Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Northern Ireland Assembly
Which position did Barry McElduff hold from Mar 2007 to Mar 2011?
Barry McElduff Columba Barry McElduff ( ; born 16 August 1966 ) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician . He was the Member of Parliament ( MP ) for the West Tyrone UK parliament constituency . He was also a Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Northern Ireland Assembly from its creation in 1998 until his election as MP in 2017 . He resigned his seat on 16 January 2018 after publishing a video which was seen to be mocking the Kingsmill massacre . Early life . McElduff was born on 16 August 1966 in County Tyrone , Northern Ireland , and was raised in the Aghagogan townland . He was educated at the Christian Brothers Grammar School in Omagh , before attending Queens University Belfast . He became an Irish republican activist for Sinn Féin . Career . In 1992 McElduff was given an 18-month suspended sentence for assisting the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) in the false imprisonment of a suspected police informer . At the 1992 general election , he unsuccessfully contested Mid Ulster . He was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum for the West Tyrone constituency in 1996 , and has since held this seat on the Northern Ireland Assembly . McElduff has chaired the Culture , Arts and Leisure Committee of the Assembly and has served previously on other committees , including Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister , Education and Employment and Learning . In 2000 , McElduff was elected to Omagh District Council . In 2012 , McElduff and Lord Laird visited Scotland to learn more about potential Scottish independence . At the snap general election held on 8 June 2017 , he became MP for West Tyrone . McElduff is known for performing comedy sets at Sinn Féin events , and in 2015 performed a stand-up gig in Omagh . He is also known for posting comedic videos on social media . McElduff has published two books : Keep er Lit ( 2012 ) contains short stories and anecdotes from his experiences of republicanism , Gaelic games and community activism , while Sustain the Flame ( 2015 ) looks back at his forays into social media . Resignation . On 5 January 2018 , McElduff tweeted a video of himself in a shop with a loaf of Kingsmill bread on his head , asking where the shop kept its bread . As it coincided with the 42nd anniversary of the Kingsmill massacre—where republicans murdered ten Protestant civilians—unionists accused him of mocking the massacre and the video was widely criticised , including by nationalists . Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster said mocking is depraved and called the video inhuman . McElduff deleted it and apologised , saying he was not alluding to the massacre and offering to meet the victims families . On 8 January , Sinn Féin apologised for McElduffs actions , condemned the video , and suspended him from Sinn Féin for three months . McElduff announced on 15 January that he was resigning his seat . On 16 January the Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed Barry McElduff as the Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern , an office of profit under the Crown which causes the holders parliamentary seat to be vacated .