Northern Ireland

Profile of DUP’s new deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly

Emma Little-Pengelly made history by becoming the first deputy first minister not to have actually been elected to the assembly

Emma Little-Pengelly, the deputy first minister, in the Great Hall in Stormont.Picture: Arthur Allison/Pacemaker Press

While much of the focus at the restoration of the Stormont executive yesterday was understandably on the historic appointment of Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill as the first nationalist first minister, the appointment of Emma Little-Pengelly as the DUP’s deputy first minister was of equal consequence.

While the two roles are ostensibly equal in their powers, the symbolic significance of a Sinn Féin first minister is undeniable, and matched only by the symbolic ignominy of a ...