Mary Lou McDonald: A young political life less ordinary…

| Readers 2421

Alex Kane has been doing his homework on Mary Lou McDonald. It’s a good, well researched profile piece. And goes some way to explaining why she’s become such a lynchpin between Sinn Fein’s past and its future. She is not a woman to be in any way underestimated.

In short…

  • Born on May Day, 1969 and raised in the affluent Rathgar: she has two brothers and a sister
  • She was educated at Notre Dame, a private fee-paying school in Dublin
  • She had a “road to Damascus” moment in 1981 when she watched news about the hunger strikes
  • She married Martin Lanigan in the mid-1990s and they have two children
  • She joined Fianna Fail in 1998, turned down a safe council seat and then defected to Sinn Fein shortly afterwards
  • She was an MEP, and is now a TD and deputy leader of Sinn Fein. Many believe she will be the next leader

But do it read it all…

Discover more from Slugger O'Toole

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Recent posts

Frank Schnittger

United Rugby Championship Round 3: Previews and match summaries

Mick Fealty

Maurice Quinlivan TD on McMonagle: “I’ll be quite clear, I’m pretty sure we didn’t know…”

Am Ghobsmacht

Talking a Load of Old Boulevards…

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated. 

Give a monthly donation Give a one-off donation