Albert Boyd Douglas, known as Boyd Douglas (born 13 July 1950) is a

Traditional Unionist Voice The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. In common with all other Northern Irish unionist parties, the TUV's political programme has as its '' sine qua non'' the preservation of Northern Ireland's pl ...

(TUV) politician who was a Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Councillor for the Benbradagh DEA from

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. Douglas previously served as an

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 candi ...

Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs; ; ) are representatives elected by the voters to the Northern Ireland Assembly. About The Northern Ireland Assembly has 90 elected members – five from each of 18 constituencies, the boundaries o ...

(MLA) for East Londonderry from 1998 to 2003.

Career

The son of

William Douglas (Northern Ireland politician) William Albert Boyd Douglas (10 January 1923 – 17 May 2013) was a Northern Irish unionist politician and farmer. Background Douglas worked as a farmer and served as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He rose to ...

, he attended Strabane Agriculture College before working as a

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer ...

. At the 1997 local elections, Douglas was elected onto

Limavady Borough Council Limavady Borough Council () was a local government body in Northern Ireland. In May 2015 it merged with Coleraine Borough Council, Ballymoney Borough Council and Moyle District Council under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland ...

for the Benbradagh District. He was elected to the council as an

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 l ...

(UUP) member, but soon resigned in opposition to the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement ( or ; or ) is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April (Good Friday) 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the la ...

. Douglas was elected to the

Northern Ireland Assembly The Northern Ireland Assembly (; ), often referred to by the metonym ''Stormont'', is the devolved unicameral legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliam ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

as an

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 candi ...

representing East Londonderry. With two other anti-agreement Unionists, he formed the

United Unionist Coalition The United Unionist Coalition (UUC), formerly known as the United Unionist Assembly Party, was a minor unionist political formation in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Assembly The UUC was formed by three members of the Northern Ireland Ass ...

. He retained his seat on the council in 2001, but lost his Assembly seat, along with all the other Coalition MLAs, in

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

. In

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, he was able to top the poll in his seat in

Limavady Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 11,279 people at the 2021 Census. In the 40 years between 1 ...

. Douglas subsequently joined

, and contested East Londonderry seat for the party at the 2011 Assembly election, in which he came 10th out of the 12 candidates and was not elected to a seat. In reference to his decision to run, Douglas said: "Though public service has been part of my life and upbringing, returning to Stormont has not been a burning ambition. But while I’ve watched the past 4 years of failure and deadlock, with virtually nothing done for East Londonderry, I’ve concluded it requires us all, myself included, to try and make things better." He was also re-elected onto Limavady Borough Council on the Council election that same day. Douglas was later elected on the newly-formed

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council is a local authority in Northern Ireland that was established on 1 April 2015. It covers most of the northern coast of Northern Ireland and replaced Ballymoney Borough Council, Coleraine Borough Council, ...

at the 2014 local elections, again representing Benbradagh. He was one of three TUV representatives to be elected to the council in that election. At the 2019 local elections, however, Douglas lost his seat to the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a Unionism in Ireland, unionist, Ulster loyalism, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who ...

(DUP) candidate.

References

External links

Northern Ireland Elections: Limavady Borough Council Elections 1993-2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Boyd 1950 births Living people Members of Limavady Borough Council Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Independent members of the Northern Ireland Assembly Ulster Unionist Party councillors Farmers from Northern Ireland Traditional Unionist Voice councillors