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.

Mary Lou McDonald (born 1 May 1969 in Dublin) is an Irish politician, the current Vice President of Sinn Féin and a Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin Central. McDonald was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), from 2004–2009 representing the Dublin constituency.

Mary Lou McDonald was educated in Trinity College, Dublin, the University of Limerick and Dublin City University studying English Literature, European Integration Studies and Human Resource Management. Her career to date has her involved in diverse roles, including consultant for the Irish Productivity Centre, Institute of European Affairs researcher and trainer in the Partnership Unit of the Educational and Training Services Trust.

Originally a member of Fianna Fáil, she left the party in 1998 in opposition to its economic and social policies. Her sister, Joanne, is a member of the republican group éirígí.

McDonald first ran for office when she unsuccessfully contested the Dublin West constituency for Sinn Féin at the 2002 general election polling 8.02% of first preference votes. She was an unsuccessful candidate in the Dublin Central constituency at the 2007 general election. She contested the Dublin Central again in the 2011 general election this time picking up 13.1% of first preference; she was successful in picking up the last seat in the constituency ahead of the Fianna Fáil candidate Mary Fitzpatrick.

Mary Lou (born March 15, 1992) is an American actress. She is known for playing Mary Ferry on the Nickelodeon television series Unfabulous.

At age 8, she chose to pursue a career in television and film.

Mary Lou’s show business career started at age six when she entertained as a member of Singing Solo (a children's singing group located in La Mesa, CA) at a local street fair with a rendition of The Good Ship Lollipop. After this performance, she chose acting as her career. Over the next few years, Lou went on to sing at over two dozen venues throughout Southern California, Texas and Tennessee, winning multiple local, state, regional, national and world championship titles.

Mary Lou also filmed a guest-starring role on Phil of the Future, as a math-nerd named Alex, in Good Phil Hunting. Mary also appeared on Future Girls: Adventures in Marine Biology and Bad Mother's Handbook and guest starred on What should you do?. More recently Mary was on Glee. She continues to audition daily for feature films, television and voiceover.