Norah Beare (born 25 May 1946,

Banbridge Banbridge ( , ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the River Bann and the A1 road (Northern Ireland), A1 road and is named after a bridge built over the River Bann in 1712. It is situated in the Civil parishes in Ireland, c ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

) is a former Northern Irish unionist politician who served as 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

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 2003 to 2007. She was elected 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) candidate in the Assembly election of 2003; however, she defected to 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) in 2004 along 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 leader ...

MP, MLA for Lagan Valley and Arlene Foster, MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Norah Beare worked for forty years as a secretary in a number of different companies and then became in 1997 the Personal Assistant to

. Beare was elected to the Banbridge, County Down council in 2001 as a UUP candidate. On Donaldson's advice she was selected as the third UUP candidate for the November 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. In December 2003 she resigned, with Donaldson and Arlene Foster, from the UUP and subsequently joined the DUP in January 2004. In 2005 she was re-elected to the council as a DUP politician. In January 2007, Beare was not selected by the Lagan Valley DUP association to fight the next Northern Ireland Assembly elections due in early March 2007. Beare was elected chairman of Banbridge District Council in 2008. She is DUP Party Spokesperson for Health and Social Services.

References

1946 births Living people Members of Banbridge District Council Democratic Unionist Party councillors Ulster Unionist Party councillors People from Banbridge Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Female members of the Northern Ireland Assembly Ulster Unionist Party MLAs Democratic Unionist Party MLAs Women councillors in Northern Ireland {{Northern-Ireland-MLA-stub