Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
McAliskey in 2011
Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster
In office 17 April 1969 – 8 February 1974
Preceded by	George Forrest
Succeeded by	John Dunlop
Personal details
Born	Josephine Bernadette Devlin (1947-04-23) 23 April 1947 (age 78)[1] Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Independent Republican (1970–1974), (1976–1977), (1978–present)
Other political affiliations	Unity (1969–1970), Irish Republican Socialist Party (1974–1976), Independent Socialist Party (1977–1978)
Spouse	Michael McAliskey
Children	Róisín McAliskey Deirdre McAliskey
Alma mater	Queen's University Belfast

Josephine Bernadette McAliskey (née Devlin; born 23 April 1947), usually known as Bernadette Devlin or Bernadette McAliskey, is an Irish civil rights leader and former politician.^[2] She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Ulster in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1974. McAliskey came to national and international prominence at the age of 21 when she became the youngest female ever (at that time) to become a member of the British Parliament. McAliskey broke the traditional Irish republican policy of abstentionism and took her seat in Westminster.

McAliskey's term as an MP began at the outbreak of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict which would come to dominate Northern Ireland for the next 30 years. For the majority of that time, McAliskey was politically active, advocating for a 32-county socialist Irish republic to replace the two states on the island of Ireland. Originally linked to the People's Democracy group, McAliskey was later a founder of the Irish Republican Socialist Party. However, McAliskey left the party after a year when members voted that its paramilitary wing, the Irish National Liberation Army, did not have to obey the political wing.

McAliskey continued to be politically active, such as during the 1981 Irish hunger strike. It was during this period when she and her husband survived an assassination attempt by undercover members of the Ulster Defence Association, an Ulster loyalist paramilitary. She was shot nine times by gunmen in front of her children before being taken by helicopter to hospital for emergency treatment.

Since 1997 McAliskey has worked as the head of the South Tyrone Empowerment Programme, an NGO based in Dungannon which focuses on community development.