Justin McNulty MLA (born 15 November 1974) is an Irish

Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...

(SDLP) politician, a former

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

, and a former player at senior level for the Armagh county team. He has sat in the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameralism, Unicameral , hou ...

since 2016 as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

(MLA) for

Newry and Armagh Newry and Armagh can refer to: * Newry and Armagh (Assembly constituency) *Newry and Armagh (UK Parliament constituency) Newry and Armagh is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Mickey Brady o ...

. McNulty played football for the Mullaghbawn Cúchullain's club in Armagh and also played at senior level for the Armagh county team from 1995 to 2005. He won an

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) ( ga, Craobh Shinsir Peile na hÉireann) is the premier competition in Gaelic football. An annual tournament organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), it is contested by the county ...

(SFC) medal in 2002 while playing in the full-back position.

Sporting career

The

Lislea Lislea ( , ) is a small village and townland near Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is within the civil parish of Killevy and the historic barony of Orior Upper. Today it is within the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council a ...

-born, McNulty played for

Mullaghbawn Mullaghbawn ( or ; ), or Mullaghbane, is a small village and townland near Slieve Gullion in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. In the 2011 Census it had a population of 596. History A barracks was built near Mullaghbawn in 1689 and was known ...

alongside his twin brother Paul and their younger brother,

Enda Enda is an Irish given name. Though predominantly a male name, it can refer to a man or a woman. It may refer to: * Enda of Aran (died c. 530), Irish saint * Enda Barrett (born 1987), Irish hurler * Enda Bonner (born 1949), Irish politician * ...

. Justin made his senior

inter-county Inter-county, or inter county is Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) terminology which refers to competitions or matches between counties, as used in Gaelic games (differently from legal counties). The term can also be used to describe the players o ...

debut for Armagh in 1995 in a league game against

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia **Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

. He won 5 Ulster SFC medals and won an All-Ireland SFC medal when Armagh defeated

Kerry Kerry or Kerri may refer to: * Kerry (name), a given name and surname of Gaelic origin (including a list of people with the name) Places * Kerry, Queensland, Australia * County Kerry, Ireland ** Kerry Airport, an international airport in Count ...

by a scoreline of 1–12 to 0–14 in the 2002 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final. In 2005 McNulty retired from inter-county football. Management followed soon after and Justin led Mullahoran Dreadnoughts of Cavan to a Senior Championship in 2006. The following year Justin managed St Brigid's GAA (Dublin), who was narrowly beaten in the 2007 Dublin County Final by St Vincent's who went on to win the All Ireland. In late 2009 he was appointed as an Armagh

selector Selector may refer to: *Selector, electrical or mechanical component, a switch *''Selector'', music scheduling software for radio stations created by Radio Computing Services *Selector, of music, otherwise known as a disc jockey *Selector, a pers ...

under the management of Paddy O'Rourke. In August 2010, after

Seán Dempsey Seán Dempsey is an Irish Gaelic football manager, coach, selector and former player. He played at minor, under-21 and senior level for the Laois county team. Dempsey later managed Laois at minor, under-21 and senior level and has been involve ...

resigned as

Laois County Laois ( ; gle, Contae Laoise) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medi ...

manager, McNulty was appointed as his successor. McNulty's first season proved a success as Laois gained

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the top tier of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

, despite losing the league decider to Donegal. McNulty left Laois in August 2013.

Political career

McNulty contested his home constituency of

for the

SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Irela ...

in the 2015 general election. Despite losing to

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

candidate

Mickey Brady Mickey Brady (born 7 October 1950) is an Irish republican politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newry and Armagh since 2015. He was previously a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland for Newry and Armagh ...

, McNulty polled 12,026 votes, a 24.1% share which represented a 1500 vote increase on the previous election. McNulty was elected to the 6th Northern Irish Assembly on 3 March 2017 for the

. In the General election of 2017, McNulty saw his share of the vote drop to 16.9%

with his Sinn Féin rivals vote increasing by 6.8%.In the Assesembly election of May 2022, McNulty's vote share fell further to 10.8%. The impact of independent candidate Gavin Malone standing in the election, appears to have both candidates fighting for the same share of the vote in the Newry area.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McNulty, Justin 1974 births Living people Armagh county football team Armagh inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic football backs Gaelic football managers Gaelic football selectors Irish sportsperson-politicians Mullaghbawn Gaelic footballers Politicians from County Armagh Sportspeople from County Armagh Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027 Social Democratic and Labour Party MLAs Winners of one All-Ireland medal (Gaelic football)