Eamon O'Neill (born 15 September 1944) is an Irish

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 (M ...

(SDLP) politician who was a

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 South Down from 1998 to 2003. Born in

Emyvale Emyvale, known before the Plantation of Ulster as Scarnageeragh (), is a village and townland in the north of County Monaghan, Ireland. It is on the main Dublin to Derry and Letterkenny road, the N2, about north of Monaghan Monaghan ( ...

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is part of Border Region, Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town ...

, O'Neill studied at St Mary's College in Strawberry Hill, then with the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

. He began working as a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

in St. Malachy's High School in 1968, serving as Vice Principal from 1986–1998 and over-seeing the school's transition to A-levels. Eamon has been a community leader in the Castlewellan and Newcastle area since the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement. In 1977 he was elected to

Down District Council Down District Council was a Local Council in County Down in Northern Ireland. It merged with Newry and Mourne District Council in April 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne and Down District Co ...

for the

(SDLP), and has now served on the Council for 34 years. At the

1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election took place on Thursday, 25 June 1998. This was the first election to the new devolved Northern Ireland Assembly. Six members from each of Northern Ireland's eighteen House of Commons of the United Kin ...

, O'Neill was elected in South Down. However, he narrowly lost his seat at the 2003 election and failed to regain it at the

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

elections.South Down election results
Ark.ac.uk accessed 8 May 2011 Eamon was later Chair of

References

Biography – Eamonn ONeill

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Eamon 1944 births Living people Alumni of the Open University Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Social Democratic and Labour Party MLAs Members of Down District Council Politicians from County Down