Former Foyle MP Elisha McCallion runs as candidate for Seanad

FORMER Foyle MP Elisha McCallion is among seven Sinn Fein candidates for this month’s Seanad election.

Mrs McCallion, who also served as Foyle MLA and Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, will run on the Industrial and Commercial Panel for the Irish Senate.

She served as Foyle MP until last November after upsetting incumbent Mark Durkan in June 2017.

Mrs McCallion lost her seat to SDLP leader Colum Eastwood in a landslide.

Mr Eastwood polled majority of 17,110 votes while his Sinn Fein rival’s vote fell from 18,256 in 2017 to just 9,771 last December.

Also running is Belfast’s former Lord Mayor Niall O Donnghaile who will be hoping to return to the Seanad on the Administrative Panel.

The former Foyle MLA: “I’m honoured to have been selected to run for the Industrial and Commercial panel and as one of the Sinn Féin’s seven candidates in the Seanad election.

“This is a unique opportunity to work with my colleague Niall Ó Donnghaile in giving people across the north a voice in the Oireachtas.

“Part of my focus will be advancing the party’s agenda of giving workers and families a break, defending citizens’ rights, advancing Irish Unity and addressing regional disparities west of the Bann, including the impact of partition on Derry and Donegal.

“There are important challenges ahead in the coming months as the next stage of Brexit begins, we must ensure the protections for economy secured in the Irish Protocol and Withdrawal Agreement are upheld.

“I look forward to the campaign and I am determined to bring a positive, inclusive and dynamic perspective to the Oireachtas.

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said: “Sinn Fein Senators will help to advance the party’s agenda of giving workers and families a break, building homes, reducing and freezing rents, tackling the trolley crisis securing the state pension at 65 years of age and preparing for Irish Unity,” she said.

Other North of Ireland based candidates for the Seanad election are former Ulster Farmers Union President Ian Marshall who became the first unionist elected to the Seanad in 2018.

And Derry-based crime and fiction writer Garbhan Downey who is running on the platform of establishing an independent university in the North West.

Polls for the Seanad election close on Monday, March 30.

The results of the election will be known a short time later.

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