The Omagh bombing was a car bombing on 15 August 1998 in the town of Omagh in County Tyrone,Northern Ireland. It was carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army,a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) splinter group who opposed the IRA's ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement,signed earlier in the year. The bombing killed 29 people and injured about 220 others,making it the deadliest incident of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Telephoned warnings which did not specify the location had been sent almost forty minutes beforehand,and police inadvertently moved people toward the bomb.
The UK Unionist Party (UKUP) was a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2008 that opposed the Good Friday Agreement. It was nominally formed by Robert McCartney,formerly of the Ulster Unionist Party,to contest the 1995 North Down by-election and then further constituted to contest the 1996 elections for the Northern Ireland Forum. McCartney had previously contested the 1987 general election as an independent using the label Real Unionist.
The 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday,26 November 2003,after being suspended for just over a year. It was the second election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. Each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies elected six members by single transferable vote,giving a total of 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The election was contested by 18 parties and many independent candidates.
The Northern Ireland Policing Board is the police authority for Northern Ireland,charged with supervising the activities of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). It is a non-departmental public body composed of members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and independent citizens who are appointed by the Minister of Justice using the Nolan principles for public appointments.
West Tyrone is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Órfhlaith Begley,a member of Sinn Fein,since the 2024 United Kingdom general election.
Mid Ulster is a parliamentary constituency in the UK House of Commons. The current MP is Cathal Mallaghan,of Sinn Féin,who was first elected at the 2024 election.
Kieran Deeny is a medical doctor turned politician from Northern Ireland. Deeny was a Designated Other Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for West Tyrone (MLA) from 2003 to 2011,having run on a single issue ticket of retaining the Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh.
Thomas Beatty Elliott is a Northern Irish unionist politician,life peer and farmer who was leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 2010 to 2012,and has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone since 2022,having previously served from 2003 to 2015. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 2015 to 2017. He was a soldier in the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) from 1982 to 1992 and its successor the Royal Irish Regiment from 1992 to 1999. He backed a Leave vote in the 2016 EU membership referendum. He was appointed to the House of Lords in the 2024 Dissolution Honours on the 4th July 2024.
Thomas Buchanan is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician,serving as a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for West Tyrone since 2003. Buchanan is the DUP Spokesperson for Victims Rights and Groups Liaison. He is also one of the DUP's members of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
Derek Robert Hussey is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician,serving as a Derry and Strabane Councillor for the Derg DEA since 2014. Hussey was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for West Tyrone from 1998 to 2007.
Columba Barry McElduff is an Irish Sinn Féin politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the West Tyrone UK parliament constituency. He was also a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Northern Ireland Assembly from its creation in 1998 until his election as MP in 2017. He resigned his seat on 16 January 2018 after publishing a video of himself balancing a Kingsmill loaf on his head,on the date of the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre.
James Andrew Spratt was a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician and police officer from Northern Ireland. He was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for South Belfast from 2007 to 2015.
Allan Bresland is a retired Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician who was a Derry and Strabane Councillor for the Sperrin DEA from 2014 to 2023. He was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for West Tyrone from 2007 to 2011.
Major Samuel Foster was an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician who served in the Northern Ireland Executive from 1998 to 2002,and was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 1998 to 2003.
Basil McCrea is a former Northern Irish politician. He was the party leader of NI21 from 2013 until it disbanded in 2016. He was also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Lagan Valley from 2007 to 2016.
The 2005 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 5 May 2005 and all 18 seats in Northern Ireland were contested. 1,139,993 people were eligible to vote,down 51,016 from the 2001 general election. 63.49% of eligible voters turned out,down 5.1 percentage points from the last general election.
A by-election for the UK House of Commons constituency of Mid Ulster in Northern Ireland was held on 7 March 2013. The election was triggered by the resignation of Martin McGuinness,who had been elected to the seat in 1997 as the Sinn Féin candidate. The election was won by Francie Molloy,also of Sinn Féin.
Margaret Elizabeth Rosemary Barton is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician and former schoolteacher who was a Fermanagh and Omagh Councillor for the Mid Tyrone DEA from 2022 to 2023,having previously represented Erne North from 2014 to 2016. Barton was also a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 2016 to 2022.
A by-election was held in the UK Parliament constituency of West Tyrone on 3 May 2018,following the resignation of Barry McElduff,who had been the Member of Parliament (MP) since 2017. McElduff had become embroiled in a social media controversy which had resulted in his suspension from Sinn Féin on 8 January. He announced his resignation on 15 January 2018.
Deborah Erskine is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician from Northern Ireland. She was elected as a councillor for Erne North in the 2019 Fermanagh and Omagh District Council election,and has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone since 11 October 2021. Erskine is the DUP Spokesperson for Promoting the Union with Young People and New Communities.
