Irish politics was shaken to its core by the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. Sinn Féin is now the leading political force in the North, and 45-year-old Michelle O’Neill is in position to become Northern Ireland’s First Minister.
In contrast to Sinn Féin’s former leadership of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, the Republican party is now led by women north and south of the border. In the Republic, Mary Lou McDonald not only leads her party but the official opposition. The last election there saw a strong swing to the Left, breaking the duopoly of centrist power held by Fianna Fáil and Fianna Gael parties since the Irish Civil War a century ago. Now with an O’Neill-led Sinn Féin ascendency in the North, talk of a ‘border poll’ is making Unionists and British Tories distinctly nervous.
