Michelle O’Neill becomes first nationalist to lead Northern Ireland government
Michelle O’Neill was sworn in as first minister of Northern Ireland on Saturday, the first time a nationalist has held the post in a region created by partition in 1921 as a bastion of pro-UK unionism, Financial Times reports.
O’Neill, from the Sinn Féin party that is committed to Irish reunification, walked down the imposing staircase in the Stormont parliament building, past a statue of James Craig, Lord Craigavon, the region’s first prime minister and into the 90-seat chamber to take up her post.
It was two years to the day since the Democratic Unionist Party paralysed the institution in a row over Brexit trade rules.
“I am a republican. I will be a first minister for all,” O’Neill said, pledging to serve all sides equally, including “those who cherish the union”.
She added: “For the first time ever, a nationalist takes up the position of first minister. That such a day would ever come would have been unimaginable to my parents and grandparents’ generation.” The republican slogan Tiocfaidh ár lá means: our day will come
O’Neill spoke some words in Irish but described the region both as the “North of Ireland” — the term favoured by her party — and “Northern Ireland”.
