Michelle O'Neil speaks at the Northern Ireland Assembly, at the Parliament Building, in Stormont. AFP

Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Fein, the Catholic party, became the First Minister in Northern Ireland, which is a Protestant majority part which chooses to remain a part of the United Kingdom. After 30 years of violent sectarian struggle between Catholics and Protestants, the Good Friday accord was signed in April 1998 between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, and it is the first time since the accord that Sinn Fein had won a majority in the Stormont, the Northern Ireland parliament, and the First Minister post had gone to a Catholic.

The Irish Republican Army was the armed wing of Sinn Fein which was involved in acts of violence, which would be termed as terrorist. The Democratic Unionist Party of the Protestants secured the post of the Deputy First Minister as Emma Little-Pengelly was named to the office. O’Neill said, “As an Irish Republican, I pledge cooperation and genuine honest effort with those colleagues who are British, of a unionist tradition, and who cherish the Union. This is an assembly for all – Catholic, Protestant and dissenter.”

This is the first time after the 2022 election that the Stormont has met because the Democratic Unionist Party had boycotted because of the trade barriers involved with the European Union (EU) after Britain left the EU. The issue was whether Northern Ireland should have an open border with the Republic of Northern Ireland, which is a member of the EU.

An agreement between the United Kingdom and EU called the Windsor Framework allows for EU goods to enter Northern Ireland without checks except for illegal goods and to prevent disease. The agreement reiterated Northern Ireland’s constitutional status as part of the United Kingdom, and gave the Northern Ireland politicians to decide on EU laws that might be extended to Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom government has also promised to give 3 billion pounds to Northern Ireland to revive its battered public services once the local assembly started working again. DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said, “I believe that my party has delivered what many said we couldn’t.”

The Northern Ireland example shows that the most difficult situations can be overcome through dialogue and agreement, and the bitterest of rivals can work together as the statement of O’Neill has shown. She did not say that differences have been resolved or that there are no differences between Catholic and Protestant, between Sinn Fein, whose aim is to reunite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which stands for Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. But they will work together. And O’Neill did not forget to remind, “The days of second-class citizenship are long gone. Today confirms that they are never coming back.” This is with reference to the minority status of Catholics.

But it took a long time for both sides to realise that violence and bloodshed will not offer any solution at any time. The differences are sure to remain but the two sides, even if they do not sink their differences, must learn to live together and work together. The DUP did not want to lose the advantages of the open border of the Republic of Ireland even if the United Kingdom had drawn the bridge in its relations with the EU. It is the victory of pragmatism winning over partisan dogmatism which had reigned so long in Northern Ireland. This does not mean that the Protestants in Northern Ireland would ever want to sever with Britain, the Protestant mainland, and it does not want to forego the free trade advantages that Catholic Ireland offers.