Seán MacManus | |
|---|---|
 MacManus in 2011 | |
| Sligo County Councillor | |
| In office 1999–2017 | |
| Constituency | Sligo |
| Chairperson ofSinn Féin | |
| In office 1984–1990 | |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Tom Hartley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1950 (age 74–75) Blacklion,County Cavan, Ireland |
| Political party | Sinn Féin |
| Children | |
Seán MacManus is anIrishSinn Féin politician, and was the national chairperson of the party from 1984 to 1990.[1]
MacManus was born in 1950 nearBlacklion, a village in the north-west ofCounty Cavan inIreland, and moved to London in the 1960s to find work. There he met and married Helen McGovern, a native ofGlenfarne,County Leitrim. In 1976, he returned to Ireland and settled in the Maugheraboy area ofSligo so that their family of two boys could be educated in Ireland.[2][3][4]
Still based in Maugheraboy, MacManus has been involved inIrish Republican politics since the early 1970s and was secretary of the County Sligo Anti-H-Block Committee which campaigned in support of the1980 and 1981 hunger strikes. He became a member of the Sinn Féin Ard Comhairle (National Executive) in 1982 and remained there for over twenty years. MacManus was elected as the first Sinn Féin National Chairperson, serving from 1984 until 1990. After the IRA ceasefire in 1994, MacManus was part of the first formal and publicly acknowledged Sinn Féin delegation to meet with the British government in over seventy years. He was also involved in the protracted negotiations leading to theGood Friday Agreement.[citation needed]
First elected to Sligo Corporation (later called Sligo Borough Council) in 1994, he remained until the council's abolition in May 2014. He was elected toSligo County Council in 1999 and was re-elected in 2004, 2009 and 2014. He was also a candidate for theSligo–Leitrim constituency at several general elections. MacManus stepped down from elected politics in February 2017 and was replaced by his son,Chris MacManus.[5]
In 2000, MacManus became the mayor of Sligo Town, the firstSinn Féin mayor in theRepublic of Ireland since the beginning ofThe Troubles in 1969. He was again elected mayor in 2003.[6]
MacManus has two sons.Chris MacManus, the youngest, was also an elected member of Sligo Borough Council and Sligo County Council and has been amember of the European Parliament since March 2020. His eldest son,Joseph MacManus, was anProvisional IRA volunteer who was killed in a shoot-out against an off-dutyUDR soldier inBelleek, County Fermanagh, in February 1992.[1][7]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Sligo Weekender, 24 June 2003.| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New position | Chairperson ofSinn Féin 1984–1990 | Succeeded by |