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Belfast West (Assembly Constituency)
Belfast West is a constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. It was first used for a Northern Ireland-only election in 1973, which elected the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1973, then Northern Ireland Assembly. It usually shares boundaries with the Belfast West (UK Parliament constituency), Belfast West UK Parliament constituency. However, the boundaries of the two constituencies were slightly different from 1973 to 1974, 1983 to 1986 and 2010 to 2011 (because the Assembly boundaries had not caught up with Parliamentary boundary changes) and from 1996 to 1997, when members of the Northern Ireland Forum had been elected from the newly drawn Parliamentary constituencies but the 51st Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected in 1992 under the 1983–95 constituency boundaries, was still in session. Members were then elected from the constituency to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention, 1975 Constitutional Convention, the Northern Ireland Assembly, 1982, 1982 Assembly, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Parliamentary Constituencies In Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is divided into 18 United Kingdom constituencies, parliamentary constituencies: 4 Borough constituency, borough constituencies in Belfast and 14 County constituency, county constituencies elsewhere. Section 33 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 provides that the constituencies for the Northern Ireland Assembly are the same as the constituencies that are used for the United Kingdom Parliament. Parliamentary constituencies are not used for local government, which is instead carried out by 11 Districts of Northern Ireland, district councils; these often have different boundaries. Constituencies Each constituency returns one Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons at Parliament of the United Kingdom, Westminster and five Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly at Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland), Stormont. Six MLAs were returned pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Ireland Forum
The Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each List of parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland, Westminster Parliamentary constituency for Northern Ireland, under the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation. There was also a "topup" of two seats for the ten parties polling most votes; this ensured that two loyalist parties associated with paramilitary groups were represented. See members of the Northern Ireland Forum for a complete list. Functions and legislative basis The Forum was constituted under the Northern Ireland (Entry to Negotiations, etc) Act 1996. The Forum was described in the Act as being purely deliberative in nature, and was explicitly stated to have no "executive, legislative or administrative" functions assigned to it, nor to have any authority o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Coulter
Rose Jean Coulter is a former Northern Irish unionist politician. Background Born in the Shankill Road district of Belfast, Coulter studied at the Girls' Model School before becoming a solicitor's clerk. She also became active in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). In June 1973, she worked with John Laird and Hugh Smyth to form the West Belfast Loyalist Coalition, which contested the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election.Ted Nealon, ''Ireland: a Parliamentary Directory, 1973–1974'', p.196 All three were elected from the Belfast West constituency. In Coulter's case, she was co-sponsored by the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party.West Belfast 1973–1982 Northern Ireland Elections In January 1974, |
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement. Following the partition of Ireland, it was the Ruling party, governing party of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. It was supported by most unionist voters throughout the conflict known as the Troubles, during which time it was often referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP). Under David Trimble, the party helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which ended the conflict. Trimble served as the first First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002. However, it was overtaken as the largest unionist party 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election, in 2003 by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). As of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Laird, Baron Laird
John Dunn Laird, Baron Laird, , of Artigarvan (23 April 1944 – 10 July 2018) was a Northern Irish politician, life peer and former chairman of the cross-border Ulster-Scots Agency. In 2013 Laird allegedly offered to lobby for a firm against parliamentary rules. Consequently, he resigned from the Ulster Unionist Party. Career Whilst Chairman of the Ulster Young Unionist Council in 1970, Laird became the youngest member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, after winning the seat of Belfast Saint Anne's in a by-election caused by the death of his father, Dr Norman Laird OBE. He was expelled from the Ulster Unionist Parliamentary Party in January 1972 when he voted for a Democratic Unionist Party censure motion opposing a ban on certain processions planned for The Twelfth. He topped the poll in Belfast West in the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election opposed to the proposals of the former Prime Minister Brian Faulkner. He repeated this feat as an Ulster Unionist cand ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alliance Party Of Northern Ireland
