Columba Barry McElduff (; born 16 August 1966) is an Irish

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 ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. He was the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for the West Tyrone UK parliament constituency. He was also 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. ...

in the Northern Ireland Assembly from its creation in 1998 until his election as MP in 2017. He resigned his seat on 16 January 2018 after publishing a video of himself balancing a Kingsmill loaf on his head, on the date of the anniversary of the

Kingsmill massacre The Kingsmill massacre was a mass shooting that took place on 5 January 1976 near the village of Whitecross in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Gunmen stopped a minibus carrying eleven Protestant workmen, lined them up alongside it and s ...

Early life

McElduff was born on 16 August 1966 in

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

, Northern Ireland, and was raised in the Aghagogan

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

. He was educated at the Christian Brothers Grammar School in

Omagh Omagh (; from ga, An Ómaigh , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. Northern Ireland's capital city Belfast is 68 m ...

, before attending Queen's University Belfast. He became an Irish republican activist for

Career

In 1992 McElduff was given an 18-month suspended sentence for assisting the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...

(IRA) in the false imprisonment of a suspected police informer. At the 1992 general election, he unsuccessfully contested Mid Ulster. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum for the West Tyrone constituency in 1996, and has since held this seat on the Northern Ireland Assembly. McElduff has chaired the Culture, Arts and Leisure Committee of the Assembly and has served previously on other committees, including Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, Education and Employment and Learning. In 2000, McElduff was elected to

Omagh District Council Omagh District Council was a local council in Northern Ireland. It merged with Fermanagh District Council in April 2015 under local government reorganisation to become Fermanagh and Omagh District Council. Its headquarters was in the town ...

. In 2012, McElduff and Lord Laird visited Scotland to learn more about potential Scottish independence. At the snap general election held on 8 June 2017, he became MP for West Tyrone. McElduff is known for performing comedy sets at Sinn Féin events, and in 2015 performed a stand-up gig in Omagh. He is also known for posting comedic videos on

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

."Sinn Fein's Barry McElduff's class clown persona falls flat"
''

The Irish News ''The Irish News'' is a compact daily newspaper based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's largest selling morning newspaper and is available throughout Ireland. It is broadly Irish nationalist in its viewpoint, though it als ...

''. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2018. McElduff has published two books: ''Keep er' Lit'' (2012) contains short stories and anecdotes from his experiences of republicanism, Gaelic games and community activism, while ''Sustain the Flame'' (2015) looks back at his forays into social media.

Resignation

On 5 January 2018, McElduff

tweeted Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

a video of himself in a shop with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head, asking where the shop kept its bread. As it coincided with the 42nd anniversary of the

—where republicans murdered ten Protestant civilians— unionists accused him of mocking the massacre and the video was widely criticised, including by nationalists. Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said "mocking is depraved" and called the video "inhuman". McElduff deleted it and apologised, saying he was not alluding to the massacre and offering to meet the victims' families. On 8 January, Sinn Féin apologised for McElduff's actions, condemned the video, and suspended him from Sinn Féin for three months. McElduff announced on 15 January that he was resigning his seat. On 16 January the Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed Barry McElduff as the Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern, a nominal

office of profit An office of profit means a position that brings to the person holding it some financial gain, or advantage, or benefit. It may be an office or place of profit if it carries some remuneration, financial advantage, benefit etc. It is a term used in ...

under the Crown which causes the holder's parliamentary seat to be vacated.

References

External links

Sinn Féin: Barry McElduff MLA West TyroneStrategem: WestTyroneMLAs
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:McElduff, Barry 1966 births Living people Members of the Northern Ireland Forum Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Tyrone constituencies (since 1922) Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Politicians from County Tyrone People educated at Christian Brothers Grammar School, Omagh Sinn Féin MLAs Sinn Féin MPs (post-1921) UK MPs 2017–2019 Sinn Féin councillors in Northern Ireland

Early life

Career

Resignation

See also

References

External links