Michael McGurk was a nationalist politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

 in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

.

McGurk became active in the Irish Home Rule

Home rule

Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....

 campaign in the early 1900s. He was subsequently elected to Tyrone County Council and Cookstown

Cookstown

Cookstown may refer to either of the following:*Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland*Cookstown, Ontario, Canada*Cookstown, New Jersey, United States...

 Rural District Council.

McGurk was elected to the Parliament of Northern Ireland

Parliament of Northern Ireland

The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended...

 as an Independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 Nationalist and Farmers' candidate at a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 in Mid Tyrone

Mid Tyrone (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

Mid Tyrone was a constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.-Boundaries:Mid Tyrone was a county constituency comprising the central part of County Tyrone. It was created when the House of Commons Act 1929 introduced first-past-the-post elections throughout Northern Ireland...

 in 1941. He held the seat at the Northern Ireland general election, 1945, and was active mainly on agricultural issues. In Parliament, he sat with the Nationalist Party

Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)

The Nationalist Party† - was the continuation of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and was formed after partition, by the Northern Ireland-based members of the IPP....

group.