Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey (1947-present), also known as Bernadette Devlin and Bernadette McAliskey, is an Irish republican critic of the Belfast Agreement who served as a British Member of Parliament from 1969 to 1974.
In 1969, at the age of 21, Bernadette Devlin was the youngest woman ever to be elected to the British parliament, where she represented a predominantly nationalist Northern Ireland constituency. Her radical left-wing politics, coupled with her anti-clericalism, proved controversial. She also earned notoriety by physically assaulting Reginald Maudling, a senior Conservative Party minister, during a parliamentary debate. Her non-marital pregnancy while an MP also proved controversial. In 1974, she lost her seat.
In 1981, she and her husband were shot and seriously wounded by Loyalist paramilitaries who broke into her home.
McAliskey remains an active commentator and activist on the margins of Northern Irish politics, where she has expressed strong opposition to the Belfast Agreement and to Sinn Féin's entry into government in Northern Ireland. In 2003, she was banned from entering the United States by the administration of George W. Bush under anti-terrorist legislation, though McAliskey protested that she had no terrorist involvement.
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