Sinn Fein Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Mitchel McLaughlin General Secretary and MLA Foyle

Mitchel McLaughlin lives in the Bogside area of Derry City with his wife Mary-Lou and they have three sons.

A member of the Party's Ard Chomhairle (National Executive), Mitchel i Sinn Fein's National Chairperson. In this role he plays a major role in overseeing the political development of the party.

Mitchel became politically active in the Civil Rights Association in 1968. He was also a leading member of the National H-Blocks Committee (a committee organised to campaign around the prison protests of the late 70's and early 80's).

He has played a central role in formulating Sinn Fein's current peace strategy and was instrumental in the drawing up of our two peace documents, Scenario for Peace (1989) and Towards a Lasting Peace in Ireland (1992). He is one of Sinn Fein's main spokespersons on the peace process and travels widely to speak on behalf of the party.

He was elected to Derry City Council in 1985 and as an Assembly member for Foyle in the 1998 elections. He was re-elected to the Assembly in November 2003.

In the last Assembly he was a member of the Environment Committee and is currently party spokesperson on the Environment. He polled 119,384 votes in the June 1999 European Union elections.