The triumph of republican forces, for the second straight year, in Northern Ireland’s elections snaps into focus a strange new political reality in the counties whose allegiances have been the subject of bloody contention for generations. The prospects of a united Ireland, deferred since the end of the 1916 War of Independence, are waxing.    

While returns in local council elections in Northern Ireland  are still being tallied, all signs point to a banner showing for the republican and democratic socialist political party, Sinn Féin, the  former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, which has long been the vehicle of hopes for a united Ireland. The Democratic Unionist Party, loyal to London, got thumped in its heartland.

Sinn Féin’s first minister in waiting, Michele O’Neill, called the outcome  a “momentous election result” and noted that “historic change is happening right across the island.” Ms. O’Neill pledged her party’s intention to “deliver first class council services, support people through the cost of living crisis, and invest in the health service.”  

 Sinn Féin, which employs the slogan “A Republic for All,” marches under the banner of a “new, agreed and united Ireland.” Its platform declares its dedication to the “reunification of Ireland and an end to British jurisdiction in the north of Ireland.” Never before has a unionist party exhibited such a strong showing in the north.  Its popularity is growing in the Republic of Ireland, though it does not currently sit in government.   

As of this writing, Sinn Féin has secured 144 local seats, a gain of 39 since 2019. The DUP has taken 122. The republican party’s share of first place preferences was just under 31 percent, up more than seven points since 2019. Sinn Féin doubled its share of the vote at one suburb of  Belfast, the epicenter of the violence known as “the Troubles” that ended with the Good Friday Agreements of 1998.       

This comes after Sinn Féin last year scored a plurality in assembly elections, which determine who will sit in the Stormont, Northern Ireland’s devolved parliament. That marked a sea change, one that brought that body to a standstill. The DUP has boycotted deliberations, seeking weaker ties to the Continent and stronger ones to the Crown.

At Belfast last month, President Biden expressed his hope that the “Assembly and the Executive will soon be restored,” allowing “That’s a decision for you to make, not for me to make.” During a fundraising appearance, Mr. Biden noted that his trip aimed “to make sure they weren’t — the Brits didn’t screw around and Northern Ireland didn’t walk away from their commitments.”

The vote comes after an eventful stretch in the United Kingdom. February saw the signing of the Windsor Framework, which resolved — for now — the post-Brexit stalemate over the Northern Ireland protocol, an agreement inked by Prime Minister Johnson. 

This month, Charles Windsor was crowned king  of the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.” 

More change could crest the horizon, as Catholics, traditionally, although not exclusively, republican in sentiment, now outnumber Protestants in Northern Ireland.