Rosemary Byrne

Rosemary Byrne (born 3 March 1948, Irvine, North Ayrshire) is a Scottish political figure. She a co-convenor of Solidarity (Scotland), along with Tommy Sheridan and a former Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South of Scotland (Scottish Parliament electoral region). She was elected as a representative of the Scottish Socialist Party in 2003, but lost her seat in the 2007 election after she and Tommy Sheridan left the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) to form Solidarity (Scotland).

Byrne lives in Irvine, and was a teacher and a trade union activist for several years. At one time she was president of Irvine Trades Council.

Scottish Parliament

In 2003 she was elected to the Scottish Parliament, and scored the SSP's best constituency vote outside Glasgow in Cunninghame South. At the time of the 2003 election she was arguably the least prominent of the SSP's six MSPs, and she was the only one of the six who was not already a member of the SSP executive. She was elected to the executive in early 2004, and at the February 2005 conference she was elected as one of the SSP's co-chairs. However she did not stand for re-election to this post or the executive committee at its conference in March 2006, stating that she was standing down for personal reasons.