Pádraig Delargy has announced that he will not be standing in next year’s Assembly election.
The Sinn Féin MLA for Foyle was first co-opted to the Assembly in 2021 after a party restructure in the North West, then subsequently re-elected in 2022 alongside Ciara Ferguson.
Delargy confirmed that he is moving away from the constituency, and that he could not continue whilst “living 100 miles away”.
In a statement, the MLA said: “It has been the honour of my life to serve the people of Derry, to represent Sinn Féin and to advance the struggle for Irish unity.”
“I am forever indebted to our party leadership, nationally and locally, to my Assembly colleagues, Derry Comhairle Ceantair and to our activists for their unrelenting support. Thank you for this amazing opportunity,” he added.
“I am eternally grateful to my family for all their support. Early next year we are moving from Derry. For me, an MLA is about being in your community, at the heart of that community and all that happens there.”
“That is not something I can do effectively living 100 miles away therefore I have made the very difficult decision not to seek re-election in 2027. While I will continue as an MLA for the coming months, I have made this decision as early as possible so that we can plan for continued growth and a successful election in 2027.”
The former primary school teacher said that seeing Michelle O’Neill as First Minister was a highlight of his tenure. He said: “To have played a part in delivering Sinn Féin’s largest ever electoral success and ensuring Michelle O’Neill is the first Republican to hold the position of First Minister is something we did together. We were born into a system designed to ensure that would never happen. We broke that mould.”
Sinn Féin currently hold two of the five Assembly seats in Foyle, alongside two SDLP MLAs and one DUP.
