Martina Anderson

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Martina Anderson (2014)

Martina Anderson (born April 16, 1962 in Derry ) is a Northern Irish politician of the Sinn Féin . Anderson, a former IRA member , was sentenced to life imprisonment for involvement in a bomb attack in 1986 but was released as part of the Good Friday amnesty . Since then she has been committed to Sinn Féin and was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2007 to 2012 . From 2012 to 2020, Anderson was a Member of the European Parliament as part of the GUE / NGL Group .

Life

Martina Anderson was born on April 16, 1962 in the village of Bogside near Derry . She attended St Cecilia's Secondary School in Derry.

Engagement in the IRA

Anderson at a Euranet debate (2016)

Anderson was arrested at the age of 18 leaving a furniture store in Derry and charged with possession of a firearm and causing an explosion. After spending two months in Armagh Women's Prison , she was released on bail and fled across the Irish-Northern Irish border to Buncrana , County Donegal .

On June 24, 1985, she was arrested in an apartment in Glasgow with four other IRA members, including Brighton assassin Patrick Magee . On June 11, 1986, all five were convicted of conspiracy and a bomb attack , although Patrick Magee was the only person convicted in connection with the bombing of the Brighton hotel . Anderson received a life sentence.

In 1989, Anderson married fellow inmate and IRA member Paul Kavanagh at Full Sutton Prison . In 1993 she was one of only two female prisoners of the so-called "Category A" in England, the other was the Republican fellow campaigner Ella O'Dwyer . In 1994 she was transferred from Durham Prison in England to Maghaberry Prison in Northern Ireland. On November 10, 1998, Anderson was released under the Good Friday Agreement .

Political career in Northern Ireland

Anderson in the European Parliament (2019)

Anderson served as part of the Sinn Féin leadership for the Northern Ireland Assembly, then served as "All Ireland" Policy Coordinator for nearly three years. Following the 2006 Ard Fheis (Congress), at which Sinn Féin Chairman Gerry Adams made rebuilding relationships with unionism a priority, Anderson was named Unionist Engagement Director.

In 2007 Anderson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly with Raymond McCartney for Sinn Féin in the constituency of Foyle . In 2010 her party nominated her for the British general election in the constituency of Foyle, but could not prevail against Mark Durkan (SDLP). In 2011 she became a junior minister in the office of the first minister and his deputy.

Change to the European Parliament

In May 2012, the Northern Irish MEP Baibre de Brún resigned from his mandate in the European Parliament, so that Martina Anderson was appointed as her successor by the party and succeeded in June 2012. Like de Brún, she joined the Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left , to whose group she was directly elected. For the remaining two years of the electoral term she became a member of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety , as well as an alternate member of the Petitions Committee and the Committee on Regional Development .

In the European elections in 2014 , Anderson defended her mandate in the European constituency of Northern Ireland and moved directly back to the European Parliament alongside Diane Dodds and Jim Nicholson . In the 8th electoral term, she was a member of the executive committee of the GUE / NGL group from 2015 to 2019. She was also a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs , and a deputy member of the Committee on Regional Development and the Committee on Constitutional Affairs .

In the 2019 European elections , Anderson was able to defend her mandate in the European constituency of Northern Ireland and moved in alongside Diane Dodds and Naomi Long . In the 9th parliamentary term, Anderson was a member of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs and an alternate member of the Committee on International Trade . When the United Kingdom left the EU on January 31, 2020, she left Parliament.

Web links

Commons : Martina Anderson  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Anger at ex-IRA woman's role model tag . January 24, 2018 ( bbc.com [accessed September 28, 2019]).
  2. ↑ Patrick Magee convicted of IRA terrorist attack | Special reports | guardian.co.uk. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c d About Martina. In: martinamep.eu. Retrieved September 28, 2019 (American English).
  4. ↑ 7th legislative term | Martina ANDERSON | MPs | European Parliament. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  5. ↑ 8th legislative term | Martina ANDERSON | MPs | European Parliament. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  6. ↑ 9th legislative term | Martina ANDERSON | MPs | European Parliament. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Anderson, Martina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Northern Irish politician (Sinn Féin), MEP
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Derry