Professor challenges Adams for Westminster seat

An academic and human rights campaigner threw his hat into the ring today for the battle for Gerry Adams’ Westminster seat.

Professor Liam Kennedy, who challenged the Sinn Féin president in 1997, will stand in West Belfast with the backing of some of the relatives of the victims of the 1998 Omagh bomb and other families who have been bereaved by IRA and loyalist violence.

A source close to the Queen’s University Belfast economic history professor said: “Liam has a strong track record on campaigning for human rights, particularly against brutal paramilitary beatings and shootings.”

Prof. Kennedy was due to be joined at a press conference in Belfast later today by a number of supporters, including the Omagh families.

Nominations for Northern Ireland’s 18 Westminster constituencies were due to close at 5pm today.

The DUP currently has six Westminster seats, the Ulster Unionists five, Sinn Féin four and the SDLP three.