Daithí McKay
Encyclopedia
Daithí McKay, MLA is an Irish republican politician. He is the Education spokesperson for Sinn Féin
and the deputy chair of the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee in the Northern Irish Assembly. He is an MLA for North Antrim
and was formerly a councillor on Ballymoney Borough Council.
in 1982, and resides in Rasharkin
, County Antrim
. He attended St Patrick's Primary School in Rasharkin and St. Louis' Grammar School, Ballymena. Before becoming a full-time worker for Sinn Féin he lived in Belfast
where he worked for the Ulster Bank
. Prior to being elected he was involved with Ógra Shinn Féin
in North Antrim and in aid work in the Palestinian
West Bank
, and has done work in Cuba
, the Basque Country
, Catalan Countries
and Kurdistan, where he represented the party youth wing Ógra Shinn Féin
.
MLA Philip McGuigan
and is currently the youngest member of the Ballymoney Borough Council.
In 2007
, it was announced that McKay would contest McGuigan's North Antrim
seat in the Northern Ireland legislature on 7 March 2007. He went on to claim his seat after the first count, coming second in the poll behind Ian Paisley
of the Democratic Unionist Party
(DUP). McKay received 7065 votes to Paisley's 7716. Paisley's son, Ian Paisley, Jr. came in third.
Since then, he became one of the first Sinn Féin members to sit on the Policing Board along with Martina Anderson
and Alex Maskey
. He previously sat as Sinn Féin's representative on the Fire and Rescue Services Board. McKay resides in Rasharkin
and has been involved in protests against the Ballymaconnolly loyalist parade through the mainly nationalist village every 12 July for a number of years.
, had said that she was 'minded' to approve an application from Sweeney for a private visitor centre at the Giant's Causeway
, even though her Planning Service officials had recommended that it be refused.
Foster threatened to take McKay to court over the matter but in January 2008 she decided to refuse the private application. In October 2007, a motion put forward by McKay in the Assembly supporting the closure of the British Nuclear power plant at Sellafield
was carried, even though both the Ulster Unionist and Democratic Unionist parties voted against it. In 2008, McKay set up an all-party working group on climate change
, which he currently chairs.
In July 2008, McKay and fellow Sinn Féin member Cllr Padraig McShane sustained minor injuries in a dispute with local republican youths in Ballymena. The dispute arose because of the youths' opposition to the removal of a bonfire to commemorate internment (Operation Demetrius
). McKay said they were in the area "in opposition to criminal and antisocial elements who are using this bonfire as a cover for other activities". The incident was captured by a BBC
camera crew. In May 2009 there were a series of attacks on property in Rasharkin, including an attack on McKay's house and a cafe in the village. The North Antrim MLA blamed anti-social elements 'masquerading as republicans' and said that these people would not deter him from his work as an Irish republican.
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
and the deputy chair of the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee in the Northern Irish Assembly. He is an MLA for North Antrim
North Antrim (Assembly constituency)
North Antrim is a constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly.The seat was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election for the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973...
and was formerly a councillor on Ballymoney Borough Council.
Background
McKay was born in BallymenaBallymena
Ballymena is a large town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland and the seat of Ballymena Borough Council. Ballymena had a population of 28,717 people in the 2001 Census....
in 1982, and resides in Rasharkin
Rasharkin
Rasharkin , is a small village and townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is south of Ballymoney, near Dunloy and Kilrea. It had a population of 864 people in the 2001 Census, after 30 years of gradual decline from a peak of 1,000 in 1971.-History:...
, County Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
. He attended St Patrick's Primary School in Rasharkin and St. Louis' Grammar School, Ballymena. Before becoming a full-time worker for Sinn Féin he lived in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
where he worked for the Ulster Bank
Ulster Bank
Ulster Bank is a large commercial bank, one of the Big Four in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Ulster Bank Group is subdivided into two separate legal entities, Ulster Bank Limited and Ulster Bank Ireland Limited...
. Prior to being elected he was involved with Ógra Shinn Féin
Ógra Shinn Féin
Ógra Shinn Féin is the youth wing of the Irish political party Sinn Féin. ÓSF is active and organised throughout Ireland. It is often considered the most prominent incarnation of Fianna Éireann. Upon its establishment in 1997 it was originally known as Sinn Féin Youth, it changed to Ógra Shinn...
in North Antrim and in aid work in the Palestinian
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
, and has done work in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, the Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
, Catalan Countries
Catalan Countries
The Catalan term Països Catalans refers to the territories where the Catalan language is spoken.The first mentions of the term date back to the late 19th century, but it never surpassed the limits of a small circle of Catalan authors until its strictly cultural dimension became increasingly...
and Kurdistan, where he represented the party youth wing Ógra Shinn Féin
Ógra Shinn Féin
Ógra Shinn Féin is the youth wing of the Irish political party Sinn Féin. ÓSF is active and organised throughout Ireland. It is often considered the most prominent incarnation of Fianna Éireann. Upon its establishment in 1997 it was originally known as Sinn Féin Youth, it changed to Ógra Shinn...
.
