SINN FEIN LEADER PICKED

THE RT HONORABLE MICHELLE O'NEILL IS NEW SINN FEIN LEADER

SINN FEIN PICKS  NEW LEADER

Irish political and cultural group,Sinn Fein has picked Michelle O”Neil as its new leader.

In a video sent to The News Office Desk of The Paedia Express Multimedia Group in Lagos,Nigeria on the 23^rd of January,2017,it was discovered that the mother of two had been given a  mandate at making sure that the peace process with the United Kingdom continues in the light of the expectations of the global community.

Michelle O'Neill (born 10 January 1977) is an Irish politician who is the Leader of Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland,^[1][2][3] and MLA for Mid Ulster since 2007.^[4]

She is also the Minister of Health in the Northern Ireland Executive and was previously the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development.

Family

O'Neil comes from a republican family in Clonoe, County Tyrone. Her father, Brendan Doris, was an IRA prisoner and is a former Sinn Féin councillor.^[5] Her uncle, Paul Doris, is a former national president of NORAID.^[6] A cousin, Tony Doris, was one of three IRA members shot dead by the SAS in 1991.^[7] After Brendan died in 2006, Martin McGuinness - not yet deputy First Minister - gave tribute to the Doris family, "a well-known and respected republican family [who] have played a significant role in the republican struggle for many years".^[8]

O'Neill and her husband, Paddy O'Neill, have two adult children: daughter Saoirse and son Ryan.^[9][8]

Political career

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O'Neill became involved in republican politics in her teens,^[5] assisting her father with constituency work in his role as a Dungannon councillor.^[6] She joined Sinn Féin after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, at the age of 21,^[9][7] and started working as an advisor to Francie Molloy in the Assembly. She kept this role until 2005,^[8] 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.^[10][11] She was the first woman to hold the position of Mayor, as well as one of the youngest people.^[5]

O'Neill replaced Michelle Gildernew as Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development after the 2011 Assembly election.^[12] One of her key decisions in the role was to move the Department's headquarters from Belfast to a former Army barracks in Ballykelly, County Londonderry, overruling an internal report in the process.^[9] She became Minister for Health after the 2016 election, soon revealing an ambitious 10-year plan to make Northern Ireland's health and social care system fit for the 21st Century.^[13]

On 23 January 2017, O'Neill was named as Martin McGuinness's replacement as Sinn Féin's leader in the Northern Ireland Assembly.^[2]