Good morning. On Saturday, almost 26 years after the Good Friday agreement was signed, a nationalist was sworn in as first minister of Northern Ireland for the first time. At Stormont, Michelle O’Neill, the deputy leader of Sinn Féin, promised to be “a first minister for all”. But in an interview with Sky News broadcast yesterday, she said that a referendum on a united Ireland could come within 10 years. “I believe we’re in the decade of opportunity,” she said. “A nationalist republican was never supposed to be first minister. This all speaks to that change.”
Last night, Rishi Sunak arrived in Northern Ireland to meet with O’Neill and the DUP’s deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly and emphasised that he was in “a special part of our United Kingdom”. Sinn Féin’s leader Mary Lou McDonald said last week that a united Ireland was “within touching distance”. But while there’s no doubt that O’Neill’s ascent is a landmark moment in Northern Ireland, the 10-year horizon she acknowledged also speaks to the fact that there are still vast obstacles to a referendum on the region’s future.
