N Ireland vote poses question over its future

Sinn Fein rise marks historic change, as party seeks poll on a united country

The political status and future of Northern Ireland in a post-Brexit United Kingdom has become even more contentious after elections for the devolved Northern Ireland assembly saw Sinn Fein, which backs the province becoming part of a united Ireland, emerge as the dominant party.

When Northern Ireland was created in 1921 in the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence, the six counties that make it up had majority Protestant populations, whose political allegiance was to the British crown.

This group, known as Unionists, have been politically dominant for the last century, and it is tensions between Unionists and Republicans that led to the decades of violence known as the Troubles.

But now Sinn Fein, once the political wing of the IRA terrorist group, has become the largest party, with a mandate for changes that are in absolute opposition to policies from London, and include the possibility of a referendum on a united Ireland.

"It's a defining moment for our politics and for our people," said the party's deputy president, Michelle O'Neill.

"Today ushers in a new era which I believe presents us all with an opportunity to reimagine relationships in this society on the basis of fairness, on the basis of equality, and on the basis of social justice, irrespective of religious or social backgrounds."

The terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended the Troubles, say a referendum on unification should be called "when it appears likely that a majority of the people would vote in favour of a united Ireland."

Although this is not the case yet, Sinn Fein's rise to power marks a significant change, and a challenge to the Unionist community.

The largest Unionist group, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), has 25 seats in the assembly, as opposed to Sinn Fein's 27, with the biggest winner of the night being the cross-community Alliance Party, which gained nine seats and is the third-biggest party.

DUP leader, Jeffrey Donaldson, said he would refuse to join a new devolved administration, which would involve governing alongside Sinn Fein, until the government in London "dealt with" the Northern Ireland protocol, the part of the Brexit Agreement that relates to the trade status of Northern Ireland, and has left many Unionists feeling they are being treated as less British than people on the mainland.

Following the 2017 General Election, where Theresa May's Conservative government lost seats, it struck a deal with the DUP to try and help get Brexit legislation passed. After she resigned in 2019, it found itself propping up a Boris Johnson government that called another election on the slogan of 'Get Brexit Done'. However, the Brexit it got done is the one that created the protocol that the Unionist community now so resents.

In August 2019, then-DUP leader Arlene Foster put her name to a document that said "Boris Johnson made clear his commitment to the Union - the 'Awesome Foursome'as he put it."

Local elections less than three years later have seen Republicans become dominant in the Northern Ireland assembly, and in Scotland, which voted against Brexit in the 2016 referendum, the independence-supporting Scottish National Party gained 22 seats while the Conservatives lost 63.