As Michelle O’Neill walked down the marble staircase in Northern Ireland’s Parliament building on Saturday, she appeared confident and calm.
She smiled briefly as applause erupted from supporters, but her otherwise serious gaze conveyed the gravity of the moment.
The political party she represents, Sinn Fein, was shaped by the decades-long, bloody struggle of Irish nationalists in the territory who dreamed of reuniting with the Republic of Ireland and undoing the 1921 partition that has kept Northern Ireland under British rule.
Now, for the first time, a Sinn Fein politician holds Northern Ireland’s top political office, a landmark moment for the party and for the broader region as a power-sharing government is restored.
“I would never ask anyone to move on, but what I can ask is for us to move forward.”
Persons:
Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein, Ms, O’Neill, ”
Organizations:
Northern, Sinn Fein
Locations:
Northern Ireland’s, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom