1st Northern Ireland Assembly facts for kids
Quick facts for kids 1st Northern Ireland Assembly |
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Overview | |||||||||||||
Legislative body | Assembly | ||||||||||||
Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland | ||||||||||||
Meeting place | Parliament Buildings, Stormont |
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Term | 1 July 1998 – 14 October 2002 | ||||||||||||
Election | 1998 assembly election | ||||||||||||
Government | Executive of the 1st Assembly | ||||||||||||
Members | 108 | ||||||||||||
Speaker | Lord Alderdice | ||||||||||||
First Minister | David Trimble — Reg Empey until 6 November 2001 — David Trimble until 1 July 2001 |
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Deputy First Minister | Mark Durkan — Seamus Mallon until 6 November 2001 |
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Sessions | |||||||||||||
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This article is about the first group of people who were elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly. This Assembly is like a special parliament for Northern Ireland. It was set up after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The Agreement was a big step towards peace. These elected members are called MLAs, which stands for Members of the Legislative Assembly. There were 108 MLAs in this first Assembly.
The MLAs were chosen in the 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election. Sometimes, if an MLA left or passed away, someone new would be chosen to take their place. This is called co-option. This list shows all the MLAs and how their political parties changed over time.
Contents
How Many Members Each Party Had
This table shows how many MLAs each political party had at the start and end of the first Assembly.
Party | Designation | Jun 1998 election |
Oct 2002 end |
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● | Ulster Unionist Party | Unionist | 28 | 27 |
● | Social Democratic and Labour Party | Nationalist | 24 | 23 |
● | Democratic Unionist Party | Unionist | 20 | 20 |
● | Sinn Féin | Nationalist | 18 | 18 |
Alliance Party | Other | 6 | 5 | |
UK Unionist Party | Unionist | 5 | 1 | |
Progressive Unionist Party | Unionist | 2 | 2 | |
Northern Ireland Women's Coalition | Other | 2 | 2 | |
United Unionist Coalition | Unionist | - | 3 | |
Northern Ireland Unionist Party | Unionist | - | 3 | |
Independent | Nationalist | 0 | 1 | |
Independent | Unionist | 3 | 2 | |
Speaker | None | 0 | 1 | |
Totals by designation | Unionist | 58 | 58 | |
Nationalist | 42 | 42 | ||
Other | 8 | 5 | ||
None | 0 | 1 | ||
Total | 108 | |||
● = Northern Ireland Executive |
Visualizing Party Strengths
These pictures show how the different political parties were represented in the Assembly. It's like a map of who had seats.
This is not the official seating plan.
Changes in Assembly Membership
Over the years, some changes happened to the list of MLAs. This section explains how new members joined or how some members changed their political party.
New Members Joining (Co-options)
Sometimes, an MLA would leave their position, or pass away. When this happened, a new person would be chosen to take their place. This process is called co-option. Here are the times new members were co-opted:
Date co-opted | Constituency | Party | Outgoing | Co-optee | Reason | |
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11 December 2000 | Foyle | SDLP | John Hume | Annie Courtney | Resignation of John Hume. | |
22 January 2001 | Strangford | UUP | Tom Benson | Tom Hamilton | Death of Tom Benson. | |
9 September 2002 | East Londonderry | SDLP | Arthur Doherty | Michael Coyle | Death of Arthur Doherty. |
MLAs Changing Parties
MLAs sometimes changed which political party they belonged to. This could happen for different reasons, like disagreeing with their party's decisions or forming a new party. Here are some of those changes:
Date | Constituency | Name | Previous affiliation | New affiliation | Circumstance | ||
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21 September 1998 | Belfast North | Fraser Agnew | Ind U | United Unionist Coalition | Fraser Agnew established a new political party to access facilities provided to Assembly parties. | ||
21 September 1998 | East Londonderry | Boyd Douglas | Ind U | United Unionist Coalition | Boyd Douglas established a new political party to access facilities provided to Assembly parties. | ||
21 September 1998 | Upper Bann | Denis Watson | Ind U | United Unionist Coalition | Denis Watson established a new political party to access facilities provided to Assembly parties. | ||
4 January 1999 | Strangford | Cedric Wilson | UK Unionist | Ind U | Cedric Wilson left the UKUP in response to proposals from Robert McCartney to resign their Assembly seats in opposition to Sinn Féin participating in the Executive. | ||
4 January 1999 | South Antrim | Norman Boyd | UK Unionist | Ind U | Norman Boyd left the UKUP in response to proposals from Robert McCartney to resign their Assembly seats in opposition to Sinn Féin participating in the Executive. | ||
4 January 1999 | Lagan Valley | Patrick Roche | UK Unionist | Ind U | Patrick Roche left the UKUP in response to proposals from Robert McCartney to resign their Assembly seats in opposition to Sinn Féin participating in the Executive. | ||
4 January 1999 | East Antrim | Roger Hutchinson | UK Unionist | Ind U | Roger Hutchinson left the UKUP in response to proposals from Robert McCartney to resign their Assembly seats in opposition to Sinn Féin participating in the Executive. | ||
24 March 1999 | Strangford | Cedric Wilson | Ind U | NI Unionist | Cedric Wilson established the NIUP having recently left the UKUP. | ||
24 March 1999 | South Antrim | Norman Boyd | Ind U | NI Unionist | Norman Boyd established the NIUP having recently left the UKUP. | ||
24 March 1999 | Lagan Valley | Patrick Roche | Ind U | NI Unionist | Patrick Roche established the NIUP having recently left the UKUP. | ||
24 March 1999 | East Antrim | Roger Hutchinson | Ind U | NI Unionist | Roger Hutchinson established the NIUP having recently left the UKUP. | ||
1 December 1999 | East Antrim | Roger Hutchinson | NI Unionist | Ind U | Roger Hutchinson expelled from the NIUP for sitting on Assembly committees against party policy. | ||
5 July 2000 | Upper Bann | Denis Watson | United Unionist Coalition | DUP | Denis Watson joined the DUP. | ||
2 November 2001 | East Londonderry | Pauline Armitage | UUP | Ind U | Pauline Armitage suspended from the UUP for voting against the party whip. | ||
9 November 2001 | North Down | Peter Weir | UUP | Ind U | Peter Weir expelled from the UUP for refusing to support the re-nomination of David Trimble as First Minister. | ||
1 April 2002 | East Antrim | Roger Hutchinson | Ind U | DUP | Roger Hutchinson joined the DUP. | ||
30 April 2002 | North Down | Peter Weir | Ind U | DUP | Peter Weir joined the DUP. | ||
11 November 2002 | North Antrim | Gardiner Kane | DUP | Ind U | Gardiner Kane resigned from the DUP. | ||
1 April 2003 | Foyle | Annie Courtney | SDLP | Independent Nationalist | Annie Courtney resigned from the SDLP after not being re-selected by the party as a candidate for the 2003 Assembly election. | ||
12 June 2003 | East Londonderry | Pauline Armitage | Ind U | UK Unionist | Pauline Armitage resigned her membership of UUP and joined the UKUP. | ||
18 October 2003 | East Antrim | Roger Hutchinson | DUP | Ind U | Roger Hutchinson resigned from the DUP to contest the 2003 Assembly election as an independent unionist. |
Learn More About Northern Ireland Politics
- Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly
- Members of the Northern Ireland Forum
- Northern Ireland MPs