Her paternal grandfather was born in Northern Ireland, and she obtained Irish citizenship by descent in 2001 but renounced it prior to standing for parliament in 2013.

[3] As a child, McBride lived for periods in Western Sydney, the Inner West, Nauru, and the Central Coast.

[2] After graduating she worked around New South Wales, spending periods in Forbes, North Sydney, Newtown, Berkeley Vale, and Belmont, as well as in Oxford, England.

[4] In 2006, McBride returned to the Central Coast as a specialist mental health pharmacist at Wyong Hospital.

[2] In August 2013, McBride won ALP preselection for the federal seat of Dobell, succeeding the incumbent MP Craig Thomson who had been suspended from the party in 2012.