Senator Conor Murphy has been active in Irish politics since the 1980s. He is a graduate of both Ulster University and Queens University Belfast. He is married with two grown up children and lives in Camlough, South Armagh.
As a longstanding member of the national leadership of Sinn Féin he has been central to every major political negotiation throughout the Irish Peace Process since the Good Friday Agreement 1998, including Weston Park Agreement 2001; St. Andrew’s Agreement 2006; Hillsborough Agreement 2010; Stormont House Agreement 2014; Fresh Start Agreement 2015; New Decade, New Approach 2020; Hillsborough Castle Talks 2023.
A former republican prisoner he entered public life when he began representing the people of South Armagh in 1989 shortly after his release, at local government level, before being elected as a Member of the Stormont Assembly in 1998 where he served for twenty-seven years holding the key ministerial portfolios of the Regional Development Department; Finance Department; and Economy Department.
He also served as an Abstentionist Member of the Westminster Parliament from 2005 – 2015.
In January 2025 Conor stood for election to the Irish Senate in the Houses of the Oireachtas, Dublin and having been elected was appointed as the Sinn Féin Seanad Leader and is a key figure on the party’s frontbench where he is driving the debate on constitutional change and Irish Unity, the All-Ireland economy and providing a strong voice for Irish citizens in the North of Ireland in the Oireachtas.
He is a member of the Irish Delegation on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and the British – Irish Parliamentary Assembly. He is a member of the Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment; Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and Taoiseach; Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.