Exclusive | Michelle O’Neill: ‘I command the ship, I make the decisions… I don’t think it’s the same across the board’

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/michelle-oneill-i-command-the-ship-i-make-the-decisions-i-dont-think-its-the-same-across-the-board/a1167765018.html

Archived: https://archive.ph/yqtqN

Suzanne Breen

Today at 07:18

When Michelle O’Neill became First Minister, some observers predicted that she would have no real authority as other republicans would pull the strings from behind the scenes.
Fast forward 18 months and the Sinn Fein vice-president not only says that this is very much not the case, but suggests that perhaps it’s her unionist partner in government whose power is greatly limited by her party.

There are regular complaints about slow decision-making at Stormont with claims that Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly must run everything by DUP party officers.

O’Neill says: “I know that I’m in control of my ship. I know I’ve one of the strongest ministerial teams up there. I am very confident in our work ethic.

“I’m proud of a lot of the initiatives and work that my ministerial team are doing, but I command that ship. I make the decisions. I just don’t think that is the same across the board.”

So does the Deputy First Minister not enjoy such freedom?

“Emma will have to answer how she conducts her business, but Executive business is Executive business. It should be dealt with within the Executive,” says O’Neill.

Ministers should not need to seek permission from those outside the room, she adds.

The First Minister is in Áras Uí Chonghaile, the James Connolly Visitor Centre on Belfast’s Falls Road. The Assembly is in recess, but it has still been a hectic week with events that have taken her from Fermanagh to Derry.

Wimbledon, however, has not been on her summer itinerary. Along with the Deputy First Minister, she was invited to the tennis championship last month.

Little-Pengelly accepted at a cost of almost £1,000 to the public purse while O’Neill declined. “I don’t mind tennis, but I didn’t see any value for me to go to Wimbledon,” she says.

So was it wrong for the Deputy First Minister to have the taxpayer fund her trip?

“That’s for Emma to answer,” O’Neill replies. “She chose to take up the invitation so she will have to answer if she feels that was the right call or not.”

The two women have divergent political views but try to “manage that difference” and “make it work”, she says.

When asked earlier this year if they were friends, O’Neill said yes, while Little-Pengelly stressed it was a purely professional relationship. Why did they answer differently? “I can only speak for who I am,” the First Minister says.

“We have a very friendly relationship in what we do in the Executive. I’m sure Emma’s conscious of her own voter base and whatever — that’s her call.”

Sinn Fein has been accused of a lack of delivery at Stormont. There’s been little progress on Casement Park despite the Government’s recent £50m contribution, and Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins’ plans for Irish language signs in Belfast’s Grand Central Station are currently blocked.

The DUP is backing Jamie Bryson’s legal challenge to Kimmins, with Communities Minister Gordon Lyons set to give evidence to the judicial review.

Lyons is the minister responsible for developing a strategy to promote the Irish language.

“What does (his legal intervention) say to the wider nationalist and republican community here? O’Neill asks.

“It says that these people want to thwart change, to hold things back, but we don’t accept that. The DUP will do what they’re going to do. My focus is to keep trying to drive us forward and keep trying to bring us on the right path.”

O’Neill sees it as absurd that the DUP “objected to £150,000 Irish language signs” in a £340m project.

“They’re doing it because they want to hold back anything to do with Irish national identity. They don’t want to see the language about the place,” she says.

The First Minister adds: “Liz will fight this case. She’s not taking it lying down, she is going to fight back. I believe (the Irish signs) were the right thing to do. It was within her gift to make that decision. She stands over it, and I certainly stand over it too.”

Asked if she’s confident of victory, O’Neill replies that it’s impossible to predict a legal case “but we’ll have to deal with that whatever way the courts land”.

The judicial review was taken by Bryson, who remains close to key DUP figures. Does the First Minister think the loyalist has too much influence in unionist politics?

“Well, I don’t really take him under my notice. That’s for others to answer,” she says.

