It has been a hectic 2022 for Michelle O’Neill so far. With the Executive stalled, a long Assembly election campaign, and now with Sinn Féin as the largest party in vote share and Assembly seats, the Sinn Féin Vice President is the First Minister in waiting. An Phoblacht caught up with the new First Minister in between meetings with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. O’Neill talked about all of this as well as her experience of the election campaign, her plans as the new First Minster, the cost of living crisis, citizen assemblies, and the border poll. Free article

When the news spectacularly confirmed that Michelle O’Neill was to be the North’s First Minister, I went to the republican graves in Milltown Cemetery in Belfast. Free article

Naoise Ó Cuilín is a 24-year-old North Belfast republican from New Lodge. Here, he gives an impression of the Sinn Féin election result from the view of a young activist. Free article

Emma McArdle, Sinn Féin campaign and policy manager, reports from out on the canvas leading up to the historic vote. Free article

In the aftermath of an indifferent performance by Unionism of all shades in the Assembly elections, Conor Keenan floats the potential of positive and progressive forces within the Unionist community emerging to bring about a different future for the North Free article

The ongoing tragedy and humanitarian crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is still dominating our news media in Ireland and internationally. In this article, Chris Hazzard makes a personal analysis of other issues raised by the conflict, including the implications of an increasingly militarised Europe and the need for ‘a security architecture that prioritises peace, social justice, and recognises the sovereignty of small nations and their right to peacefully determine their own future’. Free article

As the attention of the western world remains focused on the war in Ukraine and people in Ireland are daily horrified at the resulting humanitarian crisis there, another war, and what is currently the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis, is relatively ignored. Free article

On Wednesday 18 May, a Sinn Féin motion calling for the Dublin Government to secure full public ownership of the proposed site of the National Maternity Hospital site was passed in the Dáil. Below, we carry an edited version of Waterford Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane’s speech. David is the Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health and brought this motion before the Dáil. Free article

Iarradh orm cuntas a scríobh ar chúrsaí eacnamaíochta sa nGaeltacht inniu. Is éasca é a rá ná a dhéanamh. Tá an oiread sin éagsúlachta sa nGaeltacht ó cheantar go ceantar go dteastódh foireann taighdeoirí uait le léirmheas cruinn a thabhairt ar an scéal ar fad. Free article

It has long been argued that the General Election of June 1922 was a ringing endorsement by voters in the 26 Counties for the Treaty and the Free State. But was that really the case, and did the election give the Free State government what it later claimed as a mandate to forcibly suppress their Republican opponents? Free article