Stormont return under Sinn Féin first minister a moment of ‘very great significance’

Speaking to the media, Mary Lou McDonald said the return of a functioning Assembly had been a long time coming.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald (centre) and vice-president Michelle O’Neill, wave after speaking to students from Mount Lourdes Grammar in Enniskillen, after addressing media in the Great Hall at Stormont (Liam McBurney/PA)

The return of Stormont’s powersharing institutions with Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill as first minister will be a moment of “very great significance”, party leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.

The Sinn Féin president also said she believed that Irish unity was now within “touching distance” as she said change was happening across the island of Ireland.