Liadh Ní Riada

Liadh Ní Riada
MEP
Member of the European Parliament
Assumed office
1 July 2014
Constituency South
Personal details
Born (1966-11-28) 28 November 1966
Dublin, Ireland
Political party  Irish: Sinn Féin
 EU: GUE/NGL
Spouse(s) Fiachra Ó hAodha
(m. 1996; d. 1997)
Nicky Forde (m. 2012)
Relations Seán Ó Riada (Father)
Children 3
Alma mater
Website Official website
Campaign website

Liadh Ní Riada (pronounced [ˈl̠ʲiə niː ˈɾʲiəd̪ˠə]; born 28 November 1966) is an Irish politician who has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland since 2014. She is a member of Sinn Féin, part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) political group in the European Parliament.[1] She was selected by Sinn Féin to contest in the presidential election to be held on 26 October 2018[2]

Personal life

Ní Riada was born in Dublin and was raised in West Cork. Ní Riada is the daughter of composer Seán Ó Riada, who died when she was four. Her mother died when she was 10.[3] She resides in Ballyvourney in the Muskerry Gaeltacht in County Cork, with her second husband, Nicky Forde, and three daughters. She was married to Fiachra Ó hAodha for 10 months until his death in 1997.[3] She is a native speaker of the Irish language.[4]

Media career

Ní Riada is a former television producer and director and she served on the board tasked with setting up TG4, the Irish language television channel. She has directed and produced several documentaries, and ran her own production company for several years. Ní Riada has described herself as passionate about heritage and culture, and she has been a vocal advocate for Irish language rights.

Politics

Ní Riada joined Sinn Féin in 2011 as the party’s national Irish language officer. In 2014 Ní Riada was selected as the Sinn Féin candidate for Ireland South for the 2014 European Parliament elections.

European Parliament

Ní Riada ran her 2014 campaign on an anti-austerity message, calling for job creation and an end to forced emigration from Ireland. During the campaign, she also raised awareness of the increase in child poverty in Ireland, and the need for rural regeneration.

Ní Riada was elected to the European Parliament in May 2014 having secured 125,309 first preference votes, the second highest of all MEPs in Ireland. She was elected on the fourth count with 132,590 votes.[5]

Ní Riada sits on three Committees of the European Parliament: Budgets (BUDG), Culture and Education (CULT), and Fisheries (PECH). She is a coordinator for the GUE/NGL group on the Budgets Committee. She has called for the committee to take a more social approach towards the EU Budget and has condemned the EUs move towards militarisation and its increase in military spending. On the committee on Culture and Education, Ní Riada has highlighted what she called the "language discrimination" in the EU. Through this committee, she has highlighted what she called the "hardships" many artists have to go through to earn a living. Since 2017 Ní Riada has been a member of the Culture and Educations Brexit monitoring group. On the Fisheries Committee, she has called for a "fairer deal" for Irish fishermen. Ní Riada has been critical of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), saying that she believes Irish fisheries have not received their fair share of the fishing quota. Ní Riada has also campaigned for measures to reduce plastic pollution, particularly in the oceans.

2018 presidential election

On 16 September 2018, Ní Riada was selected by Sinn Féin to contest in the upcoming Irish presidential election.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Seán Ó Riada Collection Descriptive List" (PDF). University College Cork Library. July 2006. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Sinn Féin nominates Liadh Ní Riada to contest the Presidential Election". RTÉ. 16 September 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Liadh Ní Riada named as Sinn Féin candidate for presidency". The Irish Times. 17 September 2018.
  4. ↑ "Liadh Ní Riada MEP". SinnFéin.ie. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  5. ↑ Roche, Barry (26 May 2014). "Ireland South: Crowley and Ní Riada elected". The Irish Times. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.