The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI),or simply Alliance,is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. Following the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election,it was the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly,holding seventeen seats,and broke through by achieving third place in first preference votes in the 2019 European Parliament election and polling third-highest regionally at the 2019 UK general election. The party won one of the three Northern Ireland seats in the European Parliament,and one seat,North Down,in the House of Commons,the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
North Down Borough Council was a Local Council in County Down in Northern Ireland. It merged with Ards Borough Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become North Down and Ards District Council.
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.
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 1970s and early 1980s.
Eileen Bell CBE is a retired Alliance Party politician from Dromara,Northern Ireland. She was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Down from 1998 to 2007,and is a former deputy leader of the Alliance Party.
Brian Wilson is a Northern Irish politician who was a member of North Down Borough Council for 34 years (1981–2015). He retired when local government was reformed. During this time he served as an Alliance member,Green Party and Independent. He was the first Green Party Councillor to be elected in Northern Ireland in 2005. Wilson served as the Green Party Northern Ireland’s Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Down from 2007 to 2011,and was the party’s first elected representative in the Assembly. He agreed to serve as an MLA for a single term,and stood down to be replaced by his research assistant,Steven Agnew.
Stephen Anthony Farry is a Northern Irish former politician who was the deputy leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland from December 2016 to September 2024. Farry was the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Down from 2019,until he lost his seat to independent unionist Alex Easton at the 2024 general election.
Alexander Easton is a Northern Ireland politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Down since 2024. He previously served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Down from 2003 to 2024.
Philip McGuigan is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim since 2016,having served from 2003 to 2007. He was a Ballymoney Borough Councillor for the Bann Valley DEA from 2001 to 2014.
Gordon Dunne was a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Down from 2011 until June 2021.
Rachel Woods is a Northern Irish academic and former Green Party politician who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Down from 2019 to 2022.
John Kenneth Blair is an Alliance Party politician serving as the Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2024. Blair has been a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for South Antrim since 2018. He is the first openly gay member of the Assembly.
Kate Siobhan Nicholl is a Northern Irish politician for the Alliance Party,serving as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast South since 2022.
Stephen Dunne is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician,serving as a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Down since June 2021. Additionally,Dunne is the party's Spokesperson for Sports.
Danny Donnelly is an Alliance Party politician in Northern Ireland,serving as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for East Antrim since May 2022.
Patricia O'Lynn is a Northern Irish academic,educator,and politician who was an Alliance Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from 2022 to 2023. She was elected as an MLA in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election for North Antrim.
Eóin Tennyson is a Northern Irish politician who has been the deputy leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland since October 2024. He succeeded former deputy leader Stephen Farry who resigned from the position in 2024. He has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Upper Bann since 2022,where he defeated former Social Democratic and Labour Party incumbent Dolores Kelly to become the youngest MLA for the constituency.
Connie Egan is a Northern Irish politician who is an Alliance Party Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). She was elected as an MLA in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election for North Down.
The 2024 general election in Northern Ireland was held on 4 July 2024,with all 18 Northern Irish seats in the House of Commons contested. The general election occurred after the recently completed constituency boundaries review.
The 2024 Alliance Party of Northern Ireland deputy leadership election was triggered on 8 September 2024 by the resignation of Stephen Farry as deputy leader of the Alliance Party. Farry,who lost his seat in North Down to Alex Easton in the most recent general election back in July,had been in the role in the party since 2016. The party's finance spokesperson,Eóin Tennyson,was elected to succeed him.
