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Michelle O’Neill was named to head Northern Ireland’s government on Saturday in a historic appointment by the party that represents a major shake-up in Irish politics.
Mr O’Neill is a member of the Irish Republican Sinn Féin party, which has historical ties to the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and supports unification with all of Ireland. Northern Ireland’s government has long been dominated by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which favors maintaining Northern Ireland’s relationship with the United Kingdom.
Ireland’s legislature, which has been under a tenuous power-sharing arrangement since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, is deeply divided by the competing views of republicans and unionists. The Prime Minister leads the province and is chosen by the party that wins the most seats in Northern Ireland’s parliament (right-wing Sinn Féin, which overtook the DUP to become the largest party in 2022).
Ms O’Neill is the daughter of a former IRA operative who was imprisoned during the Northern Ireland civil war that lasted until the 1990s. O’Neill’s party strongly advocates a united Ireland, and in her speech Ms O’Neill presented herself as a bridge builder between nationalists and unionists.
“None of us will be asked or expected to give up who we are. Our allegiances are just as valid. I’ll see you there,” she said.
Mr O’Neill will lead the state alongside Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengery, a Labor member of the DUP. Although its pro-British rivals still hold the second-largest number of seats in Northern Ireland’s parliament, Sinn Féin’s historic victory is a sign that it will attract younger generations of Irish voters, many of whom were born after the end of the Troubles. It shows a change in political preferences. Contains a message from the left wing of the party, which is pro-Republican.
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