Here's what you need to know. It is now the most potent political force in Northern Ireland, as evident from its performance in Thursday's election. The Free Presbyterians are evangelical, fundamentalist Christians.
Defending her party's stance on gay marriage in a recent interview, leader Arlene Foster insisted those who characterised the DUP as anti-gay were wide of the mark.
The Scottish National Party were the other big losers on the night, suffering a humbling loss of 21 seats-unthinkable after their previously unassailable position north of the border.
Mrs May hopes to run a minority government with the support of the DUP's 10 MPs. Robinson had been Paisley's right-hand man for decades, but struggled to fill the shoes of his more charismatic predecessor, especially after becoming embroiled in a financial scandal involving his wife's 19-year-old lover.
May announced the party would try to work with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, an alliance that is fraught with difficulties. No party won a majority in elections in 1909, 1929, 1974 and 2010. If the Conservative-DUP government thinks it can backslide on this, it will rapidly find that it is mistaken.
Before the election, the Conservatives had a majority in Parliament, but a narrow one.
The party's 10 seats - a gain of two from the 2015 general election - mean the DUP, which is closely aligned to the rightwing of the Conservative party and was a vocal backer of Brexit, could be a key player in post-election haggling at Westminster. May, therefore, devoted a lot of time and attention to the DUP.
Tapwrit Closes Out 2017 Triple Crown Trail With Belmont Score
It was the third Belmont Stakes victory for Pletcher, who also trained this year's Kentucky Derby victor Always Dreaming. Neither Kentucky Derby victor Always Dreaming nor Preakness victor Cloud Computing are in the field.
A deal between the government and the DUP could also unsettle the precarious balance between Northern Ireland's British loyalist and Irish nationalist parties.
After Brexit, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland becomes an European Union frontier and the DUP is not in favour of a so-called hard border.
Generally your local MP will have a lot more time than a government minister and, particularly on local issues, writing to them will encourage them to take action.
They are pro-union (not Europe but UK), pro-Brexit and socially conservative. Therefore economic relationships would become far more complex if there were a "hard border" is set between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
May faced calls to quit from the opposition and her own party, but vowed to stay on and provide "stability" for the country as her depleted party seeks to build a new governing coalition.
The DUP has proved hugely controversial in the past over the homophobic and sectarian views of some of its representatives.
The petition echoed some of the slogans at a leftist demonstration by a few hundred people outside Downing Street on Saturday who chanted: "Racist, sexist, anti-gay, the DUP has go to go". That said May had "spoken with the DUP to discuss finalizing" a deal in the coming week.
Comments