GERRY ADAMS has unusually found himself with the same opinion as Unionist leader Ian Paisley – believing that there is no reason why Northern Ireland shouldn’t have a Sinn Féin representative as First Minister.
The Sinn Féin president, in an opinion piece for the traditionally unionist News Letter newspaper, said unionists were unduly ‘unnerved’ about the possibility of Martin McGuinness becoming First Minister.
The potential appointment of McGuinness has been mooted after opinion polls north of the border suggested that Sinn Féin would emerge as the largest party in the northern assembly after the elections next May.
Pointing out that Northern Ireland is run by a diarchy, he wrote:
[The] exaggerated hype around the possibility of Martin McGuinness becoming first minister is about unnerving unionists. They want a return to unionist dominance. It’s not going to happen. Those days are gone.
And anyway the deputy first minister has exactly the same authority as the first minister. So, would most unionists really be worried about Martin becoming first minister?
The evidence suggests not. Martin has carried out its responsibilities in an exemplary fashion and has demonstrated the capacity to be a first or deputy first minister for everyone.
The views echo those of DUP founder and former First Minister Ian Paisley, who said he would accept “the will of the people” if they returned Sinn Féin with the largest contingent to Stormont.
“For many years I had to accept that the [DUP] was not the majority party,” he wrote in a similar piece.
“But, I worked at it and when I left off the leadership I left my party as having the largest mandate in Europe, the largest mandate in Westminster and the largest mandate in Stormont.
“Sinn Fein didn’t become the majority party on my watch.”
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