POLITICS was not something that initially grabbed the young Naomi Johnston.
As a teenager growing up in the 1980s in east Belfast, she had “a general interest in current affairs.”
She said: “I never had any aspirations to be a politician. For me what I saw in the 70s and 80s was the failure of politics.
“I suppose all I saw were men in grey suits shouting at each other on the television. It just didn’t seem to hold any real hope. When I went to Queen’s I started mixing with people in an integrated environment and I realised very quickly how much people have in common.”
Naomi said she saw politics as being positive for the first time when her local Alliance councillor John Alderdice helped her resolve a problem with her student grant.
“That was my first experience of positive politics - of politics being a solution to a problem,” she said. “That had an impact on me and is one of the reasons I value the constituency work that I do.”
Ms Long, who says she grew up in “a traditional east Belfast family where my dad worked in the shipyard and my mum worked in the ropeworks up until she got married”, said there “would not have been a lot of political debate in the house.”
She met husband Michael Long at school and they have been married 17 years.
“We met when we were 14 and we have been together for a very long time. It is just as well we joined the same party or we might not still be together now,” she jokes.
“I tend to be a workaholic and Michael is not far behind me. When I was on the council I worked as an engineer and my nights were consumed with politics. When I was in the Assembly it was also full on.
“Politics is pretty consuming and it is important for Michael and I to get some time to recharge.
“Now it is harder balancing Westminster, my constituency and of course, Michael. If Michael wasn’t in politics he would find it much harder, but he is incredibly patient and incredibly understanding.”