The civil war in Northern Ireland ended 25 years ago. At that time, Sinn Féin was still considered the political wing of the IRA. Today the party is the new government in Belfast and could also govern Dublin in less than two years. Michelle O’Neill is partly responsible for this image change. A portrait of an extraordinary woman.
Note: This text is from May 2023 and was republished on the occasion of Michelle O’Neill’s swearing-in.
If you ask Michelle O’Neill, 46, which experience from the time of the Northern Irish Civil War particularly influenced her personally, she will not say that her father was in prison during her childhood. Or how one of her cousins was shot by a British SAS commando and a second was seriously injured by the British police.