Fred Cobain, MBE (born 30 April 1946) is a

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) politician from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, serving as a Belfast City Councillor for the Castle DEA since

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 ...

. He was previously 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 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 Belfast North from 1998 until 2011.

Political career

Cobain was first elected to

Belfast City Council Belfast City Council () is the Local government in Northern Ireland, local authority with responsibility for part of Belfast, the largest city of Northern Ireland. The council serves an estimated population of (), the largest of any district c ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

. He served as

Lord Mayor of Belfast The Lord Mayor of Belfast is the leader and chairperson of Belfast City Council, elected annually from and by the city's 60 councillors. The Lord Mayor also serves as the representative of the city of Belfast, welcoming guests from across the U ...

in 1990–1991. In 1996, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the

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 o ...

election in North Belfast. He was later elected as an

MLA for North Belfast in 1998. Cobain was Chair of the Assembly's Committee for Social Development and served two terms on the Northern Ireland Policing Board. On 29 December 2007 he was named MBE in the New Year Honours 2008. After the Christmas 2010

water crisis Water crisis could refer to: *Water security, a goal of water management and policy *Water scarcity, a shortage of water in a specific geography, such as the Cape Town water crisis *Drought, the meteorological conditions created by lack of precipi ...

, Cobain supported a vote of no confidence in Regional Development Minister

Conor Murphy Conor Terence Murphy (born 10 July 1963) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician, who has served as a senator for the Industrial and Commercial Panel since January 2025. He previously served as Minister for the Economy of Northern Ireland from 2024 ...

, saying "At the end of the day in all of these issues the individual who leads the department is responsible and I have to say if this was any other part of the UK, or any other part of these

islands This is a list of the lists of islands in the world grouped by country, by continent, by body of water, and by other classifications. For rank-order lists, see the #Other lists of islands, other lists of islands below. Lists of islands by count ...

, the minister would have been away weeks ago...This minister doesn't appear to accept any responsibility for anything." He lost his seat in the 2011 Assembly election. On 14 January 2013, Fred Cobain left the

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 ...

which he had served for more than 30 years. He joined the

saying the UUP was "riven with personal and policy divisions" and was "politically exhausted". Cobain was co-opted on to Carrickfergus Borough Council as a councillor for the Carrick Castle area. He ran for the DUP but failed to be elected to the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council in the May 2014 Elections. He was elected for the DUP to the Castle electoral area of

in the May 2019 Elections.

Family

He is married and has two children.

References

Living people 1946 births Members of Belfast City Council Members of Carrickfergus Borough Council Lord mayors of Belfast Members of the Order of the British Empire Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Ulster Unionist Party MLAs Democratic Unionist Party politicians Ulster Unionist Party councillors {{Northern-Ireland-MLA-stub