When Michelle O’Neill was elected as First Minister, I received messages from friends saying that they wished their grandparents had lived to see this day. The appointment was historic and symbolic. It was also emotional.
To be understood, it must be placed in the context of the Irish Catholic and Nationalist experience in the six counties.
When Ireland was partitioned by the British 103 years ago, the new Northern State was 66% protestant and nearly completely British Unionist. The one-third Catholic and Irish nationalist minority found themselves overnight in a state to which they owed no allegiance and afforded them only minimal rights.
The new structures of government would be in the terms of one of its architects, “a protestant parliament for a protestant people." For over 50 years, the North was in effect a single-party unionist state.
There were some constitutional nationalist representatives but they were ignored. In the lifetime of the old Stormont, only one piece of legislation sponsored by a non-unionist was passed: the Wild Birds Act of 1931. More recognition was given to the birds than the nationalist minority. Tom Paulin reflected on this in his poem “Of Difference Does It Make” when he likened the calling song of an imaginary nationalist bird as "like a mild and patient prisoner/ pecking through granite with a teaspoon."
Discrimination in education, housing, employment, and politics would be the rule of the day. Basil Brooke told an Orange Order gathering in 1933: "Many in this audience employ Catholics, but I have not one about my place. Catholics are out to destroy Ulster..." He became Prime Minister ten years later.
Order was imposed by unionist militia, the infamous “B Specials." Internment without trial was imposed in every decade of the old Stormont regime. Successive British Governments turned a blind eye. Their inaction was an endorsement of Unionist practices. By 1972, a sustained violent conflict meant that the British had no option but to intervene. For Irish Republicans, there would be no going back to the old Stormont.
Those years of Stormont Rule had a lasting impact on the minority. Our families carried the stories of decades of routine humiliation.
I remember as a child being told that I would never get a job in the shipyard with my name. Ciarán is an identifiable Irish name. I soon learned that the people I knew as Eithne, Seán, and Áine were christened Ann, John, and Elizabeth. The actions of parents trying to protect their children from a life of discrimination.
My grandfather, a quiet man who tended his garden and could turn his hand to fix any machine, had been a truck driver and chauffeur. As a young man, he had wanted to be a mechanic. He passed an interview for a job as an apprentice. When he turned up, he was told that he should never have been interviewed as the firm did not employ Catholics. His name, Samuel, traditionally a protestant name, had secured the interview, his ability won him the job, and his religion cost him a career.
Another grandfather was interned in the 1950s with his son, my uncle, under the order of Stormont. I went on to work with Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in the same building from where the internment order had been issued.
Mine are not unusual stories. That was the lives of our grandparents. Those who could, took the boat. Those who couldn’t, struggled on. The shared experience of so many families in the North of Ireland. The humiliations are still remembered in the saying, “Someone had their head lower than a Ballyamena Catholic."
The election of Michelle O’Neill was met not with a sense of triumph but optimism. Change is possible. The days of not having a Catholic about the place were demonstrably over. It reflected the reality that the pro-British Unionist political majority is now gone. The parliament that meets is now almost evenly split between Unionists and Nationalists with a nonaligned Alliance party in the middle.
O’Neill has promised to be a First Minister for All, to retain her belief in Irish Unity, and to act in the common interest. For Nationalists and Irish Republicans, the election demonstrates that there is no ceiling to the progress that can be made. Irish Unity is achievable by peaceful and democratic means.
Looking forward to a busy day ahead.
I will represent everyone as a First Minister for All, standing up for workers, families and public services. pic.twitter.com/PValsx3vcw
— Michelle O’Neill (@moneillsf) February 5, 2024
Others recognize this as well. The DUP in their negotiations with the British government received commitments that they would act to promote and preserve partition in Ireland. They produced a Command Paper that was gratuitous and insulting to Irish Nationalists. A paper that they intend to impose without the consent of the Northern Assembly.
The Good Friday Agreement is explicit. The Government with jurisdiction must act with “rigorous impartiality” in the exercise of its obligations. The future constitutional position is in “the hands of the people of the Island of Ireland alone” to be decided by simple majorities North and South.
Nothing can hold back progress. It may be stalled but it cannot be denied. The action of the British Government of publicly siding with Unionism is a challenge to the agreement and one that must be met. The US has played an essential role in delivering and protecting our agreements. That role continues.
The Executive in the north will face many challenges including dealing with a government in London to secure public services and promote prosperity. With good will and real powersharing, those challenges can be overcome.
The election of Michelle O’Neill shows that anything including Irish Unity is achievable. The future must be in the hands of the people and a partisan British Government. The significance of Michelle O’Neill becoming First Minister, those “patient prisoners, tapping through granite with a teaspoon” can see the light of day. Something that I, and more, wish my grandparents were here to see.
*Ciaran Quinn is Sinn Féin representative to North America.
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