Colin McGrath MLA (born 21 October 1975) is an Irish

Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...

(SDLP) 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. Nort ...

. He has been a

Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs; ga, Comhaltaí den Tionól Reachtach; sco-ulster, Laa-Makkan Forgaitherars) are representatives elected by the voters to the Northern Ireland Assembly. About The Northern Ireland Assembly has 90 ...

for South Down since the 2016 election.

Background

McGrath was born in the town of

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Its cathedral is said to be the bu ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

on 21 October 1975. He attended St Patrick's Primary School Saul, St Patrick's Grammar School and the East Down Institute (now part of

South Eastern Regional College South Eastern Regional College (SERC) is a further and higher education college in the south-east of Northern Ireland. SERC was created following the merger of three institutes of further and higher education in the south-east of Northern Irela ...

). Following his completion of secondary education, McGrath attended the University of Ulster Jordanstown and graduated in 1998 in

Community Youth Work A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

. He then became a

youth worker A Youth worker is a person that works with young people to facilitate their personal, social and educational development through informal education, care (e.g. preventive) or leisure approaches. All types of educative approaches are not ethical for ...

in Patrician Youth Centre,

for 17 years.

Political career

McGrath was first elected to the Down District Council in 2005 as a councillor for the

SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Irelan ...

. He served as both chair and vice-chair, becoming the youngest ever chair of the local council. In 2014 he was elected to the newly formed Newry, Mourne & Down District Council. He entered

Assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

politics when he contested the

2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016. It was the fifth election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. 1,281,595 individuals were registered to vote in the election (representing ...

, being elected with 5,110 first-preference votes alongside fellow SDLP candidate

Sinéad Bradley Sinéad Bradley (born 17 February 1972) is a Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician from Northern Ireland. She was an MLA for South Down from the 2016 election, but did not contest the 2022 election. She was the SDLP spokespers ...

. The third and incumbent SDLP candidate,

Seán Rogers Seán Rogers (born 1 January 1953) is an Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs; ga, Comhaltaí den Tionól Reachtach; sc ...

, was not elected and so lost his seat. He was re-elected in the 2017 snap NI Assembly election. During his time in the Assembly, McGrath served as a member of the Education Committee, Business Committee and Procedures Committee. McGrath has highlighted rural issues, accessibility to local services such as the Downe Hospital and youth issues as his main priorities. He has criticised the

eleven-plus The eleven-plus (11+) is a standardized examination administered to some students in England and Northern Ireland in their last year of primary education, which governs admission to grammar schools and other secondary schools which use academic ...

transfer system, arguing that a level playing field is required and condemning the branding of 11-year-old children as "failures" if they fail to achieve high marks. He supports his party position that academic selection "brands a large portion of children as failures and puts an inordinate amount of pressure on them". He has however argued that the debate is about academic selection rather than a disapproval of

Grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

s. He currently serves as chairman and Health Spokesperson for the SDLP.

References

Colin McGrath MLA , People , SDLP
''www.sdlp.ie''. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
MLA Details: Mr Colin McGrath
''aims.niassembly.gov.uk''. Retrieved 18 February 2019.

''www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk''. Retrieved 18 February 2019.

External links

Colin McGrath MLA
SDLP website.
Members of the NI Assembly
NI Assembly.
TheyWorkForYou Voting Record

TheyWorkForYou TheyWorkForYou is a parliamentary monitoring website operated by mySociety which aims to make it easier for UK citizens to understand what is going on in Westminster, as well as the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembl ...

, TheyWorkForYou.
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGrath, Colin 1975 births Living people Members of Down District Council Social Democratic and Labour Party councillors Social Democratic and Labour Party MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027