BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND – FEBRUARY 3: First Minister Michelle O’Neill speaks during a session of the Northern Ireland Parliament on February 3, 2024 in Stormont, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
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The move comes after the country’s devolved parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, announced on Saturday that the pro-British DUP reached an agreement with the British government to end its boycott over post-Brexit trade deals. This was after the team was reconvened for the first time in many years.
This island to the west of England is divided into two parts. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but the neighboring Republic of Ireland is an independent country and a member of the European Union.
Until now, Northern Ireland’s first minister has been a member of Britain’s Unionist Party, but in 2022 Sinn Féin, which advocates for Northern Ireland to return to a republic, won the most seats for the first time.
The DUP, Northern Ireland’s largest British trade union party, boycotted parliament in February 2022 to protest post-Brexit trade rules and refused to return for two years, leaving the country of 1.9 million people unable to function. lost power. The deal that secured the return includes more than 3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) in contributions from the British government to Northern Ireland’s public services.
Parliamentary power-sharing rules set out in the Good Friday Agreement, the landmark 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, mean that the executive branch that runs the country is dominated by unions. This means that both trade union members and trade union members must be included. Nationalist representative.
Belfast, Northern Ireland – 10 April 2018: Former Irishman Bertie Arne, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US President Bill Clinton attend an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
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The elevation of a nationalist to the top job at Stormont has raised questions about whether a united Ireland is on the horizon. The British government said there was “no realistic prospect of a border survey” after appointing a new prime minister, suggesting a referendum on reunification would be decades away.
But Sinn Féin vice-president Mr O’Neill said in an interview with Sky News over the weekend that he “totally disagrees” with that assessment, saying this is “a 10-year opportunity”.
“So many things are changing. All the old norms, the nature of this state, the fact that a nationalist republican was never supposed to be prime minister. All of this speaks to change. “There is,” she added.
While Sinn Féin’s political aspirations have long been clouded by its historical links to the IRA, O’Neill’s personal history fleshes out the complex relationship between her party and the movement’s militant past. It has become Her father was interned as a provisional IRA prisoner of war and later became a Sinn Féin councilor, and her cousin was one of three IRA members shot dead in a SAS ambush in 1991. Ta.
On April 10, 2023, a police vehicle is attacked with a petrol bomb during an illegal march by dissidents in the Creggan area of Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
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But Mr O’Neill has emphasized the importance of his role as a “unifier” as the country seeks to preserve the fragile and precious peace that has been fostered in the 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement.
Promising to be the “first minister for everyone”, she called the country “Northern Ireland” rather than the “north of Ireland” or “the six counties” in her acceptance speech, breaking the republican tradition. was severely defeated.
Mr O’Neill told Sky News that the country had endured a “difficult past, a tumultuous past” and that it was most important now to “look to the future”.
“I am clearly a republican, a proud republican, but I also want to speak to people who identify as Irish republicans, but also those who identify as British or as trade unionists. I think it’s really, really important to look at them and let them know that I respect their values, “I respect their culture,” she said.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke on Monday with Mr O’Neill and other members of Northern Ireland’s new executive in recent days and downplayed suggestions that a referendum could be held within a decade.
A man walks past a hijacked bus on fire on Shankill Road as protests continue in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on April 7, 2021.
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He told Sky News: “Our new contract gives us more powers and funding than ever before to deliver services to families and businesses across Northern Ireland. “That is everyone’s priority now. ” he said.
“This is not a constitutional amendment, this is about implementing everyday things that are important to people.”
But Mr O’Neill has made clear his firm belief that power-sharing at Stormont will serve the people of Northern Ireland, while Sinn Féin also pursues its ultimate goal of uniting the island of Ireland.