Members of the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly

This is a list of Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly elected in 1982.

Northern Ireland 1973–98
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All members elected to the Assembly at the 1982 election are listed. Members are grouped by party.

The Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin members did not take their seats in the Assembly and the Ulster Unionist Party members boycotted the Assembly for five months during 1984.

Members

Ulster Unionist Party (26 members)

Democratic Unionist Party (21 members)

Social Democratic and Labour Party (14 members)

Sinn Féin (5 members)

Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (10 members)

Independent Unionist (1 member)

Changes
  • Jim Speers (Ulster Unionist) was elected at a by-election in Armagh in 1983 to replace disqualified SDLP member Seamus Mallon.
  • Frank Millar Jr (Ulster Unionist) was returned unopposed at a by-election in Belfast South in 1984 following the Provisional IRA murder of Edgar Graham (Ulster Unionist).
  • Jeffrey Donaldson (Ulster Unionist) was elected at a by-election in 1985 following the death of Raymond McCullogh (Ulster Unionist).

Subsequent changes of party or allegiance

A considerable number of MPAs, mainly Unionist, subsequently left or were expelled from their respective parties. Of UUP members, Jeffrey Donaldson joined the DUP in 2004 after a short spell as an Independent Unionist. Agnew became an Independent Unionist. Bleakes joined the Conservatives [1] but later became an Independent Unionist, while Dunlop took the opposite route, moving to Independent Unionist and then Conservative.[2] McCartney stood as a Real Unionist in 1987 before forming the United Kingdom Unionists in 1995, where he was joined by Vitty who joined from the DUP. Kirkpatrick joined the DUP, rejoined the UUP before again switching to the DUP.

Of DUP members, Allister, Beattie, Calvert, Foster, Graham, Kane and McKee all later quit the party. Seawright (who was expelled from the DUP) Beattie and Graham were subsequently re-elected under different 'Protestant' or 'Protestant Unionist' labels. Davis and Thompson subsequently joined the UUP. In the case of the latter, this was after a spell as an Independent Unionist and he later quit the UUP to rejoin the DUP.

O'Hare quit the SDLP in January 1986 over the party's support for the Anglo-Irish Agreement.[3] Sorley left the SDLP in the late 80s following a row over her acceptance of the M.B.E. and was re-elected to Magherafelt council in 1989 as an Independent.[4]

Currie of the S.D.L.P. and Cushnahan of Alliance later became involved in Southern Irish politics and were elected for Fine Gael.

References
  1. Dr Nicholas Whyte. "Lisburn City Council, 1993 - 2005". Ark.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  2. "Conservative Women's Organisation :: People". Conservativewomen.org.uk. 12 February 2006. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  3. "Events: Anglo-Irish Agreement - Chronology of events". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  4. "Local Government Elections 1985-1989: Magherafelt". Ark.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 November 2010.

Bibliography
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