Patricia O’Lynn was the pop of colour easily spotted over the two days Assembly votes were counted in the dreary confines of a university building outside Belfast.
Many journalists did not know who the Alliance Party’s North Antrim candidate – dressed in emerald green and bright orange trouser suits – was, and certainly did not reckon on her causing one of the biggest political upsets of the election.
Taking to the podium on Saturday after unseating DUP stalwart Mervyn Storey – who bolted out a side door shortly before the declaration – O’Lynn declared “the age of entitlement is over” and that “a new day is on the horizon in North Antrim” as she became the first female MLA ever elected in the DUP homeland of the party’s founder, the late Ian Paisley.
In a double first, she is also the first Alliance member to win a seat in the unionist stronghold.
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While Sinn Féin’s historic win at the polls is the defining story of this election, O’Lynn’s stunning victory was reflective of the party’s hugely significant surge across the North.
For the Larne native, who holds a PhD in education and master’s degree in criminology from Queen’s University Belfast, the outcome is no great surprise.
"And though it's seen as a DUP heartland – the home of the Paisleys – it has always had a liberal tradition"
“I honestly think that what we’ve seen in politics over a number of years is how the polarisation has become hyper. And I think people are fed up with it,” O’Lynn told The Irish Times shortly after her win.
“This is my fifth election in six years, and it’s the first time on the doors I’ve noticed the public is so much more tuned in. They’re asking detailed policy questions about the cost-of-living crisis, healthcare, education and what we can do.
“In relation to North Antrim, whenever you have a narrative like the DUP’s that is so negative, that is so divisive and fractured, they’re almost making it easy for us. Some thought it would be really hard but I believe there are more liberal people than even polled today.
“And though it’s seen as a DUP heartland – the home of the Paisleys – it has always had a liberal tradition. Corrymeela, where some of the peace talks were brokered, is in North Antrim.”
Alliance more than doubled its seats to 17 at the polls and is now the third-largest party at Stormont for the first time, leapfrogging the struggling UUP and SDLP.
It is a result that will not only lead to a radical shake-up in how the North is governed but also represents a major societal shift, as voters no longer cast their ballots along traditional green and orange lines.
However, its success is not just at the expense of the DUP but other middle-ground parties.
Alliance was a transfer magnet for votes and wiped out the Green Party’s only two seats, while the SDLP, which once commanded majority support within nationalism, suffered a humiliating defeat with its seats reduced to just eight, down four from 2017, and relegating it to fifth place among the Stormont line-up.
The result also has the potential to lead to fundamental change not just in terms of representation, but to the very mechanisms of the Assembly itself.
The 1998 Belfast Agreement saw the creation of a system that required the biggest bloc of unionists to share power with the biggest bloc of nationalists in a “mandatory coalition” at Stormont.
The party's strong mandate will ultimately heap pressure for an overhaul of the existing structures to reflect the new electoral landscape
While the powersharing deal acknowledged the right of parties to define themselves as neither nationalist or unionist – and instead designate as so-called “others” – it was not really designed to accommodate a large bloc of these others.
Alliance leader Naomi Long has called for mandatory coalition to be scrapped – thereby removing the ability of any big party to prevent a ministerial executive being established – and instead have a “voluntary”-style system.
The party’s strong mandate will ultimately heap pressure for an overhaul of the existing structures to reflect the new electoral landscape, which could ultimately make the North’s political institutions more resilient in the long run.
“I think if anyone has a mandate to say that Stormont should be changed and changed dramatically, it’s Alliance. We want grown-up politics,” Long said.
For O’Lynn, the decision to join a middle-ground party six years ago came as “no great shock” to her liberal family.
Raised a Catholic in a staunchly loyalist town where she felt like a “second-class citizen”, she “accidentally” fell into politics after winning a place on a prestigious programme in Washington DC in 2016, where she worked under late US senator John McCain.
The 32-year-old is among a group of Alliance representatives who have taken seats for the first time – when, as she has said, their qualifications and careers could easily have taken them outside the North.
"I grew up in Larne feeling like a second-class citizen, not just because I was a Catholic in a loyalist town but also because identities are fluid"
“This is my opinion; the electorate know we are all educated, they know we are all talented, they know we come from professional and skilled backgrounds. We don’t need to be in politics. We don’t need to be in Northern Ireland. Usually the demographic of our candidates wouldn’t be.
“We are here because we love Northern Ireland, we want to make it work, we are committed to staying here. Our families are here and the next generation’s here. I think people see that. They want a shared future.”
She added: “In terms of sectarianism, I think it’s important for me to acknowledge I have not got it anywhere near as hard as some of the people my age or older. But I can say with confidence and certainty that I grew up in Larne feeling like a second-class citizen, not just because I was a Catholic in a loyalist town but also because identities are fluid. So even when I went to my school, which was a Catholic grammar school outside the area, I was a Catholic from a loyalist town so I wasn’t even good enough there.
“Now you add into the mix that I was a woman and the fact I don’t come from a wealthy, powerful or privileged family – it was a tough ride.”
Long visited the Jordanstown count centre on Saturday afternoon to personally congratulate O’Lynn – who became Long’s special adviser three days after being awarded her doctorate – describing her as a “breath of fresh air”.
Long recollected their first meeting: “I remember her standing up and saying, ‘Stale, male, pale; that’s what this constituency has had since 1998.’ She is the first woman elected and she’s certainly not pale or stale. I’ll think she’ll shake the Assembly up and I look forward to it.”
