The daughter of the incoming DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has married the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) chairman's son in a union described as a "form of powersharing that will definitely work."
Mr Donaldson's daughter Laura married Philip Kennedy, the son of former UUP MP Danny Kennedy, in Dromore, Co Down on Thursday.
Mr Kennedy told the News Letter the day was about “love, not politics” and joked that the wedding represented a “new act of union.”
The couple knew each other as children, but reconnected when Philip became a youth worker at Banbridge Road Presbyterian church in Dromore, which the Donaldsons attend and where the wedding took place.
Their fathers are longstanding friends, and their relationship has endured despite Mr Donaldson quitting the UUP for the DUP in 2004 over his opposition to the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.
Mr Donaldson was named as the next leader of the DUP earlier this week. He was the only candidate to put his name forward for the position when the outgoing leader, Edwin Poots, resigned only three weeks after taking up the job.
The DUP’s electoral college – which is made up of the party’s 28 Assembly members and eight MPs – are due to meet on Saturday in what is the next stage in the process of appointing the new leader.
Speaking to the News Letter ahead of the wedding, Mr Donaldson said he was “thrilled” at the union of the two families and he “couldn’t be a happier father because Philip is a great guy”.
“Danny and I have known each other for years and have remained friends for all of that time,” he said. “It shows that in politics people can rise above their own political perspective and be friends with others.”
