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1st Northern Ireland Assembly
← Forum 2nd Assembly →
Overview
Legislative body Assembly
Jurisdiction Northern Ireland
Meeting place Parliament Buildings,
Stormont
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
Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan
— Seamus Mallon
until 6 November 2001
Sessions
1st 1 July 1998 – 9 March 1999
2nd 15 July 1999 – 8 February 2000
3rd 5 June 2000 – 4 July 2000
4th 11 September 2000 – 4 July 2001
5th 10 September 2001 – 3 July 2002
6th 9 September 2002 – 14 October 2002

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.

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
● 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.

  • NIAssembly19980625

    At election, 25 Jun 1998

  • NIAssembly19980701

    1 Jul to 21 Sep 1998

  • NIAssembly20031018

    18 Oct 2003 to end

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
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
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
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