1. Martina Anderson was born on 16 April 1962 and is an Irish former politician from Northern Ireland who served as Member of the Legislative Assembly for Foyle from 2020 to 2021, and previously from 2007 to 2012.
20 Facts About Martina Anderson
1. 2.
Martina Anderson became involved in the Irish republican movement in the late 1970s and is a former Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer.
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Martina Anderson was released 13 years later as a condition of the Good Friday Agreement and subsequently became involved in politics for Sinn Fein.
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Martina Anderson was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2012, representing Foyle.
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Martina Anderson served in the Northern Ireland Executive as a Junior Minister at the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister from 2011 to 2012.
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Martina Anderson left the European Parliament in 2020 and returned to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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Martina Anderson has six sisters and three brothers, one of whom, Peter, is a former Sinn Fein councillor, and her niece is former Irish Senator and former Foyle MP Elisha McCallion.
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Martina Anderson was educated at St Cecilia's College between 1973 and 1980.
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Martina Anderson was arrested aged 18 leaving a furniture store in Derry and charged with possession of a firearm and causing an explosion.
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Martina Anderson was released on bail after spending two months in Armagh Women's Prison and fled across the border to Buncrana in County Donegal.
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Martina Anderson was again arrested on 24 June 1985 at a flat in Glasgow with four other IRA members including Brighton bomber Patrick Magee.
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In 1989, Martina Anderson married fellow prisoner and IRA member Paul Kavanagh at Full Sutton Prison.
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On 10 November 1998, Martina Anderson was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
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In 2007, Martina Anderson was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly as a Sinn Fein member for Foyle, along with Raymond McCartney.
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In May 2007, Martina Anderson became one of the first Sinn Fein members to join the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
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Martina Anderson was selected by Sinn Fein to fight the Foyle constituency at the 2010 Westminster general election.
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Martina Anderson lost to the SDLP incumbent, Mark Durkan, by 5,000 votes.
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Martina Anderson retained her MEP seat in the 2014 election, topping the poll with 159,813 first-preference votes.
19.
Martina Anderson said she meant the word "rash" as a metaphor.
20.
On 4 May 2021, Martina Anderson announced she would not be contesting the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, following an internal party review of recent election results in Foyle.