Mal O'Hara | |
---|---|
Senator | |
Assumed office 8 April 2024 | |
Constituency | Administrative Panel |
Leader of Green Party Northern Ireland | |
Assumed office 15 August 2022 | |
Deputy | Lesley Veronica |
Preceded by | Clare Bailey |
Deputy leader of Green Party Northern Ireland | |
In office 9 March 2019 –15 August 2022 | |
Leader | Clare Bailey |
Preceded by | Tanya Jones |
Succeeded by | Lesley Veronica |
Leader of the Green Party on Belfast City Council | |
In office 7 May 2019 –18 May 2023 | |
Leader |
|
Preceded by | Georgina Milne |
Succeeded by | Brian Smyth |
Member of Belfast City Council | |
In office 7 May 2019 –18 May 2023 | |
Preceded by | David Browne |
Succeeded by | Brónach Anglin |
Constituency | Castle |
Personal details | |
Born | [1] Belfast,Northern Ireland | 28 July 1979
Political party | Green Party |
Alma mater | University of Central England in Birmingham |
Malachai O'Hara (born 28 July 1979) is a Northern Irish politician,activist and community worker who has been the leader of the Green Party Northern Ireland since August 2022,having previously served as deputy leader from 2019 to 2022. [2] O'Hara was a Belfast City Councillor for the Castle DEA from 2019, [3] until 2023. [4] In 2024,he was elected unopposed to Seanad Éireann,in a by-election to the Administrative Panel. [5]
O'Hara was born in North Belfast. He attended the St Malachy's College and was a classmate of John Finucane who also later entered politics. The same year the Good Friday Agreement was signed,he then attended the University of Central England in Birmingham. [6] Before entering politics,O'Hara worked as a community worker in loyalist areas,delivered European Union peace funding programmes and managed health initiatives for the Rainbow Project,Ireland's biggest LGBT organisation. While working for the Rainbow Project,he was vice-chair of the Equal Marriage Campaign,contributing to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland. [7] [ better source needed ]
O'Hara is the founder of Alternative Queer Ulster,an evening event that brings LGBTQ people into the Northern Ireland Assembly,a place often considered "a cold house to the LGBTQ community". [8]
O'Hara joined the Green Party in 2014. [2]
He was the Green Party candidate for Belfast North at the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election,where he was eliminated on the seventh count with 796 first preference votes (2.18%).
O'Hara tried again from Belfast North in the 2017 Assembly election,where he received 711 first preference votes,a 1.7% share of the vote. [9]
In the 2017 general election,O'Hara contested Belfast North,where he finished fifth with 644 votes (1.4%),losing his deposit.
He was elected to the Belfast City Council in 2019 for the Castle area,in an election where the Greens quadrupled their seats on the council,moving from 1 seat to 4. [10] O'Hara became the first Green Party councillor to be elected in North Belfast. During his term of office,he was one of the few openly LGBTQ+ elected members on the council. [11]
On the council,O'Hara was a prominent campaigner for clean air,rent controls and climate action. [12] [13] [14] He has called for a citizens' assembly to examine if drugs should be legalised in Northern Ireland,citing increasing drug deaths as evidence that Northern Ireland's current approach is "obviously not working." [15]
He was a candidate in Belfast North in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election,receiving 1446 first preference votes,thereby increasing his share of the vote to 3.1%. [16] [17]
O'Hara became the leader of the Green Party Northern Ireland on 15 August 2022,following a leadership election in which he was the only candidate. [18] He was the first openly gay leader of a major party in Northern Ireland. [19]
In the 2023 Northern Ireland local election,O'Hara lost his seat. [20]
In March 2024,O'Hara was announced as the Green Party candidate in the 2024 Seanad by-election and was elected unopposed. [21] [22] He took his seat on 8 April 2024. [23]
O’Hara contested Belfast North in the 2024 general election. He received 3% of the vote against the incumbent MP,Sinn Féin's John Finucane.
During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,O'Hara led a group of over 70 volunteers who set up a cross community soup-kitchen to deliver over 17,000 meals to vulnerable people across North and West Belfast. [24] [25]
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