Who is Michelle O’Neill – Northern Ireland’s new chief whose life modified at 16

On Jan 30, 2024

When she gave delivery to her daughter on the age of 16, Michelle O’Neill was decided that she wouldn’t be written off.

Now she is on the verge of creating historical past as Northern Ireland’s first Irish republican First Minister after the DUP agreed to return to power-sharing at Stormont. Sinn Fein grew to become the biggest get together in the newest meeting elections in 2022, placing her in line for the highest job.

Ms O’Neill comes from a staunchly Irish republican household in County Tyrone. Her father, Brendan Doris, was an IRA prisoner. Paul Doris, her uncle, was one in every of three IRA members shot useless by the SAS in 1991 and her cousin Gareth Doris, an IRA man shot and wounded by the military in 1997.

The 47-year-old has beforehand spoken about how turning into a mom when she was 16-years-old modified her life. “Being a young mum, well it’s my life experience, it made me what I am, it makes you stronger, I think,” she told Sky News. “I do know what it is prefer to be in troublesome conditions. I do know what it is prefer to wrestle, I do know what it is prefer to go to highschool and have a child at dwelling.

“At that time, you’re talking 1993, society still, compared with today, was a very different place. You were neatly put in a box: single mother, unmarried mother, nearly written off. But I was determined that I wasn’t going to be written off, that I was going to work hard and make a good life for her.”

Ms O’Neill joined Sinn Fein after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 on the age of 21 and have become a councillor. In 2007, she was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly and served as agriculture minister after which well being minister. Following the loss of life of Martin McGuinness in 2017, she grew to become Deputy First Minister when power-sharing was restored in 2020.

She confronted calls to step down in 2020 after she was accused of breaking coronavirus guidelines as she attended the funeral of veteran IRA commander Bobby Storey.

Ms O’Neill accepted invites to attend each the funeral of Queen Elizabeth and the Coronation of King Charles. In a press release forward of the Coronation, she stated: “I am committed to being a First Minister for all, representing the whole community, and advancing peace and reconciliation through respectful and mature engagement.”