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Eric Smyth
Eric Smyth is a Northern Irish Unionist politician and Presbyterian minister. Smyth was first elected to Belfast City Council for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in 1981, representing ' Area F' which was equivalent to the modern wards of Falls, Clonard, Blackstaff and Shaftesbury. However, Area F was abolished in 1985, and Smyth moved to the Court district electoral area which covered the Greater Shankill area. He was elected and held his seat at each subsequent election. In the 1990s, Smyth's two sons were jailed on drugs charges. Following this, he spent considerable time campaigning against drugs, and in 2003 joined European Cities Against Drugs. In 1995-96, he served as Lord Mayor of Belfast, and during his term of office, he formally welcomed Bill Clinton on a visit to Belfast. At the elections to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996, Smyth stood in West Belfast, but was unsuccessful in the heavily republican constituency. The list he headed won only 4.2% of the votes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unionism In Ireland
Unionism is a political tradition on the island of Ireland that favours political union with Great Britain and professes loyalty to the United Kingdom, British Monarchy of the United Kingdom, Crown and Constitution of the United Kingdom, constitution. As the overwhelming sentiment of Ireland's Protestantism in Ireland, Protestant minority, following Catholic Emancipation (1829) unionism mobilised to keep Ireland part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and to defeat the efforts of Irish nationalism, Irish nationalists to restore a separate Parliament of Ireland, Irish parliament. Since Partition of Ireland, Partition (1921), as Ulster Unionism its goal has been to maintain Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom and to resist a transfer of sovereignty to an United Ireland, all-Ireland republic. Within the framework of a Good Friday Agreement, 1998 peace settlement, unionists in Northern Ireland have had to accommodate Irish nationalists in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies were elected by single transferable vote, giving a total of 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). Results Details Although the SDLP won the most first preference votes, the Ulster Unionists won the most seats in the Assembly. This has been attributed to several reasons, including: * Slightly different turnouts across the province, with the result that in the more staunchly unionist east fewer votes were required to elect an MLA than in the SDLP's heartlands in the west. * The Ulster Unionists proved better at "vote balancing" whereby in the rounds of transfers their candidates were less likely to be eliminated earlier on. * The Ulster Unionists proved better at attracting transfers from other parties (and due to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ulster Loyalism
Ulster loyalism is a strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland. Like other unionists, loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, and oppose a united Ireland. Unlike other strands of unionism, loyalism has been described as an ethnic nationalism of Ulster Protestants and "a variation of British nationalism". Loyalists are often said to have a conditional loyalty to the British state so long as it defends their interests.Smithey, Lee. ''Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland''. Oxford University Press, 2011. pp.56–58 They see themselves as loyal primarily to the Protestant British monarchy rather than to British governments and institutions, while Garret FitzGerald argued they are loyal to 'Ulster' over 'the Union'. A small minority of loyalists have called for an independent Ulster Protestant state, believing they cannot rely on British governments t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shankill Road
The Shankill Road () is one of the main roads leading through West Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It runs through the working-class, predominantly loyalist, area known as the Shankill. The road stretches westwards for about from central Belfast and is lined, to an extent, by shops. The residents live in the many streets which branch off the main road. The area along the Shankill Road forms part of the Court district electoral area. In Ulster-Scots it is known as either ''Auld Kirk Gate'' ("Old Church Way"), or as ''Auld Kirk Raa'' ("Old Church Road"). In Irish, it is known as "" ("the road of the old church"). History The first Shankill residents lived at the bottom of what is now known as Glencairn: a small settlement of ancient people inhabited a ring fort, built where the Ballygomartin and Forth rivers meet. A settlement around the point at which the Shankill Road becomes the Woodvale Road, at the junction with Cambrai Street, was known as Shankill from the Irish ''Seanchi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Presbyterian Church Of Ulster
:''Distinct from Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)'' The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster ( ga, Eaglais Phreispitéireach Saor Uladh) is a Calvinist denomination founded by Ian Paisley in 1951. Doctrinally, the church describes itself as fundamentalist, evangelical, and separatist, and is part of the reformed fundamentalist movement. Most of its members live in Northern Ireland, where the church is headquartered, and in County Donegal. The church has additional congregations in the Republic of Ireland, Great Britain and Australia, and a sister denomination in North America, the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, which has congregations in Canada and the United States. It also has a sister denomination in Nepal which was formed from the Nepal mission to the Unreached in November 2013. John Armstrong was Deputy Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church, and became Moderator in 2020, with Colin Mercer from Omagh as Deputy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2005 Northern Ireland Local Elections
