Liadh Ní Riada

She lost her seat at the 2019 European Parliament election.

On 16 September 2018, Ní Riada was selected by Sinn Féin to contest the upcoming Irish presidential election. The party, in deciding to challenge incumbent Michael D. Higgins, said there was "an appetite for political and social change" in Ireland.

Ni Ríada received 6.38% of first preference votes in the election which was held on 26 October 2018.

On the committee on Culture and Education, Ní Riada has highlighted what she called the "language discrimination" in the EU. Through this committee, she has highlighted what she called the "hardships" many artists have to go through to earn a living. Since 2017 Ní Riada has been a member of the Culture and Educations Brexit monitoring group.

Ní Riada ran her 2014 campaign for the European Parliament on an anti-austerity message, calling for job creation and an end to forced emigration from Ireland. During the campaign, she also raised awareness of the increase in child poverty in Ireland, and the need for rural regeneration. She secured 125,309 first preference votes, the second highest of all MEPs in Ireland, and was elected on the fourth count with 132,590 votes.

Ní Riada's involvement in politics began in 2011 when she joined Sinn Féin as the party's national Irish language officer, having been inspired by her first husband Fiachra to get involved in politics. Three years later, in 2014, Ní Riada was selected as the Sinn Féin candidate for the South constituency for the 2014 European Parliament elections.

Ní Riada was born in Dublin, but raised in County Cork. Ní Riada is the daughter of composer Seán Ó Riada, who died when she was four. Her mother died when she was 10. She resides in Ballyvourney in the Muskerry Gaeltacht area in County Cork, with her second husband, Nicky Forde, and three daughters. She was married to Fiachra Ó hAodha for 10 months until his death in 1997. She is a native Irish speaker.

Liadh Ní Riada (pronounced [ˈl̠ʲiə n̠ʲiː ˈɾʲiəd̪ˠə]; born 28 November 1966) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who formerly served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South constituency from 2014 to 2019. She was the Sinn Féin candidate in the 2018 presidential election. As of July 2020, Ní Riada is an Irish language planning officer for the Gaeltacht in Muskerry, County Cork.