Elected Office
He was elected to Ballymoney Council in 2005. Daithí was an adviser to Sinn FéinSinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
MLA Philip McGuigan
Philip McGuigan
Philip McGuigan is a Sinn Féin member of Ballymoney Borough Council in Northern Ireland and a former MLA. He was raised in Swatragh, County Londonderry....
and is currently the youngest member of the Ballymoney Borough Council.
In 2007
Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007
The third elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly were held on 7 March 2007 when 108 new members were elected. The election saw endorsement of the St Andrews Agreement and the two largest parties, the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin, along with the Alliance Party, increase their...
, it was announced that McKay would contest McGuigan's North Antrim
North Antrim (Assembly constituency)
North Antrim is a constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly.The seat was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election for the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973...
seat in the Northern Ireland legislature on 7 March 2007. He went on to claim his seat after the first count, coming second in the poll behind Ian Paisley
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and church minister in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party , he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007.In addition to co-founding...
of the Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...
(DUP). McKay received 7065 votes to Paisley's 7716. Paisley's son, Ian Paisley, Jr. came in third.
Since then, he became one of the first Sinn Féin members to sit on the Policing Board along with Martina Anderson
Martina Anderson
Martina Anderson, MLA is an Irish nationalist politician in Northern Ireland who occupies the post of Director of Unionist Engagement for Sinn Féin and is a former volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army .-Biography:...
and Alex Maskey
Alex Maskey
Alex Maskey is an Irish politician who was the first member of Sinn Féin to serve as Belfast's Lord Mayor. He is Sinn Féin's longest sitting councillor and is currently an MLA for South Belfast as well as being a councillor for the Laganbank area of Belfast.-Early life:Maskey was educated at St...
. He previously sat as Sinn Féin's representative on the Fire and Rescue Services Board. McKay resides in Rasharkin
Rasharkin
Rasharkin , is a small village and townland in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is south of Ballymoney, near Dunloy and Kilrea. It had a population of 864 people in the 2001 Census, after 30 years of gradual decline from a peak of 1,000 in 1971.-History:...
and has been involved in protests against the Ballymaconnolly loyalist parade through the mainly nationalist village every 12 July for a number of years.
Giant's Causeway scandal
In September 2007 McKay sparked off a political scandal in the Assembly when he named private developer Seymour Sweeney as a member of the DUP in the Assembly Chamber. The DUP's Environment Minister, Arlene FosterArlene Foster
Arlene Isabel Foster is a politician in Northern Ireland. She is one of two Democratic Unionist Party MLAs representing the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. She became Minister of the Environment on 8 May 2009 and was subsequently reshuffled into the...
, had said that she was 'minded' to approve an application from Sweeney for a private visitor centre at the Giant's Causeway
Giant's Causeway
The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles northeast of the town of Bushmills...
, even though her Planning Service officials had recommended that it be refused.
Foster threatened to take McKay to court over the matter but in January 2008 she decided to refuse the private application. In October 2007, a motion put forward by McKay in the Assembly supporting the closure of the British Nuclear power plant at Sellafield
Sellafield
Sellafield is a nuclear reprocessing site, close to the village of Seascale on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England. The site is served by Sellafield railway station. Sellafield is an off-shoot from the original nuclear reactor site at Windscale which is currently undergoing...
was carried, even though both the Ulster Unionist and Democratic Unionist parties voted against it. In 2008, McKay set up an all-party working group on climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, which he currently chairs.
Other
In June 2008, he was one of four Sinn Féin councillors in north Antrim who reportedly received death threats.In July 2008, McKay and fellow Sinn Féin member Cllr Padraig McShane sustained minor injuries in a dispute with local republican youths in Ballymena. The dispute arose because of the youths' opposition to the removal of a bonfire to commemorate internment (Operation Demetrius
Operation Demetrius
Operation Demetrius began in Northern Ireland on the morning of Monday 9 August 1971. Operation Demetrius was launched by the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary and involved arresting and interning people accused of being paramilitary members...
). McKay said they were in the area "in opposition to criminal and antisocial elements who are using this bonfire as a cover for other activities". The incident was captured by a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
camera crew. In May 2009 there were a series of attacks on property in Rasharkin, including an attack on McKay's house and a cafe in the village. The North Antrim MLA blamed anti-social elements 'masquerading as republicans' and said that these people would not deter him from his work as an Irish republican.
Plastic Bag Levy
In 2011 McKay introduced the "Single Use Plastic Bag Bill" to the Assembly which eventually was passed by the Assembly as the "Single Use Carrier Bag Act 2011". He had raised the matter through a Private Members Debate previously and is believed to be responsible for Sinn Féin ensuring that the levy was included in the Executive's Budget in 2010. The current Environment Minister indicated in response to an Assembly question from McKay that the levy should be introduced through regulations by 2013.Online activity
McKay has his own blogsite and a Twitter page.Committees
- Education
- Enterprise, Trade & Investment
- Rasharkin Community Association
- Chair and Founding member of the Assembly All-Party Working Group on Climate Change
External links
- Councillor Daithí McKay MLA — Official Sinn Féin biography
- Petrol bomb thrown at village pub
- Minister considers action against Sinn Féin MLA
- Sinn Féin assembly member raises questions about visitor's centre at the Giant's Causeway — BBC News article
- Haulage firm 'used child labour' — BBC News article
- Sinn Fein man's home is attacked — BBC News article