Sorcha-Lucy Eastwood is a Northern Irish politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lagan Valley since 2024. A member of the Alliance Party, she previously 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 Lagan Valley from 2022 until her election to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 2024.

Early life and education

Sorcha Eastwood was born in

Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

and has lived there her whole life. She has characterised her family as "political but not party political" and "very community-minded". She has a mixed

loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

and republican background, and her family volunteered across both communities. Eastwood describes her father as "a very violent man"; her experiences with domestic violence growing up were one of the factors that inspired her to get involved in politics. Her mother was

dyslexic Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writ ...

and left school at 15. She also has relatives with other disabilities, which sparked a lifelong interest in

disability rights The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all disabled people. It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advocates, around ...

. Eastwood herself suffers from

endometriosis Endometriosis is a disease in which Tissue (biology), tissue similar to the endometrium, the lining of the uterus, grows in other places in the body, outside the uterus. It occurs in women and a limited number of other female mammals. Endomet ...

. Eastwood attended St Joseph's Primary School and St Dominic's Grammar School for Girls in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. She studied law and politics for a year at university before dropping out and starting an apprenticeship in retail management at

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

, becoming one of their youngest store managers on a pilot scheme. She then studied

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

and

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

Ulster University Ulster University (; Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It i ...

, with a special interest in

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ' ...

and employment.

Political career

Early career (2017–2022)

Sorcha Eastwood ran in the

2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Thursday, 2 March 2017. The election was held to elect members ( MLAs) following the resignation of deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness in protest over the Renewable Heat Incentive sca ...

as an Alliance Party candidate in Belfast West. She received 747 first preference votes and was eliminated on the first count. She was an Alliance candidate again later that year, this time for the

2017 United Kingdom general election The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the 2015 United Kingdom general election, previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 United Kingdom general election, 1992 to be held ...

, running in Belfast West. She came 5th, with 731 votes, roughly maintaining Alliance's percentage share of the vote from the previous general election. She was elected in May 2019 as a councillor on

Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

, representing the district electoral area of Castlereagh South. In that election, she topped the poll with 1,629 first preference votes and was elected on the first count. Later that year, she was the Alliance Party candidate for Lagan Valley in the 2019 general election, polling 28.8% of the vote (an increase of 17.7%), coming second behind the DUP incumbent

Jeffrey Donaldson Sir Jeffrey Mark Donaldson (born 7 December 1962) is a Northern Irish former politician, who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 2021 to 2024 and leader of the DUP in the UK House of Commons from 2019 to 2024. He was t ...

, while reducing his majority from 19,229 to 6,499. In 2020, Eastwood was awarded compensation after suing a former DUP councillor for accusing her of being an "IRA mouthpiece".

Member of the Legislative Assembly (2022–2024)

Sorcha Eastwood, alongside David Honeyford, was an Alliance candidate for the 2022 Assembly election in Lagan Valley. She polled 8,211 first preference votes and was elected on the fourth count. She took the seat formerly held by Alliance Party turned Independent MLA

Trevor Lunn Trevor Lunn (born 29 June 1946) is a former Northern Irish politician who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Lagan Valley from 2007 to 2022. Formerly a member of the Alliance Party, Lunn resigned from the party in 2020, ...

, who did not run for re-election. She appeared on BBC '' Question Time'' for the first time on 19 October 2023 in

Member of Parliament (2024)

Eastwood ran again in Lagan Valley at the 2024 general election, winning the seat with 18,618 votes (37.9%), a majority of 2,959 (6.0%). She is the first non-unionist MP to be elected for the constituency. On 5 November 2024, Eastwood joined the

Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee The Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee (or simply the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The committee's remit is to examine the expenditure, admini ...

(NIAC).

Personal life

On 8 June 2017, Eastwood married Dale Shirlow in

. With her wedding on the same day as the 2017 UK general election, Eastwood cast an election ballot in her wedding dress. In 2023, she publicly criticised

Belfast City Hospital The Belfast City Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a 900-bed modern university teaching hospital providing local acute services and key regional specialities. Its distinctive orange tower block dominates the Belfast skyline being the th ...

where her husband was being treated for a rare blood cancer.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eastwood, Sorcha Living people Alliance Party of Northern Ireland MLAs Female members of the Northern Ireland Assembly Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Lagan Valley Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Northern Irish constituencies Alliance Party of Northern Ireland MPs Alliance Party of Northern Ireland councillors Women councillors in Northern Ireland 21st-century women politicians from Northern Ireland UK MPs 2024–present Date of birth missing (living people)