Francie Molloy

Who is Francie Molloy?

Francie Molloy is a Sinn Féin politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Mid Ulster since 2013 and the Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Mid Ulster since 1998.

He first stood for Sinn Féin in Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the 1982 Assembly Elections, finishing sixth in the five-seat constituency. He was then elected to Dungannon council in 1985 representing the Torrent electoral area, centred on Coalisland. He retired from the council in 1989 but was re-elected in 1993 and has been a councillor since then.

Molloy stood unsuccessfully for Sinn Féin in the European election, 1994.

Molloy was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996 representing Mid-Ulster and then for the same constituency to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, 2003 and 2007.

In 2005, Molloy was temporarily suspended from Sinn Féin after publicly disagreeing with the party policy on eliminating many district councils, including the Dungannon Council of which he was a member.

In December 2012, Molloy was selected as the Sinn Féin candidate for the UK parliamentary constituency of Mid-Ulster, which had been held by his party colleague Martin McGuinness since the 1997 General election. The by election took place on 7 March 2013.