Donegal Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Senator Pearse Doherty

Pearse Doherty became Sinn Féin's first Senator in July 2007. He topped the poll in the Agricultural Panel.

He is Sinn Féin's 26 county spokesperson on the three portfolios of Education, Transport and Regional Development.

He represented the Glenties Electoral Area as a member of Donegal County Council from his election in 2004 up until his election to the Seanad in 2007.

He has contested two Dáil elections for Sinn Féin in Donegal South West. In 2002, Pearse and his fellow Sinn Féin candidate, Tom Dignam attained a combined vote of 3829 (10.75%) and in 2007, Pearse received 8462 votes (21.25%).

He was also Sinn Féin's candidate in the 2004 European election for the North West constituency where he received a huge vote of 65321 (15.5%). In terms of first preference votes, he had outpolled two of those eventually elected as MEPs, Jim Higgins and Sean O Neachtain.

A civil engineer by profession, he is married with two sons. Pearse is committed to the Gaeltacht and is a fluent Gaeilge speaker and a strong supporter of the Irish Language. He had been a member of Sinn Féin since 1994 and was a founder member of Sinn Féin's youth wing Ógra Shinn Féin where he served on the national executive as the campaign and mobilization officer from 1998 to 2001.

Pearse is also a member of the party's negotiations team and has attended talks at Hillsborough Castle with both the Irish and British governments. He is an outspoken critic of the failure of successive governments to invest in the infrastructure of Donegal, something that is leading to job losses. He is involved in many campaigns to end the marginalisation of Donegal and to bring forward innovative proposals to develop the North West as a whole.