Roy Beggs Jr (born 3 July 1962) is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician, who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Antrim from 1998 until March 2022. Beggs is the son of the politician Roy Beggs, who was the UUP Member of Parliament (MP) for East Antrim from 1983 to 2005. He served as a local councillor on Carrickfergus Borough Council from 2001 to 2011. During this period he had been elected as Chairman of the District Policing Partnership and vice-chairman of the Local Strategic Partnership and of the Community Safety Partnership. In 2011 Beggs was elected as a Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He served as a member of the Assembly's Social Development Committee, Public Accounts Committee, Health Committee, Environment Committee, Finance Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Agriculture Committee and Regional Development Committee. He is the Ulster Unionist Party spokesperson on Social Development. In 2003, Beggs succeeded in having Irish rebel music removed from the

in-flight entertainment In-flight entertainment (IFE) refers to the entertainment available to aircraft passengers during a flight. In 1936, the airship ''LZ 129 Hindenburg, Hindenburg'' offered passengers a piano, lounge, dining room, smoking room, and bar during the ...

of Aer Lingus airplanes. He complained of the "blatant promotion of militant, armed republicanism" on a music channel during a flight from Dublin to Boston after seeing that Derek Warfield had a radio channel dedicated to his music. Beggs, it was the same as "the speeches of Osama Bin Laden being played on a trans-Atlantic Arabian airline." Aer Lingus removed the material from their flights stating: "It is something that should not have been on board and we removed it immediately we became aware of it." He lost his seat 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 ...

Election results

Beggs Jr had successfully contested every election to the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 until he lost his seat to the Alliance Party in 2022. In 1998 Beggs Jr polled 16.1% of the popular vote; 16.7% in 2003; and 10.2% in 2007. Beggs Jr topped the poll in 1998 and 2003 and the UUP returned two candidates.

References

External links

Northern Ireland Assembly profileRoy Beggs MLA official websiteUlster Unionist Party profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beggs, Roy Jr 1962 births Living people People from Larne Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Ulster Unionist Party MLAs Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003 Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007 Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011 Northern Ireland MLAs 2011–2016 Northern Ireland MLAs 2016–2017 Northern Ireland MLAs 2017–2022 Members of Carrickfergus Borough Council Presbyterians from Northern Ireland