Dessie Ellis

He is from an Irish republican family, and both of his grandfathers fought in the Easter Rising in 1916.

He later owned a television repair business.

He is a former Provisional IRA prisoner.

Desmond Ellis (born 23 September 1953) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-West constituency since the 2011 general election.

Ellis was born in Finglas in 1953.

During the 1970s and 1980s Ellis was a member of the Provisional IRA until his arrest in Ireland in 1981.

Ellis subsequently fled Ireland before being recaptured in the United States and returned to Irish authorities.

He was arrested in 1981, when explosives and bomb making equipment were found under his bed.

He was charged with possession of explosives.

He jumped bail, but was arrested in Buffalo, New York in February 1982 and extradited to the Republic of Ireland, where in April 1983, he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in Portlaoise Prison.

He was convicted of possessing multiple power-timer units for IRA bombs, including those suspected of being used in the Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings.

In 1983 Ellis was found guilty of possessing materials used to make explosive devices for the IRA and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by an Irish court.

In 1983, Ellis' fingerprints were found on a huge cache of IRA explosives found in a forest outside the Berkshire town of Pangbourne.

The cache was linked to the Harrods and Hyde Park bombings.

In 1990 Ellis was the first person extradited from the Republic of Ireland to the United Kingdom under the 1987 Extradition Act, on charges of terrorism on charges related to the 1982 Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings as well as the 1983 Harrods bombing, however Ellis was acquitted of these charges in 1991.

On 14 November 1990, after thirty-five days on hunger-strike, Ellis became the first person extradited from the Republic of Ireland to the United Kingdom under the 1987 Extradition Act.

He went on hunger strike to protest efforts to send him to Britain, but was extradited in the sixth week of his fast.

Ellis's hunger strike drew considerable domestic and international attention, and at one point Taoiseach Charles Haughey intervened, asking Ellis' parents to ask him to give it up, but they refused.

Ellis was acquitted at his trial in London in October 1991.

Ellis moved into constitutional politics in 1999 when he was elected to Dublin City Council, a position he held until he was elected to his current position as a Teachta Dála.

Ellis was first elected to Dublin City Council in 1999, for the Finglas local electoral area.

He unsuccessfully contested the 2002 general election in the Dublin North-West constituency, and received 4,781 first preference votes (18.3%).

He was again unsuccessful at the 2007 general election in the same constituency, receiving 4,873 votes (15.7%).

At the 2011 general election, he was elected to the 31st Dáil with 7,115 (21.7%) of the first-preference votes.

Ferris followed Ellis, and stated "On the record of this house; In 2013 I met with gardaí at their request regarding the death of Brian Stack, I co-operated fully with them and I have nothing to answer for, and it’s a disgrace what you have come in here naming. You should be ashamed of yourself".

In October 2014, following claims made by Mairia Cahill that she had been raped as a 17-year-old by members of the Provisional IRA, Ellis stated that "If an allegation was made against a volunteer it would have to be investigated [internally]...To be honest they were not qualified to deal with something like sexual abuse".

Based on this, Philip Ryan of the Irish Independent accused Ellis of admitting that the PIRA ran "Kangaroo courts".

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams had just delivered an address to the Dáil in relation to Stack when Farrell rose and used Dáil privilege to state Gerry Adams had listed Ellis and Ferris as amongst people who may have information about the Stack death in an e-mail to the Garda Commission in February 2014, and asked that the two should also address the Dáil on the matter.

Ellis immediately responded by stating "I refute [sic] any allegations. For the information, the man in question claims to be a solicitor, I was actually in jail for the period. In Portlaoise, and before that in America, so you should check your facts. You’re a disgrace".

In 2015, Ellis refused to comment on if Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams should distance himself from Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, an Irish republican found guilty of tax fraud and an allegedly a former PIRA Chief of Staff.

At the 2016 general election Ellis was again elected with 7,571 (20.5%) of the first preference votes.

In September 2016, a bill was put forward, which if passed would have criminalised hare coursing.

Sinn Féin supports the legalisation of hare coursing and decided to apply the party whip.

As Ellis opposes it he declined to vote.

He defied party instructions by not informing party whip Aengus O'Snodaigh that he would not be taking part in the vote so he could be excused.

He was subsequently given a written warning.

In December 2016, during a session of the Dáil, Ellis and his fellow Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris were accused by Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell of having information in relation to the Shooting of Brian Stack, the chief prison officer at Portlaoise Prison, in 1983.

In December 2016 Ellis stated he had received death threats following the exchange in the Dáil.

In February 2018 Ellis was censured by Sinn Féin after he stated publicly that fellow party member and councillor for Ballymun Noeleen Reilly was "not fit to represent Sinn Féin" and that she had waged a social media campaign against him.

For her part, Reilly was suspended by the party for six months.