“It represents truly historic change in the North and throughout the island of Ireland,” she said in a statement to The Washington Post.
Calling it a “good day for democracy”, O'Neill noted that restoring the government “respects the outcome” of the May 2022 election – when Sinn Féin first won the largest share of seats in the council and the right to elections. He served as First Minister under Northern Ireland's delicate power-sharing agreement.
But O'Neill also stressed that she would be “everyone's First Minister” – meaning unionists and republicans, Protestants and Catholics, those who want a “united Ireland” and those who want to remain “British forever” (along with a growing number of Britons). number in the middle).
Earlier this week, Mary Lou McDonald, president of Sinn Féin and leader of the opposition in the Republic of Ireland, declared that Irish unity was “within reach”.
O'Neill appears set to move away from such language this week, and experts say the prospect of a united Ireland remains a long shot.
But there is no doubt that Northern Ireland is changing.
For decades, unionists have held the lion's share of power here, proudly declaring Northern Ireland's status as one of the four nations of the United Kingdom, alongside England, Scotland and Wales.
It is the trade unionists who have boycotted the government over the past two years. Publicly, their complaint was about post-Brexit trade arrangements. But many people suspected they did not want to accept Sinn Féin playing a more dominant role.
Thus, for the past 730 days, there has been no functioning government in Stormont County, the seat of power in Northern Ireland. There is neither an executive nor a council – although lawmakers continue to draw two-thirds of their salaries.
The gift shop and cafeteria remained open. Schoolchildren visited. But unelected civil servants are left to keep the lights on, avoiding making any major decisions.
The breakthrough came earlier this week, when… Jeffrey Donaldson announced His Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has struck a deal with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's government to amend some trade and customs arrangements for goods crossing the Irish Sea.
Brexit experts describe the changes as minor but significant for unionists, who have argued that requiring checks and customs declarations drives a wedge between Great Britain and Northern Ireland while drawing the north deeper into Ireland's entire economy.
Trade was not an issue when Britain and the Republic of Ireland were part of the EU's common market. But with Brexit, negotiators had to find a way to protect the integrity of the EU market without creating a visible border on the island of Ireland that could undermine the Good Friday peace agreement that ended 30 years of sectarian and state violence known as “The Troubles.” “.
Donaldson claimed victory over the trade amendments this week, saying they would “protect our place within the union”.
The Good Friday Agreement – partly brokered by the US – marked the beginning of the modern era of power-sharing in Northern Ireland. There is no winner take all here today.
Officially, there will be no power difference between O'Neill and the new deputy first minister, who will likely be the DUP's Emma Little Pengelly. They will be equals and co-leaders. One might shake hands with a visiting world leader first, but they share duties.
However, one of them is called a deputy, and that's where it matters.
Matthew O'Toole, a Labor and Social Democrat MP, said: “As with everything in Northern Ireland, the appointment of Michelle O'Neill as first minister is mostly symbolic.”
Then he warned: “Being symbolic does not make it unimportant.”
Siobra Aiken, a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast, described O'Neill's rise to the position of First Minister as a “seismic change”.
With the partition of the island in 1921, “Northern Ireland’s infrastructure was specifically designed so this wouldn’t happen,” she said. …Northern Ireland was created to be an Ulster Protestant majority.
There was particular resistance to Sinn Féin, which was for a time the political wing of the IRA. When Martin McGuinness, the former IRA leader, became Sinn Fein's first deputy first minister in 2007, it was not uncommon for unionists to accuse him of having blood on his hands.
Now, with elections in the south next year, Aiken said: “We may soon see Sinn Fein in power in both jurisdictions on this island.”
Margaret Ward, a feminist historian based in Belfast, said this was a “huge moment in terms of the development of Sinn Féin”, as well as the development of government in Northern Ireland.
“When I was growing up, Stormont didn’t matter, because it was a very middle-class, male, unionist institution and it didn’t have the interests of the working class at heart – whether they were Catholic or Protestant,” she said. “For almost half a century, you could count the number of women in elected office on both hands.”
O'Neill's rise has been remarkable. A Catholic from a rural county, she was a mother at 16 and spoke often of her difficult youth. Today, she is a skilled talent, spread all over social media and very popular with young people who like to take selfies.
She comes from a very Republican family. Her father was imprisoned for his IRA membership during the Troubles and later moved into politics when he became a local Sinn Féin MP. Her uncle was the chairman of NORAID, a republican fundraising group active in the United States, which was accused by the US government of diverting money to buy weapons for the IRA. Norrid leaders deny this.
For Jim Allister, the only member of the Legislative Assembly from the traditional Unionist Voice, O'Neill had not sufficiently distanced herself from IRA violence. After condemning the trade deal amended this week by his union colleagues, as “nothing but hype”, he told The Post he would return to the assembly on Saturday, but opposed the choice of first minister.
“Michelle O’Neill is a woman who told the people of Northern Ireland that there was no alternative to the massacre and genocide committed by the IRA. “She justifies those actions,” he said. “So I think she is absolutely unworthy of holding this high office, or any democratic office.” “If she believes it is right and necessary to kill and slaughter innocent people.”
In 2022, the BBC asked O'Neill about IRA violence during the Troubles.
“I don't think any Irish person woke up one morning and thought conflict was a good idea, but war came to Ireland,” she said.
She continued: “I think that at that time there was no alternative, but now, thank God, we have an alternative to the conflict and this is the Good Friday Agreement.”
Alex Maskey, 72, has been president of the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2020 and was the first Sinn Féin member to serve as mayor of Belfast, from 2002 to 2003. He will retire on Saturday when a new leader is elected.
“The symbolism of Michelle O'Neill as the first Republican Cabinet secretary will not be lost on a lot of people. To me, that's a positive thing.”
Maskey said he still hopes to one day live in a united Ireland.
“I want to have the dignity of my political destination and the sovereignty of my country,” he said. “I'm working on the assumption that I'll see it start.”
