Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill to address status of Northern Ireland government, today

Donna Leinwand Leger

March 11, 2023

Northern Ireland’s First Minister-elect Michelle O’Neill will address the state of US-Irish relations and the prospects for forming a new government in Northern Ireland at Headliners Newsmaker event on Thursday, March 16 at 2 p.m.

This Headliners event is open to credentialed media and club members. Click here to register.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister-elect Michelle O’Neill will discuss U.S.-Irish relations and the prospects for forming a new government.

To submit a question for the speaker, please email [email protected] and put SINN FEIN in the subject line. The deadline for submitting questions in advance is 9 a.m. on the day of the event.

Britain and the European Union on Feb. 28 agreed to the Windsor Framework, a post-Brexit trade agreement for Northern Ireland. The framework replaces the Northern Ireland Protocol, a deal struck by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson that left Northern Ireland in the EU for purposes of trade because of its open border with the Republic of Ireland.

Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) opposed the protocol and has been boycotting Northern Ireland's government. The new agreement is expected to ease the tensions enough to bring the Northern Ireland Assembly back to work.The Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement requires Northern Ireland’s government to include representatives from both the Unionist and Republican parties.

In last May’s election, the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, which seeks unification with Ireland, won a plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and O’Neill, the vice president of Sinn Fein, became the first Irish Republican to hold the position of First MInister-elect.