About Mary Lou McDonald
Mary Louise McDonald (born 1 May 1969) is an Irish politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition in Ireland since June 2020, as President of Sinn Féin since February 2018, and as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency since 2011. She previously served as vice president of Sinn Féin from 2009 to 2018 and as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency from 2004 to 2009. On 10 February 2018, following a special ardfheis (party conference) in Dublin, McDonald succeeded Gerry Adams to become Sinn Féin's first new leader since 1983 and the party's first female leader since Margaret Buckley (president from 1937 to 1950). She led the party into the 2020 general election, in which Sinn Féin delivered its best ever general election performance, attaining 24.5 percent of the vote and winning 37 seats in Dáil Éireann, one fewer than Fianna Fáil and two more than Fine Gael. Following Micheál Martin's appointment as Taoiseach in June 2020, after the formation of a Fianna Fáil, Green Party and Fine Gael coalition government, McDonald became Leader of the Opposition. She is the first woman to occupy that position and the first to come from a party other than Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael since the Labour Party's Thomas Johnson in 1927. McDonald started her political career by first joining Fianna Fáil in 1998, but she left the party after a year due to core policy differences, particularly in relation to Northern Ireland and social justice. In 2004, McDonald became Sinn Féin's first MEP in Ireland, when she was elected at the 2004 European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency, receiving over 60,000 first preference votes.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.