When the Good Friday Agreement sealed long-awaited peace between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland in 1998 after three decades of bloody conflict, a 21-year-old girl gave the name Michelle O’Neill, whose father was imprisoned for his IRA membership, He decided to join Sinn Féin. There was no evidence to suggest that the terror group’s then political arm could attain the highest position in the Stormont Assembly. But O’Neill made history yesterday by becoming the first Catholic, nationalist and republican woman to lead the British provincial coalition government.
“We mark a moment of equality and progress, a new chance to work together and grow. I am confident that we can and must shape our future together, wherever we come from and whatever our ambitions.” We have to make the coalition government work for together we have a responsibility to lead and deliver for all our people and for all communities,” he stressed during the extraordinary session of the Belfast Assembly yesterday.
O’Neill avoided a triumphant speech and did not specifically mention the reunification of the island of Irelandwhich has always been Sinn Féin’s aim, preferring to focus on reconciliation and the region’s problems, such as the health crisis.
However, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald stressed this this week Irish reunification “is within our reach” and the Republicans are now getting more attention than ever because they have not only made history in Northern Ireland but are also leading the polls Parliamentary elections are planned for 2025 in the Republic of Ireland, where they erupted in violence back in 2020, ending the two-party system that had dominated the last century.
Sinn Féin has won an unprecedented victory in the Northern Ireland elections in May 2022. The Good Friday Agreement forces Catholics and Protestants to form a coalition government. But DUP unions refused to take their seats in protest at the controls that will have to be implemented after a Brexit that has given the British province a different status to the rest of the UK.
End of the blockade
The pact reached last Wednesday between unionists and Rishi Sunak’s central government made it possible to end two years of political paralysis and appoint O’Neill as prime minister. For all practical purposes she will have the same powers as Deputy Prime Minister Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP. However, it is an appointment with enormous symbolic power.
The leader of the DUP, Jeffrey Donaldson, yesterday assured that it had been a “difficult process” but stressed that they had achieved everything they set out to do to ensure the free movement of goods between the region and Great Britain and the constitutional status of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. “We have achieved changes that many said were not possible and I think it’s a good day for Northern Ireland,” he stressed.
In reality, the DUP’s new pact with central government is not much different from the “Windsor Framework” struck between London and Brussels last year to significantly reduce controls. The “green path” for products that are exempt from controls is now “Path to the British internal market”. But in politics everything is a matter of nuance and the DUP believes the necessary guarantees are now in place.
The hardliner DUP accuses its leader of treason. But Donaldson was under increasing pressure to form a government. The recent unprecedented strike by 150,000 public sector workers closed schools and paralyzed public transport. The health service is in a worse state than anywhere else in the UK. The lack of governance has excluded Northern Ireland from funding that the rest of the UK had access to, and many public sector workers have missed out on pay rises granted elsewhere. Belfast will now receive a further £3.3 billion from Westminster.
Catholic majority
Sinn Féin’s historic victory joins another unprecedented event. At the last census in 2022 For the first time, Catholics overtook Protestants (45.7% compared to 43.5%), which was unthinkable in 1921 when the island of Ireland was divided after the Irish Nationalist Rebellion and the six northern counties with a clear Protestant majority remained as a province of the United Kingdom.
However, the proportion of the population who now identify as neither Protestant nor Catholic is increasing. In 1991 only 3.7% said they had no religion. Now it is 17.4%.
Most surveys suggest so A third of voters currently support the island’s unity, although the number has increased in recent years. This is partly due to a younger generation of people whose political identity is not as tied to their religion.
In the Republic of Ireland, too, the key to Sinn Féin’s popularity lies not in their promise of a referendum; in his left-wing and populist speech with promises of social welfare payments worth millions, affordable housing and “fair” taxes with increases for people with higher incomes. In short, it has been possible to form the formation of the protest vote, which has the support above all of the youngest, those who see the links of the formation’s beginnings with the IRA terrorists as something of the past.
Brexit
Border between the Republic of Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland – alongside Gibraltar, the only land province that now exists between the United Kingdom and the bloc – has always existed the biggest challenge of the arduous and endless Brexit negotiations. On the one hand, the Good Friday Agreement had to be respected, which stipulates that there should be no hard border on the island. On the other hand, it was necessary to protect the internal market and prevent products entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain from entering the Republic of Ireland (a member of the EU).
Finally, the British province was bound by British rules but subject to Community rules, which hardly restricts its access to both the UK and the EU. If used correctly, it is an exception that can be very profitable. But to achieve this, politicians must prioritize stability over partisan interests.