Sheelagh Mary Murnaghan, (26 May 1924 – 14 September 1993) was an

Ulster Liberal Party The Ulster Liberal Party was a liberal and non-sectarian political party in Northern Ireland linked to the British Liberal Party. The party was officially neutral on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland. Members expressed different v ...

Member of Parliament (MP) in the

House of Commons of Northern Ireland The House of Commons of Northern Ireland was the lower house of the Parliament of Northern Ireland created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. The upper house in the bicameral parliament was called the Senate. It was abolished with the ...

at Stormont from 1962 to 1969.

Early life

Sheelagh Mary Murnaghan was born on 24 May 1924 to Josephine Mary Morrogh and Vincent Hugh Murnaghan. She was the eldest of their six children. Her grandfather,

George Murnaghan George Murnaghan (4 July 1847 – 13 January 1929) was an Irish Nationalist member of parliament in the parliament of the United Kingdom. He represented the Mid Tyrone constituency from the 1895 United Kingdom general election, until the January ...

was a well-known nationalist politician in Ireland. She was educated at Loreto Grammar School in Omagh,

Loreto Abbey Rathfarnham () is a southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland in County Dublin. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is between the local government areas of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown ...

in Rathfarnham and studied law in

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, graduating in 1947. While studying in Queen's University, Murnaghan also captained the hockey team from 1955 to 1956 and was the president of the Literary and Scientific Debating Society; also known as The Literific.

Political career

After graduating from college, Murnaghan became " neof only nine women ever elected to the fifty-two-seat Stormont House of Commons during its fifty-year existence". She became a member of the Ulster Liberal Association in 1959 and finished her political career in November 1968 when the seat for Queen's University Belfast was abolished. "Sheelagh was seen as a slightly eccentric figure", according to Ruth Illingworth, during her time as a politician. While an MP, Murnaghan campaigned to abolish the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

and for a bill of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

. When her seat was abolished, she failed to win North Down at the

1969 Northern Ireland general election The 1969 Northern Ireland general election was held on Monday 24 February 1969. It was the last election to the Parliament of Northern Ireland before its abolition by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. This was the first (and only) el ...

, and was also unsuccessful in Belfast South at the

1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 1973 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly took place following the publication of the British government's white paper ''Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals'' which proposed a 78-member Northern Ireland Assembly (1973), Northern ...

. During the 1970s, she sat on various quangos, including the Industrial Relations Tribunal and the Equal Opportunities Commission. She continued to practice at the Bar, specialising in harassment cases. She died in 1993, aged 69, from undisclosed causes.

References

External links

Biographies of Members of the Northern Ireland House of Commons
https://liberalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/71_Rynder_Sheelagh_Murnaghan.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Murnaghan, Sheelagh 1924 births 1993 deaths Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Women members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland Members of the Bar of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1958–1962 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1962–1965 Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 1965–1969 Barristers from Northern Ireland Officers of the Order of the British Empire Politicians from Belfast Politicians from Dublin (city) People from Omagh Place of death missing Ulster Liberal Party members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland 20th-century lawyers from Northern Ireland Female field hockey players from Northern Ireland Irish female field hockey players British female field hockey players Members of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland for Queen's University of Belfast Ireland international women's field hockey players Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Lawyers from County Dublin Field hockey players from County Dublin People educated at Loreto Grammar School, Omagh 20th-century women lawyers from Northern Ireland 20th-century sportswomen from Northern Ireland