Rosemary Byrne (born 3 March 1948, Irvine, North Ayrshire) is a Scottish politician who served as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2006 to 2019. Byrne was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South of Scotland region from 2003 to 2007. She was elected as a

Scottish Socialist Party The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP; gd, Pàrtaidh Sòisealach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Socialist Pairtie) is a left-wing political party campaigning for the establishment of an independent socialist Scotland. The party was founded in 1998. It c ...

(SSP) MSP but in September 2006, together with

Tommy Sheridan Tommy Sheridan (born 7 March 1966) is a Scottish politician who served as convenor of Solidarity from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) from 1998 to 2004 and as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2 ...

, she left that party to form Solidarity. Byrne lives in Irvine, and was a teacher and a trade union activist for several years. At one time she was president of Irvine

Trades Council A labour council, trades council or industrial council is an association of labour unions or union branches in a given area. Most commonly, they represent unions in a given geographical area, whether at the district, city, region, or provincial or ...

Political career

She stood unsuccessfully in the 2001 United Kingdom general election as the Scottish Socialist Party candidate for Cunninghame South (UK Parliament constituency). In the 2003 Scottish Parliament election Byrne stood as the Scottish Socialist Party candidate for the Cunninghame South constituency to the Scottish Parliament, where she received 2,677 votes and came third. She was elected to a regional seat from the SSP's list. The SSP returned six MSPs at the 2003 election. Byrne was the only one of the six who was not already a member of the SSP executive, she was arguably the least prominent. She was elected to the executive in early 2004, and at the February 2005 conference she was elected as one of the SSP's co-chairs. However she did not stand for re-election to this post or the executive committee at its conference in March 2006, stating that she was standing down for personal reasons. On 3 September Sheridan and Byrne launched a new political party, naming it Solidarity – Scotland's Socialist Movement.

Sheridan vs. News International

There was a controversial defamation case in 2006 between fellow SSP MSP

and the British tabloid newspaper ''

The News Of The World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one o ...

'',

Sheridan v News International ''Sheridan v News Group Newspapers'' (''Thomas Sheridan v News Group Newspapers Ltd'') is a civil court case brought by Tommy Sheridan against the publishers of the '' News of the World'', which began in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotlan ...

. Following this, Sheridan and Byrne split from the SSP, and formed a new

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

party which they named '' Solidarity''. During the trial, in which Sheridan sued the ''News of the World'' for defamation and won, Byrne gave evidence supporting Sheridan. On 1 October 2006 the News of the World published fresh evidence which it claimed proved that their allegations were true and Sheridan had thus lied to the Court of Session during the trial. Sheridan was subsequently charged with and eventually convicted of perjury. Both Byrne and Sheridan were accused by the

IWW The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

of betraying workers by unilaterally removing funding from the collective body which employed parliamentary staff. On 15 February 2008, Byrne was arrested on suspicion of perjury in relation to the Sheridan defamation trial. However, the Crown Office said that the matter would not be taken further at the conclusion of the subsequent criminal trial. In June 2016, Sheridan resigned from his position as co-convener of the Solidarity, with councillor Pat Lee elected to replace him alongside Byrne.

References

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, Rosemary 1948 births Living people People from Irvine, North Ayrshire Scottish schoolteachers Scottish trade unionists Solidarity MSPs Scottish Socialist Party MSPs Female members of the Scottish Parliament Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007 People charged with perjury