May’s ally saw murder attempt on her father

Arlene Foster’s tenure as DUP leader has been a political rollercoaster ride of remarkable highs and lows.

From the peak of her elevation to Stormont first minister’s office to the valley of being forcibly removed from her job amid a green energy scandal, she is once again on a steep upward trajectory as Theresa May’s political kingmaker.

The Co Fermanagh politician who faced down deafening calls to quit just months ago, now essentially holds the keys to Downing Street.

Mrs Foster grew up near the Irish border during the darkest days of the Troubles.

Born Arlene Kelly in 1970 near the village of Rosslea in rural Co Fermanagh, the early part of her childhood was described as idyllic.

But by the age of eight she gained first-hand experience of the bloody sectarian conflict which blighted Northern Ireland for decades when the IRA tried to murder her father, a farmer and reserve police officer.

She has spoken of the trauma of seeing him come crawling into their isolated farmhouse on all fours with blood streaming down his face after being shot in the head.

He survived the attack but the family were forced to flee their home and the young Mrs Foster had to change school.

As a teenager in 1988, Mrs Foster survived another republican attack when the IRA targeted the parttime Ulster Defence Regiment soldier who was driving her school bus.

The Collegiate Grammar School student escaped relatively unscathed but a friend sitting close by suffered serious injuries.

Just weeks after being elected to the Assembly in 2003 she, alongside Jeffrey Donaldson, now a DUP MP, decided to quit the Ulster Unionist Party.

The pair had been part of a tightknit group who opposed the Good Friday Agreement, the release of paramilitary prisoners and the direction in which their leader, David Trimble, was taking the party.

Arlene Foster saw the worst of Northern Ireland’s troubles.