Party Sinn Féin | Succeeded by Vacant Spouse Paddy O'Neill | |
 | ||
First Minister Peter RobinsonArlene Foster Children Ryan O'Neill, Saoirse O'Neill Similar Born 10 January 1977 (age 43) Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland | ||
Michelle o neill interview
Michelle O'Neill (née Doris; born 10 January 1977) is an Irish politician who is the leader of Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland, and MLA for Mid Ulster since 2007.
Contents
- Michelle o neill interview
- Michelle o neill challenges leaders of dup uup and sdlp in debate
- Family
- Political career
- References
She was Minister of Health in the Northern Ireland Executive and was previously the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development.
Michelle o neill challenges leaders of dup uup and sdlp in debate
Family
O'Neill comes from an Irish republican family in Clonoe, County Tyrone. Her father, Brendan Doris, was a Provisional IRA prisoner and Sinn Féin councillor. Her uncle, Paul Doris, is a former national president of the Irish Northern Aid Committee (NORAID). A cousin, Tony Doris, was one of three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in 1991. Another cousin, IRA volunteer Gareth Malachy Doris, was shot and wounded on active duty during the 1997 Coalisland attack.
After the death of Brendan Doris in 2006, Martin McGuinness paid tribute to the Doris family as "a well-known and respected republican family [who] have played a significant role in the republican struggle for many years".
O'Neill and her husband, Paddy O'Neill, have two adult children: daughter Saoirse and son Ryan.
Political career
O'Neill became involved in republican politics in her teens, assisting her father with constituency work in his role as a Dungannon councillor. She joined Sinn Féin after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, at the age of 21, and started working as an advisor to Francie Molloy in the Northern Ireland Assembly. She kept this role until 2005, when she was elected to represent the Torrent electoral area on Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council, taking the seat which had been vacated by her father. She held the council position until 2011, while also becoming MLA for Mid Ulster in 2007. In 2010, O'Neill became Mayor of Dungannon and South Tyrone. She was the first woman to hold the position of Mayor, as well as one of the youngest people.
O'Neill replaced Michelle Gildernew as Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development after the 2011 Assembly election. One of her key decisions in the role was to move the Department's headquarters from Belfast to a former British Army barracks in Ballykelly, County Londonderry, overruling an internal report in the process.
She became Minister for Health after the 2016 election, soon revealing an ambitious 10-year plan to modernise Northern Ireland's health and social care system.
On 23 January 2017, O'Neill was named as Martin McGuinness' replacement as Sinn Féin's leader in the Northern Ireland Assembly.