoves the two governments to re-invent their role as drivers of democracy. Mr Ahern and Mr Blair are the democratic centre. They must not allow the two extremes, Sinn Féin and DUP, to become so mutually self-serving that they adopt the intermediate aim of subsuming their softer constitutional counterparts in nationalist and unionist constituencies.
The Belfast Agreement will be suspended for two years next October. On foot of Sinn Féin's results, North and South, maybe it is time to apply the same democratic litmus test to Sinn Féin's participation in government in Belfast as in Dublin? The time has come for an even playing pitch - politics without arms.