Sean Farren (59) is a former chairman of the SDLP and has been active in the party since 1973 when he joined in Portstewart, Co Derry. Born in Dublin and an economics graduate of UCD, he went to the North in the early 1970s after accepting a teaching post at the University of Ulster.
Politics was in his blood, he says, with his grandfather having been a Labour councillor in Dublin. Mr Farren rose rapidly through the SDLP ranks and has served as party chairman from 1980-84 and was elected to the Assembly for North Antrim in 1982. He also formed part of the SDLP delegation at the Brooke multi-party talks in 1992, and again in the recent multi-party talks.