Under the terms of co-governance resulting from the 1998 peace agreements, unionist Emma Little-Pengelly, committed to keeping Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, was chosen as deputy first minister.
The vice-president of Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, became on Saturday the first republican leader of local government, that is, in favor of the unification of the Irelands.
This appointment represents a historic turning point in the British province, with a past marked by three decades of bloody conflict.
O’Neill was appointed by parliament [Stormont] in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which resumed its duties after two years of impasse linked to union discontent over post-Brexit trade agreements.
In his inauguration speech, O’Neill avoided triumphalism and made no explicit mention of potential constitutional changes, focusing on the reconciliation process and issues that directly impact the lives of citizens.
“I will serve everyone in the same way and be a prime minister for everyone. Wherever you come from, whatever your aspirations, we can and must build our future together,” she promised. “We must make power sharing work, because we are collectively charged with leading all of our people, all of our communities.”
The Belfast executive had been out of action for a year, since February 2023, due to a boycott imposed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to pressure London and Brussels to renegotiate the terms of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal agreement from the European Union (EU). which keep the territory aligned with the rules of the community bloc to avoid a physical border with Ireland.
For the DUP, this makes it difficult for goods to flow from Northern Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom.
Under the terms of co-governance resulting from the 1998 peace agreements, unionist Emma Little-Pengelly, committed to keeping Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, was chosen as deputy first minister.
In 2022, O’Neill led Sinn Féin, the former political arm of the paramilitary group the Irish Republican Army (IRA), to electoral victory, something unprecedented in Northern Ireland.
However, it took almost two years for Michelle O’Neill to take charge of local government, because unionists, linked to UK-aligned elements in Northern Ireland, blocked the local assembly in Belfast.