Michelle O’Neill has become the first Nationalist First Minister of Northern Ireland as Stormont returned for the first time since it was collapsed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in 2022.
O’Neill, who has previously served as Deputy First Minister with Arlene Foster and Paul Givan (both DUP), respectively, is also the Vice President of Sinn Féin since 2018, with Mary Lou McDonald.
Emma Little-Pengelly (DUP) was announced as O’Neill’s Deputy First Minister. Little-Pengelly is a barrister and has previously served as a Member of Parliament or Belfast South.
On January 30, the DUP announced their willingness to return to power-sharing. This paved the way for O’Neill to become first minister, as Sinn Féin won the largest number of seats in the 2022 Assembly election.
O’Neill assumed office on February 3, and is the first Irish Nationalist, Republican and Catholic to hold the title of First Minister
Michelle O’Neill has stated previously that she would be a “First Minister for all”, and has fulfilled that promise by breaking with Republican tradition to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, and the coronation of King Charles III in May 2023.
She said: “We live in changing times and it was the respectful thing to do, to show respect and to be here for all those people at home, who I had said I would be a first minister for all. Attendance here is about honouring that and fulfilling my promise.”
She also broke tradition by saying “Northern Ireland” rather than “the North of Ireland” in her Stormont acceptance speech.
She pledged to show respect to the Royal Family, and held meetings with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Ministers of the Northen Ireland Executive.
O’Neill received a handwritten letter of congratulations from King Charles III following her appointment.
She plans to request higher funding for Northern Ireland, who currently have £3.3 billion package pledged from the Exchequer.
O’Neill has also ruled out water charges in Northern Ireland, saying: “you can’t burden people who are living through a cost-of-living crisis with additional household bills whilst their public services are declining.”
O’Neill has also previously served as the Minister for Health, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, and Mayor of Dungannon and South Tyrone.
Emma van Oosterhout is the Editor-in-Chief of Student Independent News for 2025/26. She is studying MA Journalism at University of Galway, and graduated in 2025 with a BA in Global Media and History. She is from Corofin, Co. Galway. Emma was previously a News Editor for the year 2023/24. She has written for SIN since 2023.