Rosaleen "Rosie" McCorley (born 14 January 1957) is a former Irish Sinn Féin politician who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast West from 2012 to 2016.[2]
Rosie McCorley | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast West | |
| In office 2 July 2012 – May 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Paul Maskey |
| Succeeded by | Gerry Carroll |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 January 1957 [1] Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party | Sinn Féin |
| Alma mater | Open University University of Ulster Queen's University Belfast |
Career
editA former housing officer, in 1991, McCorley was jailed for 66 years for the attempted murder of an army officer and possession of explosives.[3] While in prison she obtained a first-class honours degree in social sciences with the Open University.
She served eight years of her sentence before being released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.[4] She was the first female prisoner to be released following the agreement.[3] After her release, she worked for Coiste na nIarchimí, an Irish republican ex-prisoners’ group, for eight years, before taking up a post as political adviser with Sinn Féin in 2007 working with MLAs Fra McCann and Pat Sheehan.[5]
In July 2012, she replaced her party colleague Paul Maskey, an abstentionist MP in the parliament of the United Kingdom, who had resigned from the Northern Ireland Assembly as part of Sinn Féin's policy of abolishing double jobbing.
McCorley lost her seat at the 2016 Assembly election.[6]
She holds a diploma in Irish from the University of Ulster and a post-graduate diploma in Gaeilge agus Léann an Aistriúcháin from Queen's University Belfast.[2]
References
edit- ^ "MLA Details: Ms Rosaleen McCorley". Aims.niassembly.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
- ^ a b Sinn Féin picks Rosie McCorley as new West Belfast MLA, BBC News, 24 June 2012.
- ^ a b Coming home, The Independent, 20 November 1999
- ^ "Outside chance". The Irish Times. 8 February 2003. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
- ^ Former prisoner takes seat at Stormont, The Irish Echo, 27 June 2012; accessed 23 July 2012
- ^ NI Assembly election: More than a third of seats declared as counting continues, BBC News, 6 May 2016.