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Emma Sheerin

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Emma Sheerin
Sheerin in 2021
Member of the Legislative Assembly
for Mid Ulster
Assumed office
4 December 2018
Preceded byIan Milne
Personal details
Born1991 or 1992 (age 33–34)
County Londonderry, Northern Ireland
PartySinn Féin

Emma Sheerin (born 1991/92)[1] is an Irish Sinn Féin politician from Draperstown, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. She has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly MLA for Mid Ulster since 2018.[1][2]

Early life and education

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Sheerin grew up in Ballinascreen and attended St Colm's High School.[3] She studied Philosophy, politics and economics at Queen's University Belfast.[3][4] She joined Sinn Féin as a teenager. After university she worked in retail and as a compliance officer at Citibank, then as a constituency support officer for Francie Molloy, the Mid Ulster MP.[4][3]

Political career

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Sheerin's Mid Ulster constituency, west of Lough Neagh and containing Magherafelt, Coalisland and Cookstown.[5]

In December 2018, Sheerin was elected as a member of and Sinn Féin's Cúige Uladh Officer Board and the Ard Chomhairle.[4][3]

In November 2018, at the age of 26, she was co-opted to the Northern Ireland Assembly to replace Ian Milne, who stood down to contest the 2019 local elections.[1] She took her seat on 4 December 2018.[2] She chaired the Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee on a Bill of Rights from March 2020 to February 2022,[2] and served as Sinn Féin's spokesperson on equality.[4]

In January 2022 Sheerin apologised after a tweet she had posted a decade earlier, prior to her entering politics, resurfaced. The tweet referred to Martin McGuinness's meeting with Queen Elizabeth II; Sheerin called her language "totally unacceptable", and party vice-president Michelle O'Neill described the comments as offensive.[6]

At the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election she was re-elected in Mid Ulster with 8,215 first-preference votes (15.9%).[7] In the 7th Assembly she sat on the Committee for the Executive Office and the Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee from February 2024, and on the Committee for the Economy in 2025. Since November 2025 she has been deputy chair of the Committee for Justice and a member of the Audit Committee and the Committee on Standards and Privileges.[2]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 "Sinn Féin co-opt Emma Sheerin in Mid Ulster". The Irish News. 24 November 2018. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "MLA Details: Ms Emma Sheerin". Northern Ireland Assembly. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Emma Sheerin MLA". Sinn Féin. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "50:50 NI Meets Emma Sheerin". 50:50 NI. 23 November 2020. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  5. ↑ "Mid Ulster constituency profile: Jobs the major talking point". The Irish Times.
  6. ↑ "Sinn Féin MLA trio sorry for 'unacceptable' tweets". The Irish Times. 26 January 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
  7. ↑ "Mid Ulster". Northern Ireland Elections. ARK. Retrieved 1 October 2026.
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