What you need to know about the return of power-sharing in Northern Ireland

After two years of political deadlock, Northern Ireland will finally have a functioning government again. Elected representatives will meet at the Assembly building on the outskirts of Belfast on Saturday and revive the power-sharing government that rules the area.

There will be one significant change since the last time they met: the role of First Minister will be filled for the first time by a Sinn Fein politician, Michelle O'Neill, in an important moment in Northern Ireland's history.

Here's what you need to know.

What is Sinn Fein, and why does it matter that the party will fill the role of 'prime minister'?

Sinn Fein was once considered the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, or IRA, a paramilitary group that waged a bloody campaign against British forces in Northern Ireland. But in the 1980s and 1990s, Sinn Fein's leaders increasingly followed a political path rather than the armed struggle favored by hardliners in the IRA. peace after the decades of violence known as the Troubles.

Since then, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland has always been a unionist, meaning he or she represents a political party committed to maintaining territory within Great Britain.

Sinn Fein, on the other hand, believes that the island of Ireland should be a united sovereign state, reversing the division that divided the region in 1921.

Ms O'Neill's appointment as First Minister of Northern Ireland on Saturday will be the first time a politician seeking to take the territory away from the UK has held the role.

However, that does not mean that a united Ireland is imminent. Although Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said this week that her party's goal was now “within reach”, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreementvoters would have to agree to unification in a referendum, and current opinion polls show that a majority would not vote in favor.

What is power sharing and how does it work?

Under the 1998 peace agreement, Northern Ireland is governed by politicians from the major parties from both sides of the sectarian divide. The party with the largest votes in Northern Ireland elections appoints the First Minister, while the second largest appoints the Deputy First Minister.

Stormont, Northern Ireland's assembly in Belfast, can only function with the support of both Sinn Fein, which represents Republican, mainly Catholic voters, and the Democratic Unionist Party, or DUP, which represents unionist, mainly Protestant voters. So when the DUP left in 2022 in protest at post-Brexit trade deals, power-sharing collapsed.

Following an agreement this week with the British government, the DUP agreed to end its boycott of the power-sharing meeting. Technically, the positions of Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have equal weight, and one minister cannot act without the other. But we can't ignore the symbolism of the title Ms O'Neill will adopt – and the fact that it includes the word 'first' – as she walks down the history books.

Who is Michelle O'Neill?

She was born in January 1977 and grew up in a family of committed Irish Republicans. Her father, Brendan Doris, was a former IRA prisoner who later became a Sinn Fein council representative. Ms O'Neill gave birth to a daughter at the age of 16 and says she thinks being a young mother has made her stronger.

“I know what it's like to struggle, I know what it's like to go to school and have a baby at home,” she told Sky News.

She joined Sinn Fein at the age of 21 after the Good Friday Agreement and was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007. In 2018 she became vice-president of Sinn Fein. In January 2020, she was appointed Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. a job she held – with one brief interruption – until February 2022, when power-sharing collapsed.

In the parliamentary elections later that year, Sinn Fein won the largest number of seats, putting Ms O'Neill in line for the top position. An experienced politician, Ms O'Neill has helped modernize and rebrand Sinn Fein and has shown pragmatism in preparing for her new role. Last year she attended the coronation of King Charles III, a striking gesture from an Irish Republican.

What happens now?

Northern Ireland's politicians have a full inbox full of challenges and overdue tasks to tackle. For two years, officials have kept essential government functions running, but major decisions have been postponed. Public services are frayed and Northern Ireland's healthcare system has the UK's longest waiting lists for procedures. The absence of a government meant that pay increases for civil servants in the rest of the country were denied to those in Northern Ireland. Last month saw strikes and the largest demonstrations in recent history.

The good news is that, as part of the deal to restore power-sharing, the British government has provided £3.3 billion for Northern Ireland. Still, some worry about the stability of power sharing.

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson faced fierce internal opposition when he decided to return to Stormont. The divisions within his party were so deep that during a critical five-hour internal meeting on Monday, details of the discussion were leaked and posted live on social media. All it would take is another boycott of the DUP to crash power-sharing again.