NORTHERN Ireland is having a bit of a moment.
Between Belfast rappers Kneecap becoming some of the biggest names in hip-hop to the runaway success of Derry Girls, the six counties have become a cultural force like never before.
For First Minister Michelle O’Neill, that speaks to the vibrancy of modern Northern Ireland and the younger generation who will no longer accept “second-class citizenship”.
Speaking to The National in Sinn Fein’s offices in Stormont, the First Minister, the first nationalist to hold the job, said there is a cultural confidence in Northern Ireland.
“I think young people have it in spades,” said O’Neill. “I think that generation have a real, confident view of who they are, confident in their Irishness, very happy to assert it, will not accept second-class citizenship.
“Of course, that was the experience of their parents, my parents and grandparents, they have no truck with that and they will not accept second best or second class.
“I think that what you’re seeing is that assertion of their culture and identity. And isn’t that a good thing to see? There’s no space for it being suppressed anymore, it’s out in the open, it’s loud and proud and it’s going to continue to be so.”
But she also highlighted that there are still powerful forces in Northern Ireland that seek to block expressions of nationalist identity “at every turn”.
While touting the fact that “so many of our young people are being educated through the medium of Irish” debates around language – one of many battlegrounds on which Northern Ireland’s nationalist and Unionist camps wrestle day in, day out – O’Neill said Stormont could hardly show the way on promoting Celtic languages.
She said: “I don’t think this place is a good example to be giving advice around language, given the fact that we have political unionism which has blocked the Irish language at every turn, so we’ve had our own challenges in terms of being able to promote the language. We had a fight for years to get an Irish Language Act.
“We’re currently fighting for an Irish language strategy. But the thing I would say to everybody is that this is something that is who we are, it’s our heritage, our culture, our identity. So everybody should be creating space to allow that to be celebrated. For those in political unionism trying to block that, they’re saying to young Irish Gaeilgeoir [Irish speakers] that you don’t have a place here.
“What message does that send to them in 2026? It’s one of disrespect and intolerance and basically arrogance and I don’t think that young people have any truck with that, that’s why you see them so vibrantly on the streets campaigning and I think that’s a really, really positive thing.”
It isn’t hard to see a link between Northern Ireland’s newfound cultural confidence and growing levels of support for reunification within the six counties. A poll at the beginning of last month showed that 63% of people in the province wanted a united Ireland in the European Union.
“An Ireland within Europe, that is the big prize,” said O’Neill.
Key to winning that prize is convincing the younger generations, said O’Neill. “I am so glad that young people are growing up with a different prism and a different view of what’s going on around them,” the First Minister said.
“I want to convince young people who have a British identity that actually you’d be much better off in an inclusive and respectful Ireland than you would be in this arrangement that we have right now. I think that’s the conversations that I want us to have.”
As with Scottish independence, prosaic concerns about taxes, pensions and the health service will define how people vote as well as deeper questions about identity.
Some may be concerned about paying more tax in the Republic or the fact they could have to pay for health service in a country without the NHS.
But for O’Neill, reunification is a chance to improve the lives of people in Northern Ireland.
“I think we need to flip it the other way because I think the opportunities that we have, to grow a stronger, better economy, to ensure that education is free for all young people across the island, to ensure that everybody has a roof over their head,” she said.
Research provides ballast to these hopes, with a recent study showing that people in the Republic of Ireland earnt more money, had more disposable income and enjoyed lower healthcare waiting lists.
And the question of Europe, where far-right parties are on the march, also raises some problems for O’Neill, who said she was concerned about the trading bloc’s “militarisation agenda”. But the First Minister was clear that being inside the EU was far preferable, especially for the people of Northern Ireland, than being outside the alliance.
The question is then how reunification can be achieved. “I noticed with interest when the Scottish assembly had their vote just last week and voted for an independence referendum and the very quick response that they got from Whitehall was that they would completely disrespect, disregard that mandate,” said O’Neill. “That’s a mandate from the people. And I think that collectively we have to use our voice to drive home the message that we’ll not accept that type of arrogance and disrespect for the people that we represent collectively.”
As far as Sinn Fein are concerned, polling which shows a majority for reunification means a border poll must be forthcoming from the UK Government.
“Give us a referendum,” said O’Neill. “If they’re so strong in the strength of the Union, what have they got to fear? Live up to the commitment.”
Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, the Northern Ireland Secretary has the power to call a referendum on reunification if they believe the majority would vote for reunification.
That office’s current holder, Hilary Benn, has previously knocked back calls for a border poll.
“What I’m asking for is the fulfilment of my democratic right to a referendum that was set out very clearly in the Good Friday Agreement,” said O’Neill.
The Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to the bloody conflict which plagued Northern Ireland for 30 years, laid the groundwork for the modern political scene in the six counties.
For ending the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement is “precious” to O’Neill. But it is not perfect, she said. The deal, brokered in 1998, put in place power-sharing rules in Stormont which require nationalist and Unionist politicians to run Northern Ireland in tandem. In practice, this has resulted in the Executive collapsing because of political disputes.
O’Neill spoke to The National on the day her party had brought forward proposals to reform the power-sharing rules by removing vetoes from the ruling parties, which have fuelled so much of the political instability in Northern Ireland in peacetime.
“We have said today that we are up for that conversation around surrendering some of our veto that means that you can’t collapse the institutions, because people deserve an Executive functioning for them”, said the First Minister.
“I’ve always said that you can do more than one thing at once. I think that we can successfully articulate, argue for constitutional change – and people here have completely legitimate aspirations for where they see themselves in the future – whilst also trying to make politics work on a day-to-day basis within this institution.”
The choice the people of Northern Ireland ultimately whether they want their fates decided at home or by distant politicians in an ever more chaotic Westminster parliament.
It is a choice that people across the UK are considering. O’Neill said that recent election results which put the SNP and Plaid Cymru into power in Scotland and Wales represented a “seismic change”.
She added: “People are tired of the mess of Westminster, they’re tired of the disregard that’s being shown towards them in Westminster and they’re tired of just the ongoing chaos. When we look even at the last decade, everything from Brexit, the austerity agenda, the revolving door of British prime ministers, we’ve never been, us certainly, our perspective has been that we’ve never been top of the agenda, never will be, our interests will never be served by Westminster.”
