Political beginnings She stood unsuccessfully against
James Chichester-Clark in the
1969 Northern Ireland general election. When
George Forrest, the MP for
Mid Ulster, died, she fought the
subsequent by-election on the "
Unity"
ticket, defeating the
Ulster Unionist Party candidate, Forrest's widow Anna, and was elected to the
Westminster Parliament. Aged 21, she was the
youngest MP at the time, and remained the youngest woman ever elected to Westminster until the
May 2015 general election when 20-year-old
Mhairi Black was elected. Devlin stood on the slogan "I will take my seat and fight for your rights" – signalling her rejection of the traditional
Irish republican principle of
abstentionism. On 22 April 1969, the day before her 22nd birthday, she swore the
Oath of Allegiance and made her
maiden speech within an hour.
Battle of the Bogside After engaging, on the side of the residents, in the
Battle of the Bogside in August, she was convicted of incitement to riot in December 1969, for which she served six months imprisonment. After being re-elected at the
1970 general election, Devlin declared that she would sit in Parliament as an independent
socialist.
US tour and meetings with Black Panthers film about
the Troubles. Almost immediately after the Battle of the Bogside, Devlin undertook a tour of the
United States in August 1969, a trip which generated a significant amount of media attention. She met with members of the
Black Panther Party in
Watts, Los Angeles and gave them her support. She made appearances on
Meet the Press and
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. At a number of speaking events, she made parallels between the struggle in the US by African Americans seeking civil rights and Catholics in Northern Ireland, sometimes to the embarrassment of her audience. During an event in
Philadelphia, she had to goad an African American singer to sing "
We Shall Overcome" to the Irish-American audience, many of whom refused to stand for the song. In
Detroit, she refused to take the stage until African Americans, who were barred from the event, were allowed in. In New York, Mayor John Lindsay arranged a ceremony to present Devlin with a
key to the city of New York. Devlin, frustrated with conservative elements of the
Irish-American community, left the tour to return to Northern Ireland and, believing the freedom of New York should go to the American poor, sent
Eamonn McCann to present the key on her behalf to a representative from the
Harlem chapter of the Black Panther Party. In September 1969, while still on tour, the Unionist
Stratton Mills dubbed Devlin "nothing less than
Fidel Castro in a miniskirt". Devlin responded by stating that Mills was a coward for waiting until she was abroad to make such a remark, but also that she was "as left as
James Connolly and the
starry plough". The two had a face-to-face debate in New York that month.
Bloody Sunday Having witnessed the
Bloody Sunday massacre in
Derry in 1972, Devlin was infuriated that she was later consistently denied the floor in the House of Commons by the Speaker
Selwyn Lloyd, despite the fact that parliamentary convention decreed that any Member of Parliament witnessing an incident under discussion would be granted an opportunity to speak about it. The day following Bloody Sunday, Devlin slapped
Conservative Home Secretary Reginald Maudling across the face when he falsely asserted in the House of Commons that the
Parachute Regiment had fired in self-defence on Bloody Sunday. Thirteen years later, former British Prime Minister
Edward Heath recalled the event: "I remember very well when an hon. Lady rushed from the Opposition Benches and hit Mr. Maudling. I remember that vividly because I thought that she was going to hit me. She could not stretch as far as that, so she had to make do with him." Devlin appeared on
Firing Line in 1972 to discuss the situation in Northern Ireland. In the same year she campaigned for a 'No' vote in
the referendum regarding the
Republic of Ireland's entry into the
European Economic Community.
Irish Republican Socialist Party Devlin helped to form the
Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) with
Seamus Costello in 1974. This was a revolutionary socialist breakaway from
Official Sinn Féin and, later that same day, Costello also created the
Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) as a split from the
Official Irish Republican Army. Devlin did not join the INLA and while she served on the party's national executive in 1975, she resigned when a proposal that the INLA become subordinate to the party executive was defeated. In 1977, she joined the
Independent Socialist Party, but it disbanded the following year.