Elections for local government were held in Northern Ireland on 5 May 2005, contesting 582 seats in all, along with the 2005 general election across the entire United Kingdom and local elections in England. Results Councils Antrim Ards Armagh Ballymena Ballymoney Banbridge Belfast Carrickfergus Castlereagh Coleraine Cookstown Craigavon Derry Down Dungannon Fermanagh Larne Limavady Lisburn Magherafelt Moyle Newry and Mourne Newtownabbey North Down Omagh Strabane References {{United Kingdom local elections, 2005 2005 Local elections Local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded 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 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 of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002. However, it was overtaken as the largest unionist party in 2003 by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). As of 2022 it is the fourth-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, after the DUP, Sinn Féin, and the Alliance Party. The party has been unrepresented in Westmins ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2007 to 2008. Paisley became a Protestant evangelical minister in 1946 and remained one for the rest of his life. In 1951 he co-founded the Reformed fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and was its leader until 2008. Paisley became known for his fiery sermons and regularly preached anti-Catholicism, anti- ecumenism and against homosexuality. He gained a large group of followers who were referred to as Paisleyites. Paisley became involved in Ulster unionist/loyalist politics in the late 1950s. In the mid-late 1960s, he led and instigated loyalist opposition to the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. This contributed to the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s, a co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith. Its members founded the revolutionary Irish Republic and its parliament, the First Dáil, during the Irish War of Independence. The party split in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War, giving rise to the two traditionally dominant parties of southern Irish politics: Fianna Fáil, and Cumann na nGaedheal (which became Fine Gael). For several decades the remaining Sinn Féin organisation was small without parliamentary representation. Another split in 1970 at the start of the Troubles led to the Sinn Féin of today, with the other faction eventually becoming the Workers' Party. During the Troubles, Sinn Féin was associated with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). For most of that conflict, there were broadcasting bans on Si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Morgan
Martin Morgan is an Irish former politician for the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Married to Dympna, a double graduate from the Queen's University of Belfast and a qualified Master's Level Social Worker, Morgan has been a political activist since his teenage years. A former Vice-Chairperson of the SDLP and Executive member. In 1996, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Northern Ireland Forum election in North Belfast. He was a councillor on Belfast City Council until 2005. Morgan was the youngest Nationalist and Catholic to be elected Lord Mayor of Belfast until the election of Niall Ó Donnghaile (SF). He stood for the party in the 2004 European Parliament elections. He was the youngest ever Belfast councillor when first elected. He questioned, but abided by, SDLP support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The PSNI was accused by Morgan and representatives of the local community of using heavy-handed policing to force an Orange Order parade thr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Ekin
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 United Kingdom and Ireland. The current Lord Mayor is Tina Black of Sinn Fein who has been in the position of Lord Mayor since 1 June 2022. The Deputy Lord Mayor is Michelle Kelly of the Alliance Party. History The position that is now the Lord Mayor originated in 1613 in the town's Royal Charter as the Sovereign of Belfast. In 1842, this position was restyled the Mayor of Belfast. In 1892, four years after Belfast was granted city status, the position was given Lord Mayor status, making it one of only three cities on the island of Ireland having a Lord Mayor, the other two being Cork and Dublin. In 1929, it became one of only six cities in the United Kingdom to have a Lord Mayor styled "the Right Honourable". Until 1973 the position ... [...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. As of the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it is the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, holding seventeen seats, and has made recent breakthroughs to place third in first preference votes in the 2019 European Parliament election and third highest-polling 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 has come to represent wider liberal and non-sectarian concerns. It supports the Good Friday Agreement but maintains a desire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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