Eóin Tennyson (born 17 May 1998) is a Northern Irish Alliance Party politician who has served as 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 Upper Bann since the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election.

Early life and career

Tennyson attended St. Patrick's Academy, a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

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 ...

in Dungannon,

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional Counties of Ireland, counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an admini ...

. He studied accounting at Queen's University Belfast, graduating with

bachelor of science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in 2019. While at university, he was elected chair of

Alliance Youth 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 ...

. In 2020, he obtained a

Master of Accounting The Master of Accountancy (MAcc, MAcy, or MAccy), alternatively Master of Science in Accounting (MSA or MSAcy) or Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAcy, MPAcc or MPAc), is a graduate professional degree designed to prepare students for public ...

from the

Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School The UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School is the graduate business school of University College Dublin (UCD) and is located in Blackrock, Dublin, Ireland, on the site of the former teacher-training Carysfort College. Undergraduate bu ...

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

. He subsequently joined

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

in Belfast as an

auditor An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting and a ...

and began training as a chartered accountant.

Political career

Early career

Tennyson was elected to

Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council is a local authority that was established on 1 April 2015. It replaced Armagh City and District Council, Banbridge District Council and Craigavon Borough Council. The first elections to the a ...

in the 2019 local elections, representing the Lagan River

district electoral area The wards and electoral divisions in the United Kingdom are electoral districts at sub-national level, represented by one or more councillors. The ward is the primary unit of English electoral geography for civil parishes and borough and distr ...

. He polled 10.81% of the first-preference votes, and gained a seat at the expense of the

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 m ...

. In December, he contested the 2019 general election in Upper Bann, placing third with 13% of the vote. Though unsuccessful, he obtained a swing of 8.4% and polled ahead of

Doug Beattie Douglas Ricardo Beattie (born 13 October 1965) is a Northern Irish politician and former member of the British Army, who has been leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) since 27 May 2021. He has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assemb ...

of the UUP and Dolores Kelly of 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 Irela ...

Member of the Legislative Assembly

Tennyson was elected as a

(MLA) for Upper Bann in the 2022 Assembly election, outpolling the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party and gaining a seat at the expense of the SDLP's Dolores Kelly. He polled 6,440 (11.5%) first-preference votes, increasing Alliance's share by 6.2% on the previous Assembly election. Tennyson became the first non-designated politician to be elected for the Upper Bann constituency. At 23-years-old, he also became the youngest MLA elected to the Assembly, and gained the unofficial title of

Baby of the House Baby of the House is the unofficial title given to the youngest member of a parliamentary house. The term is most often applied to members of the British parliament from which the term originated. The title is named after the Father of the Hous ...

. He is the third

openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

MLA to serve, joining his party colleagues John Blair and Andrew Muir. During the course of the 2022 campaign, Tennyson faced abuse and intimidation. On one occasion, he was verbally abused and told to leave a 'Protestant area' when canvassing in

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

. At a sitting of the Assembly on 30 May 2022, Tennyson accused the Democratic Unionist Party of treating the public as "leverage", after the party refused to assent to the election of a

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** I ...

and blocked formation of an Assembly in protest over the

Northern Ireland Protocol The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, commonly abbreviated to the Northern Ireland Protocol, is a protocol to the Brexit withdrawal agreement that governs the unique customs and immigration issues at the border on the island of Ireland betw ...

. He subsequently called on the

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...

to stop the salaries of MLAs who refused to enter the Assembly in order to incentivise the DUP to "get back to work".

Personal life

Tennyson came out as

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

at age 19.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tennyson, Eoin Living people Alliance Party of Northern Ireland MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 2022–2027 LGBT politicians from Northern Ireland Gay politicians Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of University College Dublin 1998 births