Sinn Fein eyes historic win in Northern Ireland election

EVER since Northern Ireland was founded as a Protestant-majority state a century ago, its governments have been led by unionist politicians who defined themselves as British.

But if opinion polls are right, an election Thursday will see Sinn Fein, an Irish nationalist party that seeks union with Ireland, become the largest group in the 90-seat Northern Ireland Assembly. That would give Sinn Fein the post of first minister in the Belfast government for the first time.

It would be a milestone for a party long linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that used bombs and bullets to try to take Northern Ireland out of U.K. rule during decades of violence. And it would bring Sinn Fein’s ultimate goal of a united Ireland a step closer.

“I now ration my heat to one hour a day,” said Sinead Quinn, who set up the group Derry Against Food Poverty