Considered a party heavyweight, Conor Murphy is one of Sinn Féin’s most experienced representatives at Stormont.
The current economy minister, he is also the party’s chief negotiator having held two previous ministerial portfolios in finance and regional development.
Insiders say the 61-year-old’s departure from Northern politics will be a large blow to Sinn Féin’s Executive and Assembly operation.
The south Armagh man – he still lives in Camlough village – was first elected to Newry and Mourne District Council in 1989.
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Before entering local politics, he received a five-year prison sentence for IRA membership and possession of explosives in 1982.
The father of two joined the IRA as a teenager during the hunger strikes.
In 2005 he made history by becoming Sinn Féin’s first MP for Newry and Armagh in what was an SDLP stronghold for 20 years – with SDLP former deputy party leader and party veteran Seamus Mallon holding the seat until his retirement.
[ Sinn Féin Stormont minister Conor Murphy to run for Seanad next monthOpens in new window ]
Murphy became the first republican to address a Conservative Party conference (he did a tour of British political conferences following his MP win) and caused outrage when he refused to express regret for the IRA’s Brighton bombing and assassination attempt on Margaret Thatcher in 1984.
A former pupil of St Colman’s College, Newry, and a graduate of Queen’s University and University of Ulster, he was elected to the Assembly in 1998 and played a key role in the negotiations that led to the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
He also represented the party at crucial talks with the Irish and British governments that paved the way for Stormont’s return amid a string of collapses and political instability over the past two decades.
In 2007, he become embroiled in controversy following comments made in the wake of the murder of Paul Quinn, a 21-year-old from his constituency who was beaten to death in a barn near Oram, Co Monaghan. It is believed he was killed by the IRA.
Murphy had claimed in a BBC interview a month after the killing that the victim had links to criminality. In 2020, he apologised to the Quinn family for adding to their grief and said his remarks were “a matter of regret”.
Three months into his role as economy minister following the restoration of Stormont, Murphy temporarily stepped down on medical grounds in May.
He returned to work 20 days later and revealed he had suffered a mini-stroke.
“I had an incident while travelling with a temporary interruption in my brain which led to a loss of power down one side of my body,” he said at the time, adding that he was fortunate there were no lasting effects.
Post-recovery, Murphy has travelled extensively and led trade missions to Chicago, Toronto, Berlin and Singapore since the summer.
Regarded as a shoo-in for the Seanad post, he will quit his job in the Assembly once elected.
It is not known who will succeed him.
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