2024-02-03 21:02:00
Michelle O
Northern Ireland became led for the first time by the republican party Sinn Féin, the political arm of the dissolved IRA guerrilla group, after the end of two years of institutional blockade imposed by the main unionist force which allowed the appointment of Michelle O’Neill as head of this British region.
O’Neill, 47, was appointed by the Stormont Parliament, in Belfast, which resumed its activities after two years of paralysis caused by the discontent of pro-British unionists with the trade arrangements agreed after Brexit.
““It is a historic day and this represents a new era,” O’Neill said after his appointment.vice president of Sinn Féin, the former political arm of the paramilitary organization IRA (Irish Republican Army), reported the AFP news agency.
“The days of second-class citizens are gone. Today is confirmation that they will never return. As an Irish republican, I am committed to co-operating, with sincere effort, with all my colleagues in British Unionism,” she said in her speech to the Assembly minutes after taking up her post as Chief Minister.
I am honoured to address the Assembly on this day of historic change.
As a First Minister for all, I am determined to work together with all parties to deliver for workers, families and all our communities. pic.twitter.com/OwF6gH5mRP
— Michelle O’Neill (@moneillsf) February 3, 2024
Shortly before, on the social network
The Northern Irish Parliament resumed its activities after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the main pro-British party, reached an agreement with the Government of the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak.
The DUP had withdrawn from the Northern Irish Government and Parliament in 2022 to protest against the customs controls imposed within the framework of Brexit on products from the rest of the United Kingdom, because it understood that it weakened the links of this region with London and favored the supporters of unification with the Republic of Ireland, which occupies the southern part of the island and is part of the European Union.
El Sinn Féinleft-wing republican nationalist party, won in May 2022, for the first time in history elections in Northern Ireland, one of the four administrative regions of the United Kingdom, along with England, Wales and Scotland, but the DUP blockade prevented O’Neill from taking over as chief minister.
Parliament Northern Ireland
The StormontParliament in Belfast, created to ensure a balance between pro-British unionists and republican nationalists, needs both communities, who share power in the assembly and in the Executive.
The agreement reached should make it possible to reduce controls and administrative formalities for goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
This “solution” will be presented at the next EU-UK joint committee meeting.
Twenty-five years after the end of the Northern Irish conflict, which caused more than 3,500 deaths, the departure of the United Kingdom from the EU in 2020 made the tensions between Northern Irish communitiesgiven that the Republic of Ireland remains in the continental bloc and maintains its trade rules.
How Michelle O’Neill came to power
O’Neill grew up among fervent supporters of the union of the two Irelands.
His father was in prison for his membership in the IRA and one of his cousins, also a member of the secessionist armed group, died in a confrontation with the British Army in 1991.
Pero O’Neill embodies a new generationwho entered politics after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, which ended three decades of bloody clashes between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists.
Breaking with republican tradition, O’Neill attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 and then the coronation of Charles III in May 2023.
In 2022, won the elections prioritizing everyday issues, such as improving health services, and leaving Sinn Féin’s historical objective, the reunification of Ireland, in the background.
However, O’Neill believes that Brexit creates the possibility of a united Ireland and in 2017 predicted that this would happen within the next ten years.
O’Neill, who became a mother at age 16, She stated on several occasions that this experience made her “stronger.”
In 2020 she was elected Deputy Chief Minister of Northern Ireland. in the government led by the DUP, in the coalition government regime, a step prior to becoming head of government this Saturday.
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