Edward O'Hara (1 October 1937 – 28 May 2016) was a British Labour politician who became Member of Parliament (MP) for Knowsley South following the death of Sean Hughes. He held the seat from

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

until

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

when the constituency was abolished. During this period his seat was considered the safest Labour seat in the country. He was chairman of the committee for technology and aerospace of the

Western European Union The Western European Union (WEU; , UEO; , WEU) was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (alliance) , Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 Treaty of Brussels. The WEU implement ...

and was succeeded in 2009 by the German politician Axel Fischer. O'Hara left the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 2010, after being defeated in the selection process to become Labour candidate for the new seat of Knowsley by fellow MP George Howarth.

Early life

O'Hara was born in

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...

, near

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. He was educated at the direct-grant grammar

Liverpool Collegiate School Liverpool Collegiate School was an all-boys grammar school, later a comprehensive school, in the Everton, Liverpool, Everton area of Liverpool. Foundations The Collegiate is a striking, Grade II listed building, with a facade of pink Woolton s ...

, then

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, gaining an MA in Literae Humaniores, and the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. Before entering Parliament, O'Hara was a councillor in Knowsley and Chair of the Education Committee. A lifelong

Liverpool F.C. Liverpool Football Club is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founded in ...

supporter, he taught Latin and Greek at

Perse School The Perse School is a private school (English fee-charging day and, in the case of the Perse, a former boarding school) in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1615 by Stephen Perse, its motto is ''Qui facit per alium facit per se'', taken to mea ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, and at Birkenhead School before lecturing at C.F. Mott College of Education (later Liverpool Polytechnic) from 1970 to 1975, at the City of Liverpool College of Higher Education from 1975 to 1985, and at

Liverpool Polytechnic Liverpool John Moores University (abbreviated LJMU) is a public university, public research university in the city of Liverpool, England. The university can trace its origins to the Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts, established in 1823. This ...

from 1985 to 1990.

Personal life

He married Lilian Hopkins on 11 September 1962 in Bootle; the couple had two sons and a daughter.

References

External links

Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Edward O'Hara MP

TheyWorkForYou.com - Edward O'Hara MP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohara, Edward 1937 births 2016 deaths Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English people of Irish descent UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 Academics of Liverpool John Moores University Politicians from Liverpool Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley