Dessie Ellis (66), the oldest Sinn Féin candidate in the 2020 election, has been a TD for the Dublin North West constituency since the 2011 general election and had been a Sinn Féin councillor in Dublin city for the Finglas area since 1999.
Ellis, one of the party’s most well-known figures in Dublin, has acknowledged he was involved in the IRA “at the highest levels” during the Troubles.
A former republican prisoner, he was convicted of possession of explosives in 1983 and sentenced to 10 years.
In 1990 he went on hunger strike in protest at attempts to extradite him to Britain.
Extradited on the 37th day of his hunger strike, he was found not guilty by a London jury in 1991.
He has been the Sinn Féin spokesman on transport and he was also the party’s spokesman on housing.
He is currently the spokesperson on drugs. A former TV repair business owner, he was born and lives in Finglas.
