The unthinkable has happened in Ireland: a prime minister linked to the IRA guerrilla has taken office

The idea of ​​a nationalist prime minister in Northern Ireland, let alone one from Sinn Féin, a party linked to the Catholic guerrilla group IRA (Irish Republican Army), was once unthinkable. However, now it has become a reality with the hiring of Michelle O’Neill as head of the Northern Irish Government.

The new prime minister represents the regeneration of the nationalist Sinn Féin, a formation that little by little leaves behind the bloody past with the IRA and aspires to establish itself as the main political force of the British province, without ever giving up the objective of the reunification of ‘Ireland and separation from London. O’Neill arrives as political leader of a power-sharing government. Previously, the role of Prime Minister had always been held by a unionist politician committed to remaining in the UK.

“As prime minister, I am fully committed to continuing the work of reconciliation among all our people,” O’Neill said, noting that his parents and grandparents never imagined that day would come.

Seven years after taking the reins of the party, O’Neill managed to complete part of the roadmap laid out by his predecessors, historians Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, well before the end of the civil war in 1998. IRA already inactive, but still very present in the collective imagination after causing more than 3,000 deaths In almost three decades, the nationalist leader, 47, is the first non-unionist politician to lead the region in its century-long history as a British province.

With his help, Sinn Féin won the May 2022 election at a sensitive time for the province, with Brexit posing a major threat to the co-existence of republicans and unionists in the ever-fragile power-sharing government. He did so with a speech that was attractive to his base and moderate to many Northern Irish people who do not consider the reunification of the island a priority at the moment.

O’Neill, A single mother at 16, she grew up among fervent defenders of the union of the two Irelands. His father was in prison for his membership of the IRA.

But O’Neill embodies a new generation, who entered politics after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, which ended three decades of civil war between Catholic nationalists and Protestant unionists. Breaking with tradition, O’Neill attended Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022 and then the coronation of her son, Charles III, last May.