Emma Rogan

Emma Rogan MLA (born 27 June 1986)[1] is a Sinn Féin politician from Loughinisland, County Down, in Northern Ireland. She attended St Colmcille's High School, Crossgar.[2]

Emma Rogan
Member of the Legislative Assembly
for South Down
In office
20 June 2017 – 28 March 2022
Preceded byChris Hazzard
Succeeded byCathy Mason
Personal details
Born (1986-06-27) 27 June 1986
NationalityIrish
Political partySinn Féin

She served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the South Down constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly from June 2017 to 2022.[3]

Rogan was co-opted to the Assembly to replace Chris Hazzard,[4] a Sinn Féin MLA and former Minister for Infrastructure. Hazzard was elected at the June 2017 Westminster election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Down.[5] Sinn Féin's South Down cumann then selected Rogan to fill his place.[6]

On her selection as MLA, Rogan described herself "a Loughinisland woman through and through", but that she would be "an MLA for all of South Down".[7] She said that her initial priorities included protecting services in the Downe Hospital in Downpatrick, and "to restore Downpatrick as a thriving county town".[7][4]

In May 2021, Sinn Féin announced its two candidates for South Down at the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election.[8] Rogan was not one of the two, having been deselected in favour of Councillor Cathy Mason.[8][9]

In March 2022, the Belfast Telegraph reported that Rogan had not spoken in the Assembly for over a year.[10] In the same period she had attended no meeting of two committees on which she sat, missing 45 meetings of the Justice Committee and 13 meetings of the Audit Committee.[10] Rogan did not respond to queries from the Belfast Telegraph.[11]

Loughinisland Justice campaign
The scene of the massacre

In June 1994, Rogan was 7 years old when her 34-year-old[12] father Adrian Rogan[13] was killed in the Loughinisland massacre.[4] People had gathered in The Heights Bar (some reporting calls the building O'Toole's Pub) in Loughinisland to watch the Republic of Ireland team playing in the 1994 FIFA World Cup, when masked gunmen of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) entered and opened fire.[14] Six people were killed and five wounded,[14] but nobody was ever charged with their deaths.[15]

Before becoming an MLA, Emma was a campaigner with the Loughinisland Justice Group,[7] which works to uncover the truth of the attacks.[13] Allegations persisted that the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) knew that its own double agents or informers were linked to the massacre and that RUC protected the killers by destroying evidence and failing to carry out a proper investigation.[16]

In June 2016, the Police Ombudsman reported that there had been collusion between some police officers and the loyalist gunmen.[13] The murder squad which attacked the Heights Bar had also not been arrested for previous killings because the RUC Special Branch had withheld information from detectives investigating the crimes.[7] Rogan said that the Ombudsman's report "vindicates our long-held suspicions and belief that the truth of these murders was being covered up."[13]

In August 2016, Rogan welcomed a forthcoming documentary film about the massacre by American director Alex Gibney, describing it as permanent memory to the victims.[17] The film is named "No Stone Unturned", after a comment by Emma's mother Claire Rogan[18] that police had promised the families there would be "no stone unturned" in the investigation into the massacre.[17] However, the film's planned world premiere at the April 2017 Tribeca Film Festival was postponed due to "ongoing legal issues relating to the subject matter of the film".[19]

References
  1. "Ms Emma Rogan". Northern Ireland Assembly website. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  2. "Emma Rogan". Sinn Fein. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  3. "New MLAs". The Electoral Office for Northern Ireland. Archived from the original on 25 August 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  4. Simpson, Claire (16 June 2017). "Emma Rogan co-opted to replace Chris Hazzard as South Down Sinn Féin assembly member". The Irish News. Belfast. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  5. McGonagle, Suzanne (9 June 2017). "Constituency Profile: Chris Hazzard wins South Down". The Irish News. Belfast. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  6. "Emma Rogan Selected As South Down Sinn Féin MLA". Down News. 17 June 2017. Archived from the original on 18 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  7. McAdam, Noel (17 June 2017). "Daughter of Loughinisland victim vows to represent all as Sinn Fein MLA". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  8. Simpson, Claire (19 May 2021). "South Down MLA Emma Rogan not chosen as Sinn Féin election candidate". The Irish News. Belfast. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  9. McCormack, Jayne (19 May 2021). "Emma Rogan: Sinn Féin deselects MLA in South Down". BBC News. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  10. Breen, Suzanne (24 March 2022). "Sinn Fein MLA Emma Rogan absent for almost 60 committee meetings". Belfast Telegraph. Belfast. ISSN 0307-5664. Archived from the original on 24 March 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  11. Breen, Suzanne [@SuzyJourno] (24 March 2022). "Of course, I did. Tried to make contact several times, no reply" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 11 October 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022 – via Twitter.
  12. "Loughinisland victim's daughter calls SDLP attacks on Chris Hazzard 'disgusting'". An Phoblacht. Dublin. 1 June 2017. Archived from the original on 2 July 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  13. "Loughinisland: Families call for justice and accountability". BBC News. 9 June 2016. Archived from the original on 13 June 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  14. "UVF's catalogue of atrocities". BBC News. 18 June 2009. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  15. "'Police ignored my evidence' says Loughinisland eyewitness". The Detail. Archived from the original on 5 September 2017. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
  16. McDonald, Henry (3 September 2009). "RUC informers 'knew about Loughinisland shootings'". The Observer. London. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017.
  17. Short, Evan (19 August 2016). "New massacre movie to be seen across the world". Belfast Media Group. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  18. Duggan, Keith (14 June 2014). "Six men dead: the World Cup massacre". Irish Times. Archived from the original on 15 June 2014. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  19. Lee, Ashley (14 April 2017). "Tribeca: Alex Gibney's Doc 'No Stone Unturned' Withdrawn". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 21 April 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
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