Sinn Féin (/ˌʃɪnˈfɛɪn/ shin-FAYN; Irish: [ʃɪnʲ fʲeːnʲ]) is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party. Sinn Féin is led by Gerry Adams. Sinn Féin is the only party in Ireland which has elected representatives in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The party has historically been associated with the Provisional IRA.

Sinn Féin is currently the second-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, where it has four ministerial posts in the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and these include the departments of OFMDFM, Culture, Arts and Leisure, Agriculture and Rural Development and Education as well as the Junior Minister post. It is the fourth largest party in Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland, where it has 14 TDs. In the 2009 European Parliamentary elections the party's candidate in Northern Ireland, Bairbre de Brún, topped the poll, the first time for Sinn Féin in any Northern Ireland election. Sinn Féin also received the most votes of any party in Northern Ireland in the 2010 United Kingdom General Election, although the Democratic Unionist Party won more seats.

Tom Elliott MLA (born 11 December 1963) is a Northern Ireland Ulster Unionist MLA, the former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and a former UDR member. He beat Basil McCrea 643 votes to 296 in a leadership contest after the 2010 UK general election. In March 2012 he announced his intention to quit as leader and on 31 March was replaced by Mike Nesbitt.

Elliott was educated at Ballinamallard Primary School and Duke of Westminster High School, Ballinamallard & Kesh before attending the Enniskillen College of Agriculture where he earned a College Certificate in Agriculture.^{[citation needed]}

Elliott has been an activist in the Ballinamallard Ward Ulster Unionist committee for many years and is Chairman of that committee. He has also benn Honorary Secretary of the Fermanagh Divisional Unionist Association since 1998 and was Chairman of the internal Ulster Unionist ad-hoc Review Group for its duration.

Elliott was the election agent for James Cooper in 2001 Westminster campaign and in June of the same year was elected an Ulster Unionist Councillor on Fermanagh District Council representing Erne North. He was re-elected May 2005 but resigned to allow a Co-option in August 2010. In November 2003 he was elected as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly representing Fermanagh & South Tyrone, a position to which he was re-elected in March 2007 and May 2011. In this role he served as Ulster Unionist Assembly spokesperson on Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Currently Vice Chair of the Agricultural Committee in Stormont and also sits as a member of the Committee of the Office of the First and deputy First Minister.

Basil McCrea MLA (born 13 November 1959) is a unionist politician in Northern Ireland. He was elected in 2007 to the Northern Ireland Assembly as a Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) member for Lagan Valley. He unsuccessfully contested the 2005 UK General Election in Lagan Valley for the UUP. He is a UUP Councillor on Lisburn City Council and was, until his election to the Assembly, a Party Officer and spokesman for the Northern Ireland Manufacturers' Focus Group. He is currently a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board and UUP spokesman on Education. He was also a member of the Committee shadowing the Department for Employment and Learning but had to leave this committee due to overload of work.

He stood for leader of the Ulster Unionist Party against Tom Elliott in the contest after the UK 2010 General Election. He was widely seen as the candidate of the UUP's "liberal" wing, while Elliott was seen as the candidate of the "conservative" wing. He lost the election by 643 votes to 296.

McCrea was educated at Belfast Royal Academy before attaining a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Birmingham. He later attained a degree in Advanced Computer Technology from the University of Ulster.

Gerard "Gerry" Kelly (Irish: Gearóid Ó Ceallaigh, born 5 April 1953) is an Irish republican politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who played a leading role in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. He is currently a member of Sinn Féin's Ard Chomhairle (National Executive) and an MLA for North Belfast.

Kelly was born in the lower Falls Road, Belfast in 1953 into a family of 11 siblings. He was educated at primary school level by the De La Salle Christian Brothers at St. Finian's Roman Catholic Primary School, located in the Falls Road area of west Belfast which was also Gerry Adams' primary school. Kelly was educated to a secondary level at St Peter’s Secondary School in Britton’s Parade, Belfast.

Kelly became involved in physical force republicanism in 1972.

The IRA planted four car bombs in London on 8 March 1973. Two of the car bombs were defused but the other two exploded, one near the Old Bailey and the other at Scotland Yard. As a result of the explosions one person was killed and almost 200 people were injured.

Owen William Paterson (born 24 June 1956) is a British Conservative Party politician and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Shropshire.

Paterson was born in Whitchurch, Shropshire. He attended Abberley Hall School and Radley College, before going to Cambridge University, where he studied History at Corpus Christi College and graduated in 1978. He then went on to the National Leathersellers College (now the British School of Leather Technology at the University of Northampton).

He joined the British Leather Company in 1979, becoming Sales Director in 1983 and Managing Director from 1993 to 1999. He was President of COTANCE, the European Tanners Confederation from 1996–1998. He was a Director of Parsons and Sons leather company in Halesowen in the 1990s. Paterson is a Liveryman of the Leathersellers' Company.

He contested, but failed to win, the Wrexham seat in the 1992 general election. He is Member of Parliament for North Shropshire, being first elected at the 1997 general election and has won at all general elections there since.