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.

Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish Fine Gael politician, and has been the Taoiseach since 2011. He has led Fine Gael since 2002. He served as Minister for Tourism and Trade from 1994 to 1997. He is also a two-term Vice President of the European People's Party.

Kenny has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for Mayo since 1975, having succeeded his father Henry Kenny. He is the longest-serving TD currently in Dáil Éireann, which makes him the incumbent Father of the Dáil.

Kenny led Fine Gael in the 2011 general election. He subsequently brokered an agreement with the Labour Party and formed a coalition government on 9 March 2011. He is Fine Gael's first Taoiseach since John Bruton from 1994 to 1997, and the first Fine Gael leader to win government in an election since Garret FitzGerald in 1982.

Enda Kenny was born in the village of Islandeady near Castlebar, County Mayo in 1951, the third child of five. He was educated locally at St. Patrick's National School in Cornanool and St. Gerald's College (De La Salle) in Castlebar. Kenny subsequently attended St Patrick's College of Education in Dublin and University College Galway. He briefly worked as a primary school teacher, and is a Gaeilgeoir.

Gerry Adams (Irish: Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála (TD) for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern Ireland and the largest nationalist party. From the late 1980s onwards, Adams was an important figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, initially following contact by the then Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader John Hume and subsequently with the Irish and British governments and then other parties. In 2005, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) indicated that its armed campaign was over and that it is now exclusively committed to democratic politics. Under Adams, Sinn Féin changed its traditional policy of abstentionism towards Oireachtas Éireann, the parliament of the Republic of Ireland, in 1986 and later took seats in the power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly. However, Sinn Féin retains a policy of abstentionism towards the Westminster Parliament, but since 2002, receives allowances for staff and takes up offices in the House of Commons.

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.