On returning to Northern Ireland in 1996, Gildernew was the second-placed but unsuccessful candidate for
Sinn Féin in the
Northern Ireland Forum elections for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. The following year, she was appointed Sinn Féin representative to London and was part of the first Sinn Féin delegation to visit
Downing Street. In the
1998 Assembly elections, she was elected
MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, retaining the seat in the
2003 and
2007 elections.
Election to Westminster In the
2001 UK general election, Gildernew was elected to
Parliament as Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, defeating the
Ulster Unionist candidate James Cooper
by 53 votes. She was the first female candidate elected from her party to the House of Commons in over 80 years since
Constance Markievicz in
1918. Like all Sinn Féin MPs, she followed a policy of
abstentionism and never took her seat in Westminster in the five times she was elected at the polls. In the
2005 election, she was re-elected and increased her majority to 4,582 votes. In the
2010 election, the
Democratic Unionists (DUP),
Ulster Conservatives and Unionists and
Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) all chose not to field candidates and she held her seat
by four votes against
Independent Unionist Rodney Connor. In October 2014, Sinn Féin announced that Gildernew would be the party's candidate in the
2015 Westminster election. She lost the seat by 530 votes to
Ulster Unionist Party candidate
Tom Elliott. According to the
Times Guide to the House of Commons, Gildernew was popular across the sectarian divide in one of Northern Ireland's most polarised constituencies. She won her seat back in
2017, beating Elliott by 875 votes. Elliott closed the gap to a mere 57 votes in
2019, making Fermanagh and South Tyrone the most marginal seat in the country. In 2019. Gildernew supported
John O'Dowd's unsuccessful bid to become
Vice President of Sinn Féin at the party's
ard fheis.
Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development During her time as Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Gildernew dealt with problems such as an outbreak of
bluetongue disease. She also increased cross-border co-operation with the
Republic of Ireland on farming issues.
2011 Irish presidential election In September 2011, the
Belfast Telegraph reported that Sinn Féin was considering Gildernew as their candidate for
that year's Irish presidential election. Sinn Féin would ultimately nominate
Martin McGuinness for president.
Support for Seán Quinn In a July 2012 interview for
The Impartial Reporter, Gildernew defended embattled businessman
Seán Quinn, saying that "[h]e has been treated disgracefully by the Irish Government. Had they not tried to strip him of all his assets, including his home, deny him the ability to function in business, and routinely try to humiliate him I believe he would have paid back every penny he owed to the Irish taxpayer". Quinn, the former head of the privately owned
Quinn Group (now Mannok), was declared bankrupt in January 2012. (With
loans worth around €1.2 billion from the
Anglo-Irish Bank, the Quinn group was exposed by its collapse and, on 30 March 2010, the
High Court appointed joint provisional administrators to Quinn Insurance.) Sinn Féin distanced themselves from Gildernew's comments with
Mary Lou McDonald stating that Seán Quinn had engaged in illegal business practices.
2024 European Parliament election and retirement from Westminster In January 2024, Gildernew was announced as one two Sinn Féin candidates for the
Midlands–North-West constituency at the
2024 European Parliament election in Ireland. In May 2024, she announced she would stand down as an MP at the
2024 general election, in order to focus on her campaign for the European elections. In the election, Gildernew received 45,807 (6.7%) first preferences votes but was not elected. Gildernew was one of five Sinn Féin paid employees to lose their jobs in May 2025 following a "radical" party restructuring. ==Personal life==