Northern Ireland led for the first time by a Republican in favor of the unification of the island

Michelle O’Neill, the leader of Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein, has been appointed Prime Minister.

A historic shift in Northern Ireland, a British province with a past marked by three decades of bloody conflict. The leader of Northern Irish Sinn Fein, Michelle O’Neill, became the first Republican, in favor of the unification of Ireland, to take the helm of the government on Saturday February 3.

The Republican, 47, was appointed Prime Minister after the restart of the province’s institutions. These had been boycotted for two years by unionists, who opposed post-Brexit trade provisions. They denounced them as a threat to Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom. After months of negotiations with the British government, the unionists of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) announced their decision to end this boycott.

In front of elected officials gathered at Stormont Palace, Michelle O’Neill greeted “a historic day”a “new era” and promised an assembly “for everyone”. “It’s a victory for everyone today, the demonstration that equality and inclusion are on the agenda,” greeted Sinn Fein All-Ireland leader Mary Lou McDonald.

An agreement reached between the unionists and London

Sinn Fein came out on top in the May 2022 elections, an unprecedented shift for this formation that was once the political showcase of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). LHowever, political impasse prevented Michelle O’Neill from taking office. Current affairs had been managed by the administration and London for two years.

In the implementation of Brexit, one of the main difficulties was to find a solution which avoids the return of a physical border between the Republic of Ireland, a member of the EU, and the British province, while protecting the integrity of the single European market.

A modification of these provisions negotiated between London and Brussels, called the “Windsor framework” and reducing controls on goods, was not enough to convince the DUP. The Unionist Party finally agreed to a deal with the British government this week. He believes that this text offers sufficient guarantees and that it removes the denounced border in the Irish Sea.