DUP man rerouted after 'failed talks'

Her committed stance against an attempted change to 'the agreement' means that Doris holds a unique record - she is the only person in 45 years who has ever wielded enough influence to re-route her fianc, DUP man William Hay, now Speaker of the Assembly, from the annual Twelfth of July celebrations. She's marrying him and that's that! Further talks will not be entered into.

Having held secret talks in the recent past, it has since emerged that the couple will be forging a new 'alliance' this Saturday with a merger of their futures in the form of a white wedding at -at present - an undisclosed location. 'Talking the talk' did not work, it seems, and Saturday's merger means Mr Hay will not be able to 'walk the walk' next week as he and his new bride will be in the South of France working on a shared future of their own.

"It will be the first Twelfth that I have missed probably in about 45 years," said Mr Hay, adding: "This was just a fixture clash. We set the date away back and as the date came closer then we realised that it was was very much going to clash with that 12th of July weekend. You have the Rossnowlagh Demonstration on the Saturday, and I am going to miss the Twelfth on the Monday. I am heading to the South of France.

"The date was set and I have to say on this occasion I was not able to renegotiate. The lady was ot for turning, so I had to accept I was going to be re-routed on this occasion. That said, it is a date we have both been looking forward to for somem time and I would not want to change things."