Catherine Anna Kelly MLA (born 27 June 1987) is a

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 from

Loughmacrory Loughmacrory (AKA the lough)( ; ) is a village and townland (of 1651 acres) in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The village is situated 8 miles (13 km) east of Omagh in the historic barony of Omagh East and the civil parish of Termonmaguirk ...

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 ...

, who served as

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. ...

for the West Tyrone constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly June 2017 until her resignation in October 2020.

Education

Kelly studied English and History at Liverpool John Moores University and Early Childhood Studies at

South West College The South West College operates in Northern Ireland on four campuses in Cookstown, Dungannon, Enniskillen and Omagh and, of the six new area based colleges, it is the smallest in size, but it covers the largest geographical area of counties ...

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 ...

Nursery school teacher

She also worked at an Irish language nursery school.

Sinn Féin and political career

Kelly joined Sinn Féin in 2009 and stood as a candidate in the local elections in Omagh Town in 2014. She worked as an advisor to

Barry McElduff Columba Barry McElduff (; born 16 August 1966) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the West Tyrone UK parliament constituency. He was also a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Northern Ireland A ...

. After the 2017 general election, she was co-opted to the Northern Ireland Assembly to represent the West Tyrone constituency following McElduff's election to the House of Commons. Kelly resigned on 31 October 2020 following controversy over a small-business grant related to the COVID-19 epidemic. She was replaced on the assembly by Nicola Brogan.

References

External links

1987 births Living people Sinn Féin MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Female members of the Northern Ireland Assembly Politicians from County Tyrone {{SinnFéin-politician-stub