John Fitzgerald O'Dowd (born 10 May 1967) is an Irish

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gr ...

politician. He was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Upper Bann since 2003. He was previously the Minister for Infrastructure from May to October 2022 and the Minister for Education in the

Stormont Executive The Northern Ireland Executive is the devolved government of Northern Ireland, an administrative branch of the legislature – the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is answerable to the assembly and was initially established according to the ...

from 2011 to 2016. He briefly took on the duties of deputy First Minister in 2011 while Martin McGuinness ran in the

2011 Irish presidential election The 2011 Irish presidential election was the thirteenth presidential election to be held in Ireland, and was contested by a record seven candidates. It was held on Thursday, 27 October 2011. The election was held to elect a successor to Mary ...

Early career

O'Dowd was born in 1967 in

Tullylish Tullylish ()PlaceNamesNI - Tullylish
Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

and

Banbridge Banbridge ( , ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Bann and the A1 road and is named after a bridge built over the River Bann in 1712. It is situated in the civil parish of Seapatrick and the historic barony of Iv ...

. He had trained as a chef before engaging in politics. He began his political career serving for 14 years as a councillor on

Craigavon Borough Council Craigavon Borough Council was a local council in counties Armagh, Down and Antrim, in Northern Ireland. It merged with Armagh City and District Council and Banbridge District Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in North ...

and previously served as a school governor. O'Dowd has served as Chair of Upper Bann Sinn Féin and a member of the party's Six County Executive, O'Dowd was leader of the Sinn Féin group on Craigavon Council. In 2003 he was elected as MLA for Upper Bann and in 2005 unsuccessfully contested the same-named Westminster constituency. Between 2007 and 2011 he was

group leader in the Assembly and served as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee before becoming a member of the Education Committee in 2008. On the 13 May 2022, he was confirmed as the 'caretaker' Infrastructure Minister replacing Nichola Mallon of the SDLP who failed to retain her seat in the previous weeks election. He took office on 16 May 2022.

Acting deputy First Minister

After

nominated Martin McGuinness as its candidate in the

, O'Dowd took over the duties of deputy First Minister on a temporary basis from 20 September to 31 October 2011.

Personal life

O'Dowd is married and has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odowd, John 1967 births Living people People from Craigavon, County Armagh Sinn Féin MLAs Ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive (since 1999) Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Sinn Féin councillors in Northern Ireland Sinn Féin parliamentary candidates Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027