Eamon O'Neill (born 15 September 1944) 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 who was 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 ...

(MLA) for South Down from 1998 to 2003. Born in Emyvale, County Monaghan, O'Neill studied at St Mary's College in

Strawberry Hill Strawberry Hill may refer to: United Kingdom *Strawberry Hill, London, England **Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole's Gothic revival villa **Strawberry Hill railway station United States *Strawberry Hill (San Francisco), California *Strawberry ...

, then with the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

. 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. whe ...

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 Cou ...

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 Westminster Parliamentary constit ...

, 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 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

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

References

Biography – Eamonn ONeill

Northern Ireland Assembly sco-ulster, Norlin Airlan Assemblie , legislature = 7th Northern Ireland Assembly, Seventh Assembly , coa_pic = File:NI_Assembly.svg , coa_res = 250px , house_type = Unicameralism, Unicameral , hou ...

{{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