BY PETER KELLY AT STORMONT PARLIAMENT, BELFAST
Michelle O’Neill has made history in becoming Northern Ireland’s first nationalist First Minister.
At a special sitting of the Stormont Assembly in Belfast on Saturday the Sinn Féin vice president was elected by the 90-member chamber to the historic role.
Power-sharing government in Northern Ireland was restored exactly two years to the day that it collapsed in 2022 with a DUP boycott over Brexit trading rules. Ms O’Neill’s deputy will be Emma Little-Pengelly of the DUP.
In emotional language in the chamber, the Co Tyrone politician described the occasion as “an historic day” and “a new dawn”.
The idea of a nationalist first minister leading the North “would have been unimaginable” to her parents’ generation, Ms O’Neill added.
The Irish republican party made a decisive breakthrough in the Stormont election in May 2022 when it secured a majority of the North’s electoral seats for the first time.
This entitles the party to the First Minister position according to rules laid down by the Good Friday Agreement.
This first historic breakthrough featured as our cover story in our May 11th, 2022 edition.
In Ms O’Neill’s maiden speech as First Minister, she reached out beyond her party’s united Ireland ambition and promised to “serve everyone equally” alongside ministerial colleagues who would “deliver and work together” as the public “rightly demands”.
“To all of you who are British and unionist: your national identity, culture and traditions are important to me,” she said.
In an exclusive interview with The Irish Examiner USA inside Stormont, Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald shared Ms O’Neill’s excitement. “It’s the clearest symbol of just how dramatic the change has been here in the north and across Ireland,” she said. “So we’re very excited. Michelle is going to do an outstanding job for everyone.”
Deputy McDonald who represents a Dublin district in Dáil Eireann in Ireland’s capital thanked Irish-Americans and the diaspora for their unstinting support over the years.
She said, “We are so lucky to have our global family across the United States. You have always remembered home, kept faith with home, and wanted the best for all of us here. We’re now going into a really interesting part of our journey and I want all of you to be part of it and to cheer us all on.”
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson also spoke exclusively to this newspaper. Pledging to increase his party’s engagement with the US, the DUP have nominated Assembly Member David Brooks as their United States spokesman.
Sir Jeffrey told The Irish Examiner USA: “My message to the rest of the world is that Northern Ireland is open for business. There are many opportunities here and we hope to go out and make the case to attract new investment.” And he revealed, “I will be visiting the United States very soon and I hope to be there for St Patrick’s Day.”
The White House echoed the optimism of the occasion as it prepares to host First Minister O’Neill and deputy First Minister Little-Pengelly in Washington next month.
President Joe Biden said: “I look forward to seeing the renewed stability of a power-sharing government that strengthens the peace dividend, restores public services, and continues building on the immense progress of the last decades.”