The victory means Sinn Fein is entitled to the post of first minister in Belfast for the first time since Northern Ireland was founded as a Protestant-majority state in 1921
Sinn Fein's Vice President Michelle O'Neill, centre, celebrates with party colleagues after being elected in Mid Ulster at the Medow Bank election count centre in Magherafelt , Northern Ireland, on May, 6, 2022.BELFAST, Northern Ireland — The Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, which seeks unification with Ireland, hailed a “new era” Saturday for Northern Ireland as it captured the largest number of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time in a historic win.
The victory is a milestone for Sinn Fein, which has long been linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that used bombs and bullets to try to take Northern Ireland out of U.K. rule during decades of violence involving Irish republican militants, Protestant Loyalist paramilitaries and the U.K. army and police.
There is “space in this state for everyone, all of us together,” O’Neill said. “There is an urgency to restore an Executive and start putting money back in people’s pockets, to start to fix the health service. The people can’t wait.” The DUP has also said it will refuse to join a new government unless there are major changes to post-Brexit border arrangements, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Saturday’s results bring Sinn Fein’s ultimate goal of a united Ireland a step closer, although Sinn Fein kept unification out of the spotlight this year during a campaign dominated by the skyrocketing cost of living.
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