The DUP is seen by some observers as trying to run down the clock on Casement’s redevelopment until planning permission expires. O’Neill has previously promised that the stadium will be built on her watch. “I’ve said that, and I’ll say it again here today. I’ll work with all the Executive ministers. I want Casement over the line and I want investment in sport more generally. There is a pathway for Casement to be built, and that’s the path I’m treading.”

She denies that there’s growing nationalist disillusionment with Stormont and with Sinn Fein’s performance in it.

She believes “the wider nationalist/republican voter base is confident about where we are and where we’re headed”.

They know that some in the DUP “want to be negative on anything to do with Irish culture, the GAA, the Irish language”.

Nationalist grassroots recognise that “despite the challenges and blockages”, Sinn Fein is trying “to keep giving people hope and keep our eyes on the future”. Securing constitutional change is “where people’s heads are at”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said a border poll isn’t on the horizon, and Secretary of State Hilary Benn is equally unenthusiastic. Asked how Sinn Fein plans to secure one, O’Neill says she will “keep knocking on their (Starmer’s and Benn’s) door” and making the case.

She adds: “They have a view today. I don’t accept it. I’m not going to give up. Sinn Fein is the largest party at local government, Assembly and Westminster”. It “speaks volumes” that she’s First Minister in “a state designed to ensure that never would happen”.

However, O’Neill isn’t guaranteed that office again after the next Stormont election. Discussion is under way about greater unionist unity, including a DUP-UUP coalition to return more MLAs and prevent her retaking the post in 2027.

O’Neill says she is unperturbed by such reports. “I’ll contest the election on the basis of my track record,” she states. “If others are interested in a pact that is about trying to go back to the days of old — days that are gone and aren’t going to return — that’s on them.

“The electorate will make up (its) mind. I promised to be a First Minister for all on the day I took up office.

“I haven’t just talked the talk. I’ve walked the walk. I’m going to bring that back to the electorate in two years’ time, and ask people to vote for something positive, for looking forward, for inclusion and equality.”

So is she confident Sinn Fein will remain the biggest party?

“I’d never be complacent because you have to work for it,” she says. “We have to tell people we have their backs. We have to go out and earn every single vote.”

O’Neill has stretched the republican base by a range of gestures including becoming the first senior Sinn Fein figure to take part in an official Remembrance Sunday ceremony in Belfast. She acknowledges that some at a grassroots level found it “too much”.

She says: “It was difficult for some people, and I absolutely respect that. They’re entitled to feel (that) given the complexity of this place and the history.

“But I’m in this role to lead and that means sometimes doing difficult stuff and stepping outside your comfort zone and stepping up to the plate.”

O’Neill says she never considered changing course on her outreach. Leadership can involve taking decisions “personally uncomfortable for yourself, your community and sometimes your friends”.

An image of executed 1916 leader James Connolly hangs in the room of our interview. A revolutionary firebrand, he lambasted monarchy as “a survival of the tyranny imposed by the hand of greed and treachery on the human race”.

So what would Connolly make of O’Neill’s relationship with the royal family? “Who knows? He might curse me!” she replies.

The First Minister has no “allegiance” to the Windsors, but represents people who do, and “mending relations in a divided society” is important to her.

She has been stopped in the supermarket and elsewhere by unionists who have said “Thank you for what you did. Thank you for meeting King Charles”. She appreciated their approaches.

A parade will be held in Portadown today commemorating Harris Boyle, a member of the UVF gang responsible for the Miami Showband massacre. O’Neill doesn’t believe the event should have been banned.

Everybody must have “the space to remember their dead”, and to do so in a “dignified and respectful” manner. Neither does she think it inappropriate that two GAA clubs are hosting the Joe Cahill Gaelic Competition — named after the former IRA leader — as part of the Feile an Phobail.

She argues that the festival brings together “people from all different backgrounds”. Some critics “just want to attack the GAA at every turn”.

For decades, Sinn Fein supported the IRA, but would those who opposed the armed campaign be welcome in the party’s ranks today?

“Our doors are open. If you agree with our republican politics, about building a united Ireland, then there’s a space for you,” O’Neill says. “Look where we are. We’re 27 years post-Good Friday Agreement. The society we live in has been transformed so, yes, we have to allow space to bring people in.”