Modern Irish History
Here’s the latest from the Irish Independent. First Catholic/Republican First Minister in NI - Top post only held by Protestant/Loyalist before today.
Here’s a pretty good analysis from Peter Kelly in the Irish Post. “..a truly seismic breakthrough of a Sinn Féin First Minister in the place traditionally known as 'a cold house for Catholics'.”
“I would never ask anyone to move on, but what I can ask is for us to move forward….The days of second-class citizenship are long gone and today is confirmation they’ll never come back.” NI First Minister Michelle O’Neill - Sinn Fein. O’Neill was born in Fermoy, County Cork but raised near Coalisland in County Tyrone. Her father was a member of the Provisional IRA before becoming active with Sinn Fein. She attended the same Academy as Bernadette Devlin McAliskey.
“While we are shaped by the past, we are not defined by it.” NI Deputy First Minister Emma Little -Pengelly - Democratic Ulster Party. Little-Pengelly grew up in County Antrim near Belfast. When she was nine her dad was arrested in Paris trying to purchase surface-to-air missiles for the Ulster Resistance Movement.
What it took to get the DUP to come back to Stormont to govern was a package of financial aid from the UK government. “Stormont’s restoration will release a £3.3bn package – including pay rises for public sector workers who have staged multiple strikes – that the UK government had made available, conditional on the revival of institutions set up under the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Donaldson said the parties would seek additional funding from the Treasury. “The finance piece is unfinished business which we intend to finish.”
Ten Downing Street also promised to make life easier for NI importers. “The measure to reduce checks on trade from Britain to Northern Ireland is part of a wide-ranging deal agreed between the DUP and the government that would bring about the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland after a two-year hiatus.”
Brexit may have played as large a role as the Good Friday Agreement with its power sharing in the resolution seen today. Besides the billions, Ten Downing Street also agreed to create a fast lane for goods shipped from the UK to Northern Ireland. That should grease the wheels of trade and help NI’s exporters.
To see just how “once unthinkable” and “significantly symbolic” this news is, RTE.ie reminds us of recent history.
“When Northern Ireland was created in 1921 its founders were confident they had secured a built-in permanent Protestant and unionist majority.
"A Protestant Parliament and a Protestant state" is how former Northern Ireland prime minister James Craig put it in 1934.
In the decades since, all 11 heads of government at Stormont have been unionists and Protestants.
Ms O'Neill has broken that cycle by becoming the first Catholic and nationalist First Minister.”
The Irish Times might have put it best:
“Stormont was and is the compromise, and the only way for unionism to keep Northern Ireland in the union for the long term is the very opposite of the last two years – to make it work.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEANS FOR REUNIFICATION?
It was noted that her fist speech as First Minister Michelle O’Neill contained “No triumphalism, no talk of reunification.”
Simply put, this does nothing to discourage the belief that Ireland may someday again be a nation of 32 counties.
And The New York Times weighed in with (subscribers only, sorry): Since Brexit, there has been a fall in support for Northern Ireland’s remaining in the United Kingdom and a rise in support for Irish unification. Many voters saw the break from Europe as economically damaging and threatening to cross-border relations, as the island had enjoyed decades where E.U. membership helped shore up peace.
But, “Current polling suggests that the majority of the population across the island does not support unification.”