Unprecedented power-sharing between Catholics, Protestants in Northern Ireland

A Catholic has become the first minister of Northern Ireland, something unprecedented in the more than 100-year history of this territory that's part of the United Kingdom and has long been tormented by a civil war between Irish republicans (mostly Catholics) and British unionists (mostly Protestants).

Michelle O’Neill, the Sinn Féin leader, was appointed to the post on February 3, thus ending a political crisis that was sparked by her Irish nationalist party's victory for the first time in local elections in 2022.

An historic turning point

In her inaugural speech at Stormont Estate February 3, she called her appointment "an historic day". O'Neill emphasized that it would have been "unimaginable for her parents' generation" for a Catholic republican in favor of the reunification of Ireland to lead the British province.

Just over 25 years ago, the Good Friday peace agreement ended the civil war between mainly Catholic republicans and primarily Protestant unionists, which had resulted in several thousand deaths since 1968.

O’Neill's own father had been imprisoned due to his membership in the IRA, the Irish Republican Army, while the father of the unionist deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, had been arrested for attempting to procure weapons for a Protestant paramilitary group. Growing up as children of the conflict, the two women represent a new generation that seems to have turned the page on violence. Their power-sharing at the top of the government signifies a historic turning point in Northern Ireland.

A new coexistence between Protestants and Catholics

When Northern Ireland was created in 1921, the founders of the new state drew its borders so that Protestants would always be in the majority. In a famous address in 1934, the first head of government, James Craig, thus reminded of the necessity of a "Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people". However, the 2021 census revealed that, for the first time in Northern Ireland's hundred years of existence, there were more Catholics than Protestants. Some, starting with Sinn Féin, see this as a situation favorable to reunification with the Republic of Ireland.

But reunification is not really on the agenda, experts point out.

"Thinking that it would be a natural consequence of the demographic progression of the Catholic community is misleading, since 20% of Catholics still vote for the continuation of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom," explained Pierre Joannon, an historian who specializes in Irish affairs. If a non-sectarian attitude is advancing in political life, it is far from being in the majority, he said.

"The 'peace lines' – the walls that separate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods – show the distance yet to be covered to achieve a true inter-community peace as envisioned by the instigator of the Good Friday agreement, John Hume," Joannon said.

The current government, in which the prime minister and deputy prime minister have equal power, would indicate, according to him, a situation of balance between the communities.

The need to act together

The primary challenge of the new Northern Irish government is to address a difficult socio-economic situation, as O'Neill,the new first minister, has pointed out. Against the backdrop of a new cohabitation, she said there was the need for unionists and republicans to "act together".

The Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh (Northern Ireland), joined with Anglican, Presbyterian, and Methodist leaders, as well as the Irish Council of Churches, in welcoming the end of the political stalemate.

Since 2022, the unionists had refused to sit in the local Assembly dominated by Sinn Féin and their fellow republicans. It was only after lengthy negotiations with the British government that the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) ended the boycott, allowing O’Neill to head up the government.