Michelle O'Neill, sworn in as head of the Northern Ireland government on Saturday, hardly waited to discuss a referendum on the unification of Ireland.
On Sunday, when asked whether she “anticipated a referendum on the unification of the island in the next ten years”, the vice-president of Sinn Fein, formerly the political face of the IRA (Irish Republican Army), responded in the affirmative on Sky News: “I believe we are in the decade of opportunity.
»
After two years of political paralysis, the 47-year-old leader became the first pro-unification politician to be appointed head of the Northern Irish government.
Northern Ireland's newly appointed first minister @moneillsf says she "absolutely contests" the UK government's claim that Irish unity is decades away.
O'Neill adds she anticipates a border poll within 10 years.
#TrevorPhillips https://t.co/fhIHlpTGAF pic.twitter.com/a90vuadt3L
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 4, 2024
“We can have power sharing” between republicans and unionists committed to keeping Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, “we can make it stable, we can work together every day in terms of public services , and also pursue legitimate aspirations,” she said.
An unrealistic perspective, according to London
For its part, the British government “sees no realistic prospect” of such a referendum and believes that the future of Northern Ireland is “assured for the coming decades” within the United Kingdom, in a document published this week.
After her party's victory in the May 2022 elections, the leader of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland found herself prevented from taking office, due to the boycott by the unionists of the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) of shared institutions, stemming from the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of conflict that left 3,500 people dead.
In the post-Brexit trade arrangements, the DUP denounced a threat to the place of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, but this week concluded an agreement with the British government, however far from being unanimous among the unionists.