How much longer can Michelle O'Neill survive as northern leader of Sinn Fein? She has undoubtedly developed what one could only describe as the anti-Midas touch. Much of what she has done since the restoration of the Assembly has turned to ashes.
n a major u-turn on March 14, she unilaterally called for the immediate closure of schools and colleges - just 24 hours after having agreed with Executive colleagues to keep them open.
Having completely reversed her decision, she made no apology to her Executive colleagues and caused considerable confusion within and outside government.
Her next inept stroke was in early April, when she gratuitously blamed the Health Minister, Robin Swann, for being too slow to act on testing and personal protective equipment.
Robin Swan may have seemed to be a soft target, but actually beneath his genial demeanour, he is a very effective minister, working well in difficult circumstances.
It was a serious mistake to attack the well-liked Minister for Health. His public standing is probably the highest of all ministers and he is seen to be hard-working and earnest in his pivotal role safeguarding our public health.
These u-turns may be seen as forgiveable errors of judgement by an inexperienced Deputy First Minister and might may, therefore, be overlooked.
However, her ill-judged attendance in June at the funeral of leading IRA man Bobby Storey and the widely perceived breaches of the coronavirus regulations by herself and her Sinn Fein colleagues on the Andersonstown Road that day created huge public anger.
As the low-profile and family-orientated funeral of John Hume in Derry clearly demonstrated, there was an alternative way of having a respectful funeral in conformity with the Covid-19 regulations.
Those people who were deprived of the right to have a full funeral for their loved ones during that period were rightly aggrieved and felt discriminated against. They felt that there was one law for them and another law for Sinn Fein.
The Deputy First Minister should have ensured that there was total compliance with all the Covid-19 regulations. As a result of all of this, the Assembly united together against Sinn Fein.
The other parties in the Assembly voted that O'Neill should apologise and step aside as Deputy First Minister while an inquiry continued into the alleged public health breaches at the Storey funeral.
To stand aside temporarily was not an unreasonable demand, nor something unprecedented, as both Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness previously stood aside.
But she flatly refused to stand aside, knowing quite well that the Assembly could not force her to do so. In her refusal, she showed contempt for the democratic view of the other parties and a widespread section of public opinion.
Given the alleged breaches of the regulations, Arlene Foster, the First Minister, decided that she could no longer conduct joint public Press briefings on the coronavirus crisis with O'Neill.
While this may not have made much difference, the holding of the joint briefings up until that point was seen as good progress in terms of the Executive apparently working together. It was good PR for an Executive that, frankly, needed good PR.
But if her dealing with the Storey funeral and its fallout was appallingly bad, there was worse to come in the way she dealt with victims' pensions legislation.
This long-debated pension scheme was intended to compensate victims of the Troubles, who suffered very serious and permanent physical or mental injuries. It is effectively a top-up scheme to assist victims in their declining years and who may have received criminal injuries compensation many years ago.
Sinn Fein rejected this pensions legislation as it was passed by the Westminster Parliament and was in their opinion "exclusionary, discriminatory and divisive". Neither the Victims Commissioner, nor victims groups themselves, are of that opinion.
Her deliberate political refusal to designate a department to handle the new pension scheme and thereby stymie the introduction of the scheme, in a bid to pressurise the Government to change the terms of the scheme, was found to be unlawful and was severely criticised in Mr Justice McAlinden's High Court judgement.
The Judge concluded: "This is a truly shocking proposition ... It demonstrates either wilful disregard for the rule of law, or abject ignorance of what the rule of law means in a democratic society."
This roasting criticism of O'Neill's strategy could not have been any more blunt. Little wonder, after this public humiliation, she hastily agreed to designate the Department of Justice so that the scheme could at last begin.
On this result alone, O'Neill should have resigned as Deputy First Minister.
But that's for other normal parties to do. Sinn Fein has its own perverse ways of doing things.
