Malachai O'Hara, usually known as Mal O'Hara, is a Northern Irish politician who has been the Leader of the

Green Party Northern Ireland The Green Party Northern Ireland (sometimes abbreviated as Green Party NI) is a political party in Northern Ireland. Like many green political parties around the world, its origins lie in the anti-nuclear, labour and peace movements of the 1970 ...

since August 2022, and was Deputy Leader of the Green Party from 2019 to 2022. O’Hara has been a councillor on

Belfast City Council Belfast City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhéal Feirste) is the local authority with responsibility for part of the city of Belfast, the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The Council serves an estimated population of (), the l ...

since 2019.

Early life

O'Hara was born in North Belfast. He attended

St Malachy's College St Malachy's College, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is the oldest Catholic diocesan college in Ulster. The college's alumni and students are known as Malachians. History The college, founded by Bishop William Crolly, opened on the feast of Sain ...

, and was classmates with

John Finucane John Finucane (born 1980) is an Irish lawyer, footballer, and Sinn Féin politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Belfast North constituency of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since the 2019 general election. ...

, who also later entered politics. Leaving school the same year the

Good Friday Agreement The Good Friday Agreement (GFA), or Belfast Agreement ( ga, Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta or ; Ulster-Scots: or ), is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of The Troubles, a political conflict in No ...

was signed, he then attended the

University of Central England in Birmingham Birmingham City University (abbrev. BCU) is a university in Birmingham, England. Initially established as the Birmingham College of Art with roots dating back to 1843, it was designated as a polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic in 1971 and gai ...

. Before entering politics, O'Hara worked as a community worker in loyalist areas, delivered European Union peace funding programmes and managed health initiatives for the

Rainbow Project The Rainbow Project is a non-profit organization based in Northern Ireland that promotes the health and wellbeing of the LGBT people and their families in Northern Ireland. The Rainbow Project is the largest LGBT organisation (by number of sta ...

, Ireland's biggest LGBT organisation. While working for the Rainbow Project he was vice-chair of the Equal Marriage Campaign, contributing to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. O'Hara is the founder of Alternative Queer Ulster, an evening event that brings LGBTQ people into the

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 ...

, a place often considered "a cold house to the LGBTQ community".

Political career

O'Hara joined the Green Party in 2014. He was elected to

in 2019 for the

Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

area, in an election where the Greens quadrupled their seats on the council, moving from 1 seat to 4. O'Hara became the first Green Party councillor to be elected in North Belfast. He is also one of the few openly LGBTQ+ elected members of the council. On the council, O'Hara has been a prominent campaigner for clean air,

rent controls Rent regulation is a system of laws, administered by a court or a public authority, which aims to ensure the affordability of housing and tenancies on the rental market for dwellings. Generally, a system of rent regulation involves: *Price cont ...

and climate action. He has called for a

citizens' assembly A citizens' assembly (also known as citizens' jury or citizens' panel or people's jury or policy jury or citizens' initiative review or consensus conference or citizens' convention) is a body formed from randomly selected citizens to delibera ...

to examine if drugs should be legalised in Northern Ireland, citing increasing drug deaths as evidence that Northern Ireland's current approach is "obviously not working." O'Hara was a candidate for the Green Party in the Belfast North constituency for the

2017 Northern Ireland Assembly Election The 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Thursday, 2 March 2017. The election was held to elect members (Member of the Legislative Assembly (Northern Ireland), MLAs) following the resignation of First Minister and deputy First Min ...

where he received 711 first preference votes, a 1.7% share of the vote. He was a candidate in Belfast North 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 months ...

receiving 1446 first preference votes thereby increasing his share of the vote to 3.1%. O'Hara became the leader of the Green Party Northern Ireland on 15 August 2022, following a leadership election in which he was the only candidate. He is the first openly gay leader of a major party in Northern Ireland.

Personal life

During the first wave of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, O'Hara led a group of over 70 volunteers who set up a cross community soup-kitchen to deliver over 17,000 meals to vulnerable people across North and West Belfast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OHara, Malachai 1979 births Living people Green Party in Northern Ireland councillors LGBT politicians from Northern Ireland Members of Belfast City Council People from Belfast Leaders of political parties in Northern Ireland