Charles McQuillan/Getty Images The Democratic Unionist Party is poised to formally elect Arlene Foster as its first female party leader on Thursday evening. Having held several high-profile posts in Northern Irish politics, Foster is described as "personally charming" and has long been tipped for Stormont's top job. Born Arlene Kelly in Roslea in 1970, she encountered the horrors of 'the Troubles' first hand as a youngster, says the BBC. When she was eight years old, her father, a part-time policeman, was shot by the IRA at the family farm. "They shot him in the head as he was closing in the cattle," she later told the Sunday Tribune. "He came crawling into the house, blood streaming down his face."