Michelle O’Neill is on the brink of becoming Northern Ireland’s First Minister – the first ever nationalist to hold the position.
On Tuesday evening the DUP agreed to restore power-sharing at Stormont. Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said the agreement with the British government was not perfect but it was a basis for returning to the Assembly.
The main unionist party walked out of Stormont nearly two years ago as part of its protest over the post-Brexit Irish Sea trade border.
The Assembly could be recalled this Friday, but first the British government will publish its deal with the DUP on Wednesday and pass legislation on Thursday at Westminster to enable a DUP return.
On Tuesday evening, loyalist protestors gathered outside the venue where the DUP executive was set to meet.
With proceedings getting underway inside, loyalist activist Jamie Bryson was live publishing on Twitter what he claimed was DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson’s presentation. The BBC have claimed that a senior member of the party executive was wearing a wire which leaked Donaldson’s speech to Bryson – illustrating the divisions that exist within the DUP.
Later, Jeffrey Donaldson said there will be legislation to provide new legal and practical protections for the Acts of Union and which “guarantees unfettered access for Northern Ireland businesses to the rest of the United Kingdom”.
Speaking on the BBC he said: “Are these proposals perfect? Have we achieved everything that we wanted to achieve? No, we haven’t. I will be honest with the people about what we have been able to deliver.
With the DUP split on returning to Stormont, it’s not yet known what percentage of the party Donaldson has carried.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill, who is in line to become Northern Ireland’s first nationalist First Minister, after her party topped the poll in the May 2022 Assembly election, said the next couple of days will be “crucial."
Party leader Mary Lou McDonald said there was still a “huge amount of work to be done” before power-sharing was restored but added that Michelle O’Neill as First Minister is “a mark of extent of change in the North and right across Ireland."