Support for prisoners McAliskey stood as an
independent candidate in support of the prisoners on the
blanket protest and
dirty protest at
Long Kesh prison in the
1979 elections to the
European Parliament in the
Northern Ireland constituency, and won 5.9% of the vote. She was a leading spokesperson for the Smash H-Block Campaign, which supported the
hunger strikes in 1980 and 1981. In September 1981 McAliskey toured continental Europe to try and raise support for the strikers. She was deported from Spain immediately upon arrival at Barcelona airport. Instead, McAliskey flew to Paris and called upon French Trade Unions to place an embargo on handling British goods until the hunger strikes ended.
Attempted assassination On 16 January 1981, Devlin and her husband were attacked by members of the
Ulster Freedom Fighters, a cover name of the
Ulster Defence Association (UDA), who broke into their home near
Coalisland,
County Tyrone. The gunmen shot Devlin nine times in front of her children. British soldiers were watching the McAliskey home at the time, but they failed to prevent the assassination attempt. Allegations were subsequently made that elements of the security forces had colluded with the UDA in planning the botched assassination. An army patrol from
3 Para entered the house after waiting outside for half an hour. Devlin has claimed that the patrol "were there to make sure that the gunmen got into my house and that they were caught on the way out." Soldiers from the
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (ASH) then arrived and transported her by helicopter to a nearby hospital. The paramilitaries had torn out the telephone and, while the wounded couple were being given first aid by the newly arrived troops, an ASH soldier ran to a neighbour's house, commandeered a car, and drove to the home of a councillor to telephone for help. The couple were taken by helicopter to hospital in nearby
Dungannon for emergency treatment and then to the
Musgrave Park Hospital, Military Wing, in Belfast, under
intensive care. The attackers—
Ray Smallwoods, Tom Graham (38), both from
Lisburn, and Andrew Watson (25) from Seymour Hill, Dunmurry—were captured by the army patrol and subsequently jailed. All three were members of the South Belfast UDA. Smallwoods was the driver of the getaway car.
Dáil Éireann elections on
After Dark in 1988:
Licence to Kill? She twice failed, in
February and
November 1982, in attempts to be elected in
Dáil Éireann for
Dublin North-Central.
Funeral of Dominic McGlinchey In 1994, McAliskey attended the funeral of former
Irish National Liberation Army Chief of Staff
Dominic McGlinchey. The INLA had been the armed wing of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, which McAliskey had helped found. McAliskey kissed the coffin, which was carried by her, Sean McGlinchey, Dominic junior and Father O'Daly, who had given McGlinchey the last rites on Hardman's Gardens. During the funeral oration, she condemned the recent press coverage which had accused McGlinchey of drug dealing and criminality and said of the journalists responsible that they were "curs and dogs. May every one of them rot in hell. They have taken away Dominic McGlinchy's character and they will stand judgement for it. He was the finest Republican of them all. He never dishonoured the cause he believed in. His war was with the armed soldiers and the police of this state". Following this speech,
The Times reported that some of the mourners turned on the observing press corps and shouted abuse. A couple of months after the funeral, McAliskey explained her thinking to
The Guardian. Their reporter, David Sharrock, asked if her tirade had been intended to counteract the negative stories about McGlinchey that had recently appeared in the press. McAliskey said
South Tyrone Empowerment Programme McAliskey is chief executive of the
South Tyrone Empowerment Programme (STEP) and was involved in its founding in 1997. STEP provides a range of services and advocacy in areas including
community development, training, support and advice for migrants, policy work, and community enterprise.
Denied entry into the US In 2003 she was barred from entering the United States and deported on the grounds that the
United States Department of State had declared her to pose "a serious threat to the security of the United States" – apparently referring to her conviction for incitement to riot in 1969 – although she protested that she had no terrorist involvement and had frequently been permitted to travel to the United States in the past.
Later political activity On 12 May 2007, McAliskey was a guest speaker at the socialist republican political party
Éirígí's first Annual
James Connolly commemoration in
Arbour Hill, Dublin. She works with
migrant workers to improve their treatment in Northern Ireland. During the campaigning for the
2024 European Parliament election in Ireland, McAliskey endorsed
Clare Daly in the Dublin constituency. ==Political views==