Mickey Brady (born 7 October 1950) is an Irish republican politician who has been 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 of ...

(MP) 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 ...

since 2015. He was previously 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 ...

of Northern Ireland for

from 2007 to 2015.

Early life

Brady was born in the Ballybot area of

Newry Newry (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland, divided by the Clanrye river in counties Armagh and Down, from Belfast and from Dublin. It had a population of 26,967 in 2011. Newry was founded in 1144 alongside a Cistercian monastery, althoug ...

. He attended the Abbey Primary School in the town and later the

Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School The Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School (Irish: ''Scoil na Mainistreach, Iúr Cinn Trá'' ) is a voluntary day school for boys aged 11 – 18 years in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland. History The school was established in 1851 by memb ...

. After this, he went to university in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. In 1981, Brady was employed by the Confederation of Community Groups in Newry, running a welfare rights advice centre, dealing with benefits and housing issues until 2007. His mother, Sarah "Sally" Brady (3 March 1909 – 4 May 2016), was the second oldest known living person in Northern Ireland.

Career

Brady says he was always interested in politics and was always an

Irish republican Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate. The develop ...

so it was an obvious progression for him to be selected to contest the

Assembly seat in 2007 for

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 Gri ...

. He first took his seat 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 ...

on 8 March 2007 and retained the seat in 2011. He was selected to contest the 2015 general election by party members in Newry and won the seat. He does not take his seat in the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...

, in line with Sinn Féin's

abstentionist Abstentionism is standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abstentionists participate in ...

policy. Locally, Brady is also a member of the Confederation of Community Groups and a member of the Board of Governors for schools in his constituency. On 4 May 2015, during his

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

election campaign, Brady was told by the

Police Service of Northern Ireland The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ga, Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ') is the police, police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabu ...

(PSNI) of a death threat against him. During the early hours of the following morning, he was advised again of another death threat against him and a bomb threat on his family home in Newry. The PSNI searched the property and found no devices. On 8 June 2017, Brady was re-selected by

in the Newry & Armagh constituency to defend his Westminster seat at the snap

2017 United Kingdom general election The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. The governing ...

Mickey Brady with Phil Boswell MP for the SNP for Coatbridge

Brady successfully defended his seat again at the 2019 general election on 12 December 2019.

References

External links

Profile
agendani.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Brady, Mickey 1950 births Living people People from Newry Sinn Féin MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Newry and Armagh (since 1983) Sinn Féin MPs (post-1921) UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present Sinn Féin councillors in Northern Ireland