Alan McFarland | |
---|---|
Member of the Legislative Assembly for North Down | |
In office 25 June 1998 –5 May 2011 | |
Preceded by | New Creation |
Succeeded by | Gordon Dunne |
Northern Ireland Forum Member for North Down | |
In office 30 May 1996 –25 April 1998 | |
Preceded by | New forum |
Succeeded by | Forum dissolved |
Personal details | |
Born | Plumbridge,Northern Ireland | 9 August 1949
Nationality | British |
Political party | Independent Unionist (from 2010) |
Other political affiliations | Ulster Unionist Party (until 2010) |
Major Robert Alan McFarland (born 9 August 1949 in Plumbridge,County Tyrone [1] ) is a former Northern Irish unionist politician who was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Down from 1998 to 2011.
Formerly a member of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP),McFarland resigned from the party in 2010,following the agreed pact between the UUP and the Conservative Party ahead of the general election that year.
He attended Rockport School near Holywood and Campbell College in east Belfast. After a short career in banking he was admitted to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in 1974. He is also a member of Mensa.[ citation needed ]
He retired from the Army in 1992 with the rank of major and became a Parliamentary Assistant to James Molyneaux MP and the Rev. Martin Smyth MP.
In 1995,he was selected by the Ulster Unionists to contest the North Down by-election over the favourite for the nomination,Sir Reg Empey,but was beaten in the election by Robert McCartney. He was again beaten by McCartney in the 1997 general election,but by a narrower margin.
In 1996,he was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue for North Down and was involved in the talks process that resulted in the Belfast Agreement of 1998. He was one of three UUP members returned to the Assembly for North Down in the first elections to the body in 1998 and he retained his seat in the November 2003 election and March 2007 election.
He was,until reconstitution in 2006,one of the UUP representatives on the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
Following the resignation of David Trimble as UUP leader in 2005 he stood as a candidate in the contest to succeed him and was narrowly beaten by Sir Reg Empey. [2] Sir Reg appointed McFarland as the party's chief negotiator following the election,in which role McFarland served through the period before restoration of devolution in Northern Ireland.
In 2007,following the restoration of devolution the details of a row between McFarland and Empey were leaked to the press. It is believed that McFarland turned down the nomination to be Minister of Health when he discovered that Empey planned to take the UUP's other ministerial portfolio himself,insisting that the party leader should concentrate on rebuilding the party from outside the Northern Ireland Executive. Empey did not back down from his stance and appointed Michael McGimpsey to the Department of Health instead. [3]
McFarland announced his resignation from the Ulster Unionist Party on 30 March 2010, [4] five days after the resignation by North Down MP Lady Sylvia Hermon (also formerly UUP), [5] citing his disagreement with the UUP electoral pact with the Conservative Party. He made his intentions clear to continue to sit as an independent in the Assembly.
In the 2011 Assembly Election,McFarland lost his seat.
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905,emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson,it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement. Following the partition of Ireland,it was the governing party of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. It was supported by most unionist voters throughout the conflict known as the Troubles,during which time it was often referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP).
Robert Law McCartney,KC is a Northern Irish barrister and Unionist politician who was leader of the UK Unionist Party (UKUP) from 1995 to 2008.
Sylvia Eileen,Lady Hermon is a retired Unionist politician from Northern Ireland. She served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of North Down from 2001 to 2019.
Sir James Alexander Kilfedder,usually known as Sir Jim Kilfedder,was a Northern Irish unionist politician.
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP),informally known as Ulster Vanguard,was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1972 and 1978. Led by William Craig,the party emerged from a split in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and was closely affiliated with several loyalist paramilitary groups. The party was set up in opposition to power sharing with Irish nationalist parties. It opposed the Sunningdale Agreement and was involved in extra-parliamentary activity against the agreement. However,in 1975,during discussions on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland in the constitutional convention,William Craig suggested the possibility of voluntary power sharing with the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party. In consequence the party split,with dissenters forming the United Ulster Unionist Party. Thereafter Vanguard declined and following poor results in the 1977 local government elections,Craig merged the remainder of Vanguard into the UUP in February 1978.
North Down is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Alex Easton,elected at the 2024 United Kingdom general election.
Reginald Norman Morgan Empey,Baron Empey,,best known as Reg Empey,is a Northern Irish politician who served as the acting First Minister of Northern Ireland in 2001. He was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 2005 to 2010 and served as chairman of the party from 2012 to 2019. Empey was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Belfast from 1998 to 2011.
The 2005 Ulster Unionist Party leadership election began on 7 May 2005 when David Trimble resigned as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party following his party's poor performance in the 2005 general election when it lost all but one of its seats,including Trimble's own. Following his resignation,the UUP's executive committee charged Sir Reg Empey,Lady Hermon and Lord Rogan with the interim leadership of the Party.
Michael McGimpsey is a former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast South from 1998 to 2016.
The Northern Ireland Assembly established in 1982 represented an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to restore the devolution to Northern Ireland which had been suspended 10 years previously. The Assembly was dissolved in 1986.
Danny Kennedy is a Northern Irish unionist politician who served as Chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from December 2019 to May 2022. Kennedy previously served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Newry and Armagh from 1998 to 2017.
David McNarry is a former Northern Irish unionist politician and Ulster Loyalist representative who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Strangford from 2003 to 2016.
John McCallister is a Northern Irish Unionist politician. In 2007,he was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly as an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) member for South Down. On 14 February 2013,McCallister announced that he had resigned from the UUP due to its decision to engage in an electoral pact with the Democratic Unionist Party. He was a co-founder of the NI21 party with fellow ex-UUP member Basil McCrea but resigned the following year following disputes with McCrea. He re-contested his seat as an Independent at the 2016 election but lost his seat,receiving just 2.8% of the vote.
The Northern Ireland Conservatives is a section of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party that operates in Northern Ireland. The Conservatives are the only major British party to field candidates within Northern Ireland and typically contests only a fraction of seats in elections. The party won 0.03% of the vote in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election and 0.1% of the vote in the 2024 United Kingdom General election in Northern Ireland.
The Executive of the 1st Northern Ireland Assembly was,under the terms of the Northern Ireland Act 1998,a power-sharing coalition.
The Ulster Conservatives and Unionists,officially registered as the Ulster Conservatives and Unionists –New Force (UCUNF),was an electoral alliance in Northern Ireland between the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Conservative Party.
An election for the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) was held on 22 September 2010.
The 2010 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland occurred on 6 May 2010 and all 18 seats in Northern Ireland were contested. 1,169,184 people were eligible to vote,up 29,191 from the 2005 general election. 57.99% of eligible voters turned out,down 5.5 percentage points from the last general election.
The 2005 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 5 May 2005 and all 18 seats in Northern Ireland were contested. 1,139,993 people were eligible to vote,down 51,016 from the 2001 general election. 63.49% of eligible voters turned out,down 5.1 percentage points from the last general election.
The 2015 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 7 May 2015 and all 18 seats were contested. 1,236,765 people were eligible to vote,up 67,581 from the 2010 general election. 58.45% of eligible voters turned out,an increase of half a percentage point from the last general election. This election saw the return of Ulster Unionists to the House of Commons,after they targeted 4 seats but secured 2.