{"id":15068,"date":"2024-02-04T00:46:24","date_gmt":"2024-02-04T00:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/04\/historic-day-in-northern-ireland-as-michelle-oneill-becomes-first-nationalist-leader\/"},"modified":"2024-02-04T00:46:24","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T00:46:24","slug":"historic-day-in-northern-ireland-as-michelle-oneill-becomes-first-nationalist-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/04\/historic-day-in-northern-ireland-as-michelle-oneill-becomes-first-nationalist-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic day in Northern Ireland as Michelle O\u2019Neill becomes first nationalist leader"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In a historic moment, a nationalist politician has become First Minister of Northern Ireland as power-sharing resumed after a two-year break. <\/p>\n

Michelle O\u2019Neill of the pro-united Ireland party Sinn F\u00e9in, once the political arm of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), said in an address to lawmakers following her appointment: \u201cToday opens the door to the future. I am honoured to stand here as First Minister.\u201d <\/p>\n

She vowed to \u201cserve everyone equally and be a First Minister for all\u201d, including those who identify as British and Unionist. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am wholeheartedly committed to continue the work of reconciliation between all of our people. The past cannot be changed or cannot be undone. But what we can do is build a better future.\u201d <\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill has been entitled to the post since 2022 when Sinn F\u00e9in won a majority in the May election. The leading opposition party however, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), had refused to enter a power-sharing government in protest over post-Brexit trading rules. <\/p>\n

The DUP agreed to a deal on Thursday with the UK government, which saw their Brexit concerns alleviated \u2013 paving the way for lawmakers to be recalled to the Northern Ireland Assembly on Saturday which ends the two-year political deadlock. <\/p>\n

A house speaker was also sworn in, as well as a DUP-nominated Emma Little-Pengelly as Deputy First Minister \u2013 an office which holds the same powers as First Minister \u2013 who said in an address that she \u201ccould never have imagined\u201d serving Northern Ireland in such a way, recalling the aftermath of an IRA bomb outside her home when she was a child. <\/p>\n

\u201cMichelle is an Irish Republican, and I am a very proud Unionist,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will never agree on those issues. But what we can agree is that cancer doesn\u2019t discriminate, and our hospitals need fixed.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which brought an end to decades of sectarian violence between pro-republican Catholics and pro-unionist Protestants \u2013 a period known as \u201cThe Troubles\u201d \u2013 stipulates that both communities have equal powers in government and institutions. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe offices have exactly the same powers and status. But the symbolism of a Sinn F\u00e9in representative\u00a0becoming first minister is still obvious and in Northern Ireland symbols matter a lot \u2013 perhaps too much. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole point of creating Northern Ireland a century ago was that it would always have a Protestant majority committed to staying within the United Kingdom. Michelle O\u2019Neill\u2019s accession to office as the leader of the largest party in the assembly dramatizes the end of that project. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that a United Ireland is an immediate\u00a0prospect but it does mean that the whole future of Northern Ireland is very much an open question. The task now is to make that openness promising and full of opportunity\u00a0rather than threatening and full of fear.\u201d <\/p>\n

The\u00a0Northern\u00a0Ireland\u00a0Assembly is the devolved legislature for\u00a0Northern\u00a0Ireland. <\/p>\n

Although part of the United Kingdom, lawmakers in the Assembly have the powers to legislate over a range of issues not explicitly reserved for the Westminster government in London. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a historic moment, a nationalist politician has become First Minister of Northern Ireland as power-sharing resumed after a two-year break. Michelle O\u2019Neill of the pro-united Ireland party Sinn F\u00e9in, once the political arm of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), said in an address to lawmakers following her appointment: \u201cToday opens the door to the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}