Michelle O’Neill became the first Sinn Féin First Minister of Northern Ireland (NI) on 3 February 2024.
This comes after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) announced their willingness to return to the Assembly after two years of boycott in protest against Brexit trade rules.
On 30 January, the DUP reached a deal with the UK Government who offered them over £3bn to secure their finances.
The decision paved the way for O’Neill’s appointment and announced the return of power-sharing (a central tenet of the NI Assembly and a provision of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998).
On the day of her nomination, O’Neill voiced her interest in Irish reunification and in independence from Westminster, stating: “we cannot continue to be hamstrung by Tories in London”.
A survey from ARINS, published by the Irish Times in December 2023 recorded 30 per cent of the Northern Irish that would vote in favor of unification against 51 per cent that would stay in the UK.
After O’Neill’s appointment, the UK Government stated that there was “no realistic prospect of a border poll”.
The First Minister disagreed with this assessment, declaring that it’s a “decade of opportunity” for unification.
O’Neill’s appointment to First Minister under Sinn Féin means that two UK countries – Scotland and Northern Ireland – are governed by nationalist parties.
During an interview for Holyrood, senior civil servant in the Cabinet Office Philip Rycroft highlighted the fact that more people in Scotland were “disgruntled with the Union” than in Northern Ireland.
Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon asked during the election of 2022 not to draw quick comparisons between the two nations.
“Michelle O’Neill MLA” by Sinn Féin is licensed under CC BY 2.0.