Justin McNulty MLA (born 15 November 1974) is an Irish politician, a

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

, and a former player at

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

level for the Armagh county team. He has served as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nation ...

(MLA) for Newry and Armagh since

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

. McNulty played football for the Mullaghbawn Cúchullain's club in Armagh and also played at senior level for the Armagh county team from 1995 to 2005. He won an

All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship (SFC) () is the premier inter-county competition in Gaelic football. County (Gaelic games), County teams compete against each other and the winner is declared All-Ireland Champions. Organised by the ...

(SFC) medal in 2002 while playing in the full-back position.

Sporting career

The Lislea-born McNulty played for Mullaghbawn alongside his twin brother Paul and their younger brother, Enda. Justin made his senior

inter-county Inter-county, is Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) List of Gaelic games terminology, terminology which refers to competitions or matches between County (Gaelic games), counties, as used in Gaelic games (differently from legal counties). The term c ...

debut for

Armagh Armagh ( ; , , " Macha's height") is a city and the county town of County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the Primates of All ...

in 1995 in a league game against

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia ** Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

. He won 5 Ulster SFC medals and won an All-Ireland SFC medal when Armagh defeated Kerry by a scoreline of 1–12 to 0–14 in the 2002 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final. In 2005 McNulty retired from inter-county football. Management followed soon after and Justin led Mullahoran Dreadnoughts to a Cavan Senior Football Championship title in 2006. The following year Justin managed St Brigid's GAA (Dublin), who was narrowly beaten in the 2007 Dublin County Final by St Vincent's who went on to win the All Ireland. In late 2009 he was appointed as an Armagh selector under the management of Paddy O'Rourke. In August 2010, after Seán Dempsey resigned as

Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

manager, McNulty was appointed as his successor. McNulty's first season proved a success as Laois gained

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the top tier of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

, despite losing the league decider to Donegal. McNulty left Laois in August 2013. While still an MLA, McNulty was reappointed as Laois manager in 2023.

Political career

McNulty contested his home constituency of Newry and Armagh for the

SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs ...

in the 2015 general election. Despite losing to

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

candidate Mickey Brady, McNulty polled 12,026 votes, a 24.1% share which represented a 1500 vote increase on the previous election. McNulty was elected to the 6th Northern Irish Assembly on 3 March 2017 for the

. In the general election of 2017, McNulty saw his share of the vote drop to 16.9% Newry and Armagh with his Sinn Féin rivals vote increasing by 6.8%. In the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, McNulty's vote share fell further to 10.8%. The impact of independent candidate Gavin Malone standing in the election, appears to have both candidates fighting for the same share of the vote in the Newry area. On 3 February 2024, which saw the restoration of the Executive, McNulty left Stormont "without seeking permission" to attend a GAA match in County Wexford as the manager of the Laois football team. The SDLP subsequently suspended McNulty and he sat as an

Independent Nationalist Independent Nationalist () is a political title frequently used by Irish nationalists when contesting elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Great Britain and Ireland not as members of the Irish Parliamentary Party, in the lat ...

. McNulty had the SDLP whip restored on 20 August 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McNulty, Justin 1974 births Living people Armagh county football team non-playing personnel Armagh inter-county Gaelic footballers Gaelic football backs Gaelic football managers Gaelic football selectors Irish sportsperson-politicians Laois county football team non-playing personnel Mullaghbawn Gaelic footballers Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027 Politicians from County Armagh Politicians affected by a party expulsion process Social Democratic and Labour Party MLAs Sportspeople from County Armagh Winners of one All-Ireland medal (Gaelic football)