Bairbre de Brún
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Bairbre de Brún (born 10 January 1954) is a former Irish Sinn Féin politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Northern Ireland from 2004 to 2012.<ref name="Parlaimint">Bairbre de Brún Template:Webarchive EU Parliament website</ref>
Political work
Born in Dublin on 10 January 1954,<ref name="Parlaimint" /> de Brún began her political career as a member of the National Committee Against the H-Blocks & Armagh Gaol in the late 1970s and early 1980s, focusing heavily on the treatment of women in Armagh Gaol.<ref name="sinnfein1">Template:Cite web</ref> De Brún became an early member of Sinn Féin's Ard Chomhairle (Template:Langx) and in 1998 became an MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly, representing West Belfast. She was Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.
By profession, de Brún was a teacher and taught in the Irish-medium education sector in west Belfast.<ref name="sinnfein1"/> She was also a French and German teacher and is noted for her devotion to the Irish language.Template:Citation needed She has lived in the Andersonstown area of Belfast since the early 1980s. She is a fluent Irish speaker and an expert in human rights and equality issues. De Brún is also a member of the Sinn Féin negotiating team and travelled internationally on numerous occasions to promote the Irish peace process.<ref name="europa1">Template:Cite web</ref>
She was a member of the Environment and Petitions Committee in the European Parliament and a substitute member of the Regional Development Committee. Following the 2004 Euro elections she was one of two Sinn Féin MEPs and the first Sinn Féin politician to represent Northern Ireland in the European Parliament. She sat with the European United Left - Nordic Green Left.<ref name="europa1"/> She topped the poll in the Northern Ireland constituency of the European Parliament in the 2009 European elections, a first for a nationalist or republican party.
She has also been a strong supporter of the Irish language and its use globally, and was one of the only MEPs to use Irish as her primary language, rarely making speeches within the parliament in English.Template:Citation needed
De Brún was a member of the Regional Policy Committee in the European Parliament and a substitute member of the Environment Committee. Within the EU parliament she focused on environmental issues.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She was part of an EU delegation that attended the 2011 Durban Climate Change Conference.<ref>Summary Note: Delegation to the 17th Session of the Conference on Climate Change.</ref> She was critical of the final report of the conference saying "We need to recognise that even the best possible outcome from Durban still only takes us half way down the road we need to travel".<ref>Conference backs 'fragile' deal on climate change Template:Webarchive. Irish Times, 12 December 2011.</ref>
She resigned from the European Parliament in May 2012 for "personal reasons" although it was reported that she intended on remaining active within the party.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was succeeded by Martina Anderson, an MLA for Foyle.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
References
External links
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- 1954 births
- Living people
- Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003
- Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007
- Ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive (since 1999)
- Sinn Féin MLAs
- Politicians from Dublin (city)
- Women in The Troubles (Northern Ireland)
- 21st-century women MEPs for Northern Ireland
- Female members of the Northern Ireland Assembly
- Sinn Féin MEPs
- MEPs for Northern Ireland 2004–2009
- MEPs for Northern Ireland 2009–2014
- Women ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive
- 20th-century women politicians from Northern Ireland
- 21st-century women politicians from Northern Ireland