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. Following the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it was the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, holding seventeen seats. It broke through by achieving third place in first preference votes in the 2019 European Parliament election and polling third-highest regionally at the 2019 UK general election. The party won one of the three Northern Ireland seats in the European Parliament, and one seat, North Down, in the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Founded in 1970 from the New Ulster Movement, the Alliance Party originally represented moderate and non-sectarian unionism. However, over time, particularly in the 1990s, it moved towards neutrality on the Union, and came to represent wider liberal and non-sectarian concerns. It supports the Good Friday Agreement but maintains a desir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Cooper (politician)
Sir Robert George Cooper, CBE (24 June 1936 – 15 November 2004), popularly known as Sir Bob Cooper, was a politician and equal opportunities activist in Northern Ireland. Born and raised in the east of County Donegal in the north-west of Ulster, Cooper, a Presbyterian, attended Foyle College and then studied law at The Queen's University of Belfast, where he was the Chair of the Young Unionists. Despite his Protestant Unionist background, Cooper married a Catholic. In 1970, Cooper became a founder member of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, and at the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election, he was elected for West Belfast. He served as Minister for Manpower Services, a junior position in the Sunningdale Northern Ireland Executive. Soon after, he became deputy leader of the party, and in 1975 he was elected to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention. In 1976, Cooper left politics to take up an appointment as head of the Fair Employment Agency. In 1990, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent Unionist
Independent Unionist is a label sometimes used by candidates in British elections to indicate their support for British unionism. It is most popularly associated with candidates in elections for the Parliament of Northern Ireland. Such candidates supported the positions of Unionism in Northern Ireland but, for various reasons, could not reconcile to themselves to the Ulster Unionist Party or other groups. It was also used by Unionists in what became the Irish Free State, as they were unionists, but not in Ulster. The label was also used in Scotland, demonstrating an association with ideology of the Unionist Party, the predecessor to the modern Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. In the 1938 Northern Ireland general election, Tommy Henderson and five defeated candidates stood for the Independent Unionist Association, which was distinct from other Independent Unionists. Notable users of the affiliation Northern Ireland * Fraser Agnew, Boyd Douglas and Denis Wats ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh Smyth
Hugh Smyth OBE (16 March 1939 – 12 May 2014) was a Northern Irish Ulster Loyalist and politician who was leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) from 1979 to 2002, as well as during an interim period in 2011. He was Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1994 to 1995, as well as a Belfast City Councillor for the Court and Belfast Area E DEAs from 1972 to January 2014, making him one of the longest-serving members on the Council. Smyth was awarded the Order of the British Empire in the 1996 New Year's Honours list. Emergence in politics Born in the Woodvale Road district of the Shankill Road area of Belfast, Smyth was one of nine children and was educated locally and worked as a metal bonder in the Short Brothers factory before entering full-time politics. Smyth first came to attention in the early 1970s when he served as a public spokesman for the Ulster Volunteer Force although he was not an active member of the organisation. His inspiration for politics was the struggle h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desmond Gillespie
Desmond Gillespie (February 1912 – 22 May 1986) was an Irish nationalist politician. Born in Kilnaleck, County Cavan, Gillespie worked as a publican in Belfast before joining the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). He stood for Belfast City Council at the 1973 local elections, but was not elected. However, he fared better at the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election, where he was elected to represent Belfast West.West Belfast 1973–82 Northern Ireland Elections For the February 1974 UK general election, he moved to stand in [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Democratic And Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP; ) is a social democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland Assembly ( MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The SDLP party platform advocates Irish reunification and, pending the unity of all the people of Ireland and while the northern jurisdiction remains part of the United Kingdom, further devolution of powers. It is a sister party of the UK Labour Party, which maintains an electoral pact with the SDLP not to stand candidates in Northern Ireland but to support SDLP candidates instead. MPs from the SDLP sit with Labour MPs on the government benches when Labour is in power, but do not take the Labour whip, though they informally did so historically. During the Troubles, the SDLP was the most popular Irish nationalist party in Northern Ireland, but since the Provisional IRA ceasefire in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paddy Devlin
Patrick Joseph Devlin (8 March 1925 – 15 August 1999) was an Irish socialist, labour and civil rights activist and writer from Belfast. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a Stormont MP and a member of the 1974 Power Sharing Executive. Described as a "relentless campaigner against sectarianism", Devlin had once been a member of the IRA but later renounced physical force republicanism to work at transcending sectarian differences through peaceful, socialist and nationalist political means. Early life Devlin was born in the Pound Loney in the Lower Falls in West Belfast on 8 March 1925 and lived in the city for almost all his life. His mother was a leading activist in Joe Devlin's (no relation) Nationalist Party machine in the Falls area and Devlin grew up in a highly political household. However his early activism was confined to Fianna Éireann and then the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and as a result he was interned in Crumlin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
