Michelle O'Neill is an Irish politician who served as deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland between 2020 and 2022. She has been serving as Vice President of Sinn Féin since 2018 and is the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Mid Ulster since 2007.
O'Neill served on the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council from 2005 to 2011. She served as the first female Mayor of Dungannon and South Tyrone from 2010 to 2011. In 2007, she was elected to represent Mid Ulster in the Northern Ireland Assembly. In 2011, she was appointed to the Northern Ireland Executive by deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness as Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development. In 2016, she was promoted to Minister of Health. In January 2020, she became deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland after the New Decade, New Approach agreement restored the power-sharing executive.
O'Neill automatically relinquished her office following Paul Givan's resignation as first minister on 3 February 2022. Sinn Féin became the largest party after the 2022 Assembly election, putting O'Neill in line for the position of First Minister of Northern Ireland; however she has not taken up the position because the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has refused to nominate a deputy First Minister, citing its opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol.
