Sinn Fein selects candidate for West Tyrone by-election
Orfhlaith Begley hopes to succeed Barry McElduff following his resignation.
Sinn Fein has announced its candidate for a Westminster seat left vacant after one of its MPs resigned over a Twitter video posted on the anniversary of a Troubles massacre.
Solicitor Orfhlaith Begley is to contest the West Tyrone by-election, aiming to succeed Barry McElduff who resigned last month.
The 26-year-old from Carrickmore was chosen at a selection convention held on Sunday in Omagh.
She said: “If elected MP for West Tyrone I pledge that I will be an MP for all, that I will work without fear or favour for all the people of this constituency.”
Mr McElduff resigned after he posed with a Kingsmill-branded loaf on his head on the anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre.
The abstentionst MP, who had already been suspended by his party for three months, said staying in the job would have impeded efforts to forge reconciliation in Northern Ireland.
Mr McElduff has insisted that he had not meant the video as a reference to the sectarian murders of 10 protestant workmen by republican paramilitaries near the south Armagh village of Kingsmill in 1976.
However, he acknowledged the post had caused “deep and unnecessary hurt” to the Kingsmill families.
