Michelle Gildernew MLA |
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Gildernew in 2007
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Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development | |
In office 8 May 2007 – 5 May 2011 |
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Leader | Gerry Adams |
Preceded by | Bríd Rodgers |
Succeeded by | Michelle O'Neill |
Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone |
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In office 7 June 2001 – 30 March 2015 |
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Preceded by | Ken Maginnis |
Succeeded by | Tom Elliott |
Majority | 7,065 |
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Fermanagh and South Tyrone |
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Assumed office 5 May 2016 |
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Preceded by | Bronwyn McGahan |
In office 25 June 1998 – 7 July 2012 |
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Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Bronwyn McGahan |
Majority | 7,026 |
Personal details | |
Born |
Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland |
28 March 1970
Nationality | Irish |
Political party | Sinn Féin |
Spouse(s) | Jimmy Taggart |
Alma mater | University of Ulster |
Website | Michelle Gildernew MP |
Michelle Gildernew (born 28 March 1970) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician and former Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development in the Northern Ireland Executive. She was the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 2001 to 2015, and was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone between June 1998 and July 2012. She was re-elected to the Assembly in 2016 and 2017.
Gildernew is Sinn Féin's health spokesperson and has been a member of the party's Ard Chomhairle (National Executive). In the 2007–11 Assembly, she served as Vice Chair of the Committee of Social Development and was a member of the Committee of the Centre as well as of other statutory and ad-hoc committees.
Born in Dungannon, Gildernew attended St Catherine's College Armagh and later the University of Ulster, Coleraine. After graduating from university, she travelled extensively in Europe, the United States and Australia, where she worked for a year. She is married to Jimmy and is the mother of two boys, Emmet and Eunan, and one girl, Aoise.
Gildernew is one of ten siblings from an Irish republican family based at the "Gildernew farm complex" (as described on Ordnance Survey maps) in County Tyrone. During the 1960s, the family were leading figures in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and took part in a 1968 protest in Caledon, County Tyrone over housing discrimination.