[4] He first stood for Sinn Féin in Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the 1982 Assembly Elections, finishing sixth in the five-seat constituency.

[5] He was then elected to Dungannon council in 1985[6] representing the Torrent electoral area, centred on Coalisland.

[8] In December 2012, he was selected as the Sinn Féin candidate for the UK parliamentary constituency of Mid Ulster, which had been held by his party colleague Martin McGuinness since the 1997 general election.

[10] In the run-up to the by-election, media attention focussed on past allegations about Molloy and how they related to the DUP/UUP-supported independent candidate Nigel Lutton.

[citation needed] UUP leader Mike Nesbitt said he had been unaware of the speech and that it had played no part in Lutton's selection.