Ivan Davis (16 April 1937 – 13 March 2020) was a Unionist

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

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 ...

who served as an

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 movem ...

(UUP)

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

Lagan Valley The Lagan Valley (, Ulster Scots: ''Glen Lagan'') is an area of Northern Ireland between Belfast and Lisburn. The River Lagan rises on Slieve Croob in County Down and flows generally northward discharging into Belfast Lough. For a section, the ...

from 1998 to 2003. Born in

Lisburn Lisburn (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with ...

, Davis was elected to Lisburn Borough Council in 1973, representing 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 J ...

(DUP). He was also elected to represent South Antrim at the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election. In 1987, Davis resigned from the DUP and instead joined the

(UUP). Under this new party label, he served as

Mayor of Lisburn Lisburn City Council was the local authority for an area partly in County Antrim and partly in County Down in Northern Ireland. As of May 2015 it was merged with Castlereagh Borough Council as part of the reform of local government in Northern ...

from 1991 – 93. He was also elected for

at the

Northern Ireland Forum The Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each Westmin ...

election in 1996 (with

Jeffrey Donaldson Sir Jeffrey Mark Donaldson (born 7 December 1962) is a Northern Irish politician who has served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) since June 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lagan Valley since 1997, and lead ...

and David Campbell), and narrowly held this seat at the 1998 Assembly election. During the course of the Assembly, he became UUP chief whip. Lagan Valley UUP controversially did not select Davis as a candidate for the 2003 Assembly election, so he resigned and stood instead as an

independent Unionist Independent Unionist has been a label sometimes used by candidates in elections in the United Kingdom, indicating a support for British unionism (not to be confused with trade unionism). It is most popularly associated with candidates in elect ...

. He received 2,223 first-preference votes, but this did not prove sufficient to see him elected despite polling more first preferences than one successful candidate. Despite this, Davis continued to sit as a UUP member, and leader of the UUP group, on Lisburn City Council until 2011. He died on 13 March 2020, aged 82.

References

Bibliography

Biography – Ivan Davis

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:Davis, Ivan 1937 births Northern Ireland MPAs 1982–1986 Mayors of places in Northern Ireland Members of the Northern Ireland Forum Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Democratic Unionist Party politicians Ulster Unionist Party MLAs Independent politicians in Northern Ireland Politicians from Lisburn 2020 deaths