Robert Mervyn Storey (born 4 September 1964), usually known as Mervyn Storey, is a Unionist politician from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

. He formerly represented the

Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by ...

(DUP) in the

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameral , house1 = , leader1_type = ...

, where he was a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

(MLA) for North Antrim from 2003 until he lost his seat in May 2022. Storey was Minister for Social Development in the

Northern Ireland 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 t ...

(2014–16), and in 2016 was appointed Minister for Finance and Personnel.

Biography

Robert Mervyn Storey was born in Armoy, County Antrim on 4 September 1964. His father Nat was a founder member of the

Protestant Unionist Party The Protestant Unionist Party (PUP)Not to be confused with the Progressive Unionist Party. was a unionist political party operating in Northern Ireland from 1966 to 1971. It was the forerunner of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and emerge ...

and an election worker for

Ian Paisley Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a Northern Irish loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and Firs ...

. Storey was educated at Armoy Primary School and at Ballymoney High School. On leaving school in 1980 he worked in a bacon factory, rising to production manager. In 2000 he left the company and joined Ian Paisley's constituency office in Ballymena.

Family

Storey is married to Christine and has three children.

Political activity

Storey is a former member of the Fire Authority for Northern Ireland. Storey was elected to

Ballymoney Ballymoney ( ga, Baile Monaidh , meaning 'townland of the moor') is a small town and civil parish in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is within the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council area. The civil parish of Ballymoney is situated i ...

council in 2001 and again in 2005. He is a member of the Ballymoney Local Strategy Partnership and Regional Partnership for Northern Ireland. In 2000 he served as campaign manager for William McCrea's by-election for South Antrim and also in 2001 for Gregory Campbell and Ian Paisley's elections in

East Londonderry East Londonderry or East Derry can refer to: * The eastern part of County Londonderry * The eastern part of the city of Derry * East Londonderry (Assembly constituency) * East Londonderry (UK Parliament constituency) East Londonderry is a pa ...

and North Antrim respectively. All three campaigns were successful. Storey was elected to the

in the 2003 elections. From 2008 to 2014 he was chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Education. He lost his Assembly seat in the election held on 5 May 2022, thus ceasing to be an MLA. From September 2014 to January 2016 Storey was

Minister for Social Development The Minister for Social Development ( mi, Te Manatū Whakahiato Ora)https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/39682 is a minister in the government of New Zealand with responsibility promoting social development and welfare, and is in charge of the ...

. He resigned from this post several times during September and October 2015 in the context of a political crisis. In January 2016 Storey was appointed Minister for Finance & Personnel. As a

young earth creationist Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between approximately 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespre ...

, and a member of the "Council of Reference" of the creationist Caleb Foundation, he petitioned the then Northern Irish education minister,

Caitríona Ruane Caitríona Ruane (born 1962) is a Sinn Féin politician who served as the Principal Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2016 to 2017, and was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for South Down from 2003 to 2017. In ...

, to have

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscience, pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins".#Numbers 2006, Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured he ...

taught in schools in Northern Ireland, as well as objecting to an exhibition on evolution in the

Ulster Museum The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treas ...

and signs at the

Giants Causeway The Giant's Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It is located in County Antrim on the north coast of Northern Ireland, about three miles (5 km) northeast of ...

in his North Antrim constituency.Belfast museum faces legal battle over Charles Darwin exhibition

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

, 12 February 2009, retrieved 20 May 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Storey, Mervyn 1964 births Living people Ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive (since 1999) Democratic Unionist Party MLAs 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 People from County Antrim Presbyterians from Northern Ireland Christian Young Earth creationists Ministers of Finance and Personnel of Northern Ireland