Four of the 18 Northern Ireland MPs will, as anticipated, not be taking their seats in the House of Commons, but the abstentionists - Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty and Michelle Gildernew - are expected to seek offices there. Adams and McGuinness were turned down by the last speaker Betty Boothroyd but her successor Michael Martin, a Glasgow Catholic, may be more accommodating.
The two sitting MPs are no strangers to Westminster, but the nearest they got to the chamber was the public gallery. Since Sinn FΘin refuses to take the oath of allegiance to the British monarch, the MPs can't be sworn in and consequently can't enter the House at all. Their visits are courtesy of other MPs, mostly Labour, who sign them in as guests. They want offices for convenience and for lobbying.
The abstentionist policy costs money - even more now there are four of them. An MP's salary is £43,371, plus there are expenses of £51,572 per member, additional costs of £13,322 and of course free office space, post and telephones (maybe tapped).
Gildernew is an unusual name. Her family says it is from Connemara. The Oxford Dictionary of Surnames says it is Irish in an anglicised forum of the Gaelic MacGuilla na Naomh, meaning servant of the saints. In any event the new MP has an illustrious nationalist background.
In 1968, her mother and grandmother were evicted as squatters form one of the two houses in Caledon, Co Tyrone later occupied by Austin Currie. The rest is history.