Martina Anderson MEP - Six County

Following the resignation of Bairbre de Brún from her seat as MEP for the Six Counties, Derry based MLA and Junior Minister in the Stormont executive, Martina Anderson, was selected by the Party to replace her.  She officially became the Six Counties MEP in June 2012.

In 2011 she had joined the Sinn Féin Ministerial team in Stormont as a Junior Minister in the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister.

Martina Anderson is from the Bogside area of Derry. She has been involved with the Republican struggle for over 30 years. Having spent over 13 years in prisons in England and Ireland she was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and immediately became involved in party work for Sinn Féin.

She was a member of Sinn Féin's Assembly Business Committee, which oversaw the Party's Assembly operation.  For almost three years she served as the party's All Ireland Political Co-ordinator promoting, upgrading and mainstreaming the All Ireland agenda.

Following the 2010 Ard Fheis, at which the Party President Gerry Adams indicated a priority of developing an entirely new relationship with unionism Martina was appointed to the role of Sinn Féin's Director of Unionist Engagement. This is a task she pursed with vigour, leading to a number of first public meetings between the party leadership and churches and opinion makers within unionism.