Ian James Marshall (born 1968) is a farmer and

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 ...

(UUP) politician from

Markethill Markethill () is a village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is beside Gosford Forest Park. It had a population of 1,647 people in the 2011 Census. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under th Open Governme ...

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of an ...

, in

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 is from a unionist background and campaigned against

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

. He was elected to

Seanad Éireann Seanad Éireann (, ; "Senate of Ireland") is the upper house of the Oireachtas (the Irish legislature), which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann (the lower house). It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its memb ...

in Dublin in 2018, but lost his seat in the 2020 Seanad election.

Farming

Marshall is a

dairy farmer Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that ...

in the

agrifood The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from small, traditiona ...

sector. He was president of the

Ulster Farmers' Union The Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) is a member organisation/industry association for farmers in Northern Ireland. The UFU was formed in 1918 and currently claims over 12,500 members. Presidency Previous Presidents of the UFU included Sir Basil Broo ...

(UFU) from 2014 to 2016. In 2015 he invested in the controversial Renewable Heat Incentive scheme and later complained that its critics made no distinction between legitimate investors and those who misused the scheme. In February 2017 the UFU successfully challenged a 2012 reduction by DARD in Marshall's

CAP A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

grant, provoked by nitrate pollution detected by NIEA near his farm in 2010–2011, on the basis that the pollution was unintentional. In August 2017, Marshall was appointed Business Development Manager at the Institute for Global Food Security in Queen's University Belfast.

Seanad

Marshall was elected to the

25th Seanad This is a list of the members of the 25th Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (legislature) of Ireland. 49 Senators were elected in April 2016 when postal voting closed. The Taoiseach nominated an additional eleven members to the ...

on 27 April 2018 in a by-election for the

Agricultural Panel The Agricultural Panel () is one of five vocational panels which together elect 43 of the 60 members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas (the legislature of Ireland). The Agricultural Panel elects eleven senators. Election Art ...

. The vacancy was caused by the resignation of Denis Landy. He was approached to stand by then

Taoiseach The Taoiseach is the head of government, or prime minister, of Ireland. The office is appointed by the president of Ireland upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legislature) and the o ...

and

Fine Gael Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil � ...

leader Leo Varadkar; his candidacy was also supported by

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 G ...

. He had never been a member of a political party and sat as an

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

. He was the first unionist member elected to the Oireachtas since the 1930s.. He lost his seat at the 2020 Seanad election. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 2021 Seanad by-election to the Agricultural Panel which followed the resignation of Fine Gael Senator Michael W. D'Arcy. He was again backed by Sinn Féin, but not by Fine Gael. In ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', columnist

Fintan O'Toole Fintan O'Toole (born 16 February 1958) is a polemicist, literary editor, journalist and drama critic for ''The Irish Times'', for which he has written since 1988. O'Toole was drama critic for the '' New York Daily News'' from 1997 to 2001 and ...

lamented that "it was much more important for the Government parties to vote for one of their own than to place a single liberal unionist from Armagh (Ian Marshall) in the Oireachtas." Marshall was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

for public and political service.

Ulster Unionist Party

On 27 July 2021, the

(UUP) announced that Marshall had joined the party. Marshall commented that the UUP offered "a moderate, considerate position" and a "move on from identity politics to focus on things that are a priority for most people – the economy, jobs, healthcare, housing and building good relationships across this island and between our two islands". Marshall stood unsuccessfully as the UUP candidate for West Tyrone in the

2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election The 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on 5 May 2022. It elected 90 members to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It was the seventh assembly election since the establishment of the assembly in 1998. The election was held three month ...

, polling 1,876 votes, 4.1% of the total.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Ian Living people 1968 births Members of the 25th Seanad Farmers from Northern Ireland Independent members of Seanad Éireann Politicians from County Armagh Alumni of Ulster University People associated with Queen's University Belfast Ulster Unionist Party politicians Agricultural Panel senators