Eddie McGrady (SDLP)

Born in Co Down in 1935, Eddie McGrady was educated at St Patrick's Grammar School, Downpatrick and Belfast Technical College and is a chartered accountant by profession. Married with three children, he was elected to Downpatrick Urban District Council in 1963 and then served on Down District Council between 1973 and 1989.

A Member of Parliament for South Down since 1987, he was a member of Parliamentary Groups on homelessness and the environment and was appointed to Northern Ireland Select Affairs Committee in 1994. He was elected to the New Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998 and was a member of the Business Committee. He did not contest the 2003 assembly elections.

He became Chair of the SDLP in 1970 and was a member of the talks team at the Inter-party talks in 1991. He has been SDLP Parliamentary Chief Whip since 1988 and is Spokesperson on Housing, Environment and Local Housing. His interests include Housing; Economy; Environment; Local Government and Inward Investment.

<< Back to NI MPs

Lady Sylvia Hermon (UUP)

Sylvia Paisley was born in 1956 in Tyrone.   She has a first degree in law and was a constitutional lawyer in the Law Department in Queen's University Belfast at the same time as David Trimble MP, MLA. She is married to the former Chief Constable of the RUC Jack Hermon and they have two sons.

She joined the Ulster Unionist Party in 1998 as she was impressed by the party performance in the talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement. She became a member of the Party Executive in 1999 and was selected to contest the seat for North Down in the June 2001 General Election when she unseated leader of the United Kingdom Unionist Party Robert McCartney MLA by over 7,000 votes.   She was the first declared woman MP for Northern Ireland in thirty years and the first for North Down since the 1950s.

She was Chair of the UUP branch in North Down from 2001-2003. In 2001 s he was appointed UUP Spokesperson for Youth and Women's Issues, Home Affairs and Trade and Industry. She subsequently lost the Trade and Industry portfolio and took responsibility for Culture, Media and Sport in 2002.

In 2000 she was appointed to Patten Report Criminal Justice Review. She has been a member and Vice Chair of the All-Party Police Group since 2002, the Dignity at Work Group since 2003 and joined the Pensioner Incomes Group in 2004.  

In 2005 she fought off the DUP's Peter Weir to keep her seat as the only UUP representative in Westminster.  Her interests include Health, Education, Human Rights, Policing and European Affairs.

<< Back to NI MPs