Alex Maskey

Alex Maskey
6th Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly
In office
11 January 2020 – 3 February 2024
DeputyChristopher Stalford
Roy Beggs Jr
Patsy McGlone
Preceded byRobin Newton
Succeeded byEdwin Poots
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Belfast West
In office
3 November 2014 – 28 March 2022
Preceded bySue Ramsey
Succeeded byDaniel Baker
In office
25 June 1998 – 28 April 2003
Preceded byNew Creation
Succeeded byFra McCann
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Belfast South
In office
26 November 2003 – 22 October 2014
Preceded byMonica McWilliams
Succeeded byMáirtín Ó Muilleoir
59th Lord Mayor of Belfast
In office
1 June 2002 – 1 June 2003
Preceded byJim Rodgers
Succeeded byMartin Morgan
Member of
Belfast City Council
In office
7 June 2001 – 13 October 2010
Preceded bySean Hayes
Succeeded byDeirdre Hargey
ConstituencyLaganbank
In office
15 May 1985 – 7 June 2001
Preceded byDistrict created
Succeeded byPaul Maskey
ConstituencyUpper Falls
In office
June 1983 – 15 May 1985
Preceded byGerry Kelly
Succeeded byDistrict abolished
ConstituencyBelfast Area D
Member of the Northern Ireland Forum
for Belfast West
In office
30 May 1996 – 25 April 1998
Personal details
Born (1952-01-08) 8 January 1952 (age 72)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Political partyNone (Speaker)
Other political
affiliations		Sinn Féin (before 2020)
Spouse
Liz McKee
​
(m. 1981)​
RelationsPaul Maskey (brother)[1]
Children2
WebsiteSinn Féin profile (archived 2007)

Alex Maskey (born 8 January 1952) is an Irish former politician who served as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2020 to 2024 and was the first member of Sinn Féin to serve as Lord Mayor of Belfast from 2002 to 2003.[2] He was Sinn Féin's longest sitting councillor, representing the Laganbank electoral area of Belfast.[3] He was also an MLA for Belfast West for two periods, and also for Belfast South. He reportedly retired "from frontline politics" in early 2024.[4]

Early life

Maskey was educated at St Malachy's College and at the Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education and then worked in Belfast docks as a labourer and barman.[2][5] He was a successful amateur boxer, having only lost 4 out of 75 fights.[5]

After the Troubles began in the late 1960s he became involved with the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and was interned twice in the 1970s.[5]

Political career

Maskey stood unsuccessfully in West Belfast in the 1982 Assembly Election.[6] In June 1983, Maskey won a by-election and became the first member of Sinn Féin to be elected to Belfast City Council since the 1920s.[7][8] He was greeted with boos and jeers when he entered the chamber for his first council meeting, and unionist councillors started stamping their feet and screaming when he attempted to deliver his maiden speech in Irish.[8]

Maskey emerged as a key ally of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams' approach to the strategy.[2] In 1987 he survived being shot at close range by loyalist paramilitaries.[5] He was targeted again by loyalists in 1988, and also a gun attack at his home in 1993 when one of his friends, Alan Lundy,[9] was killed.[10][11] In 1996 Maskey was elected to the Northern Ireland Peace Forum for the Belfast West constituency but did not attend the Forum in accordance with Sinn Féin's policy of abstentionism. Two years later he was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which on this occasion Sinn Féin did not boycott.[12]

Maskey's growing political profile led him to contest the Belfast South constituency in the 2001 general election as part of Sinn Féin's strategy of building up their vote in one of their weaker constituencies.[13]

In the local elections held on the same day he switched to the Laganbank area of South Belfast and won a seat there.[14]

In 2002 Maskey became the first ever republican to serve as Lord Mayor of Belfast.[5] His first duty in office was to open the annual Presbyterian General Assembly despite being a non-Presbyterian.[15]

Maskey garnered general praise when as part of his duties as Lord Mayor in July 2002 he laid a wreath in memorial of British soldiers who died in the First World War. However he declined to attend the main memorial ceremony, stating that it was "the military commemoration of the Battle of the Somme".[16] In his office he flew the UK's Union Jack and the Irish tricolour side by side.[17]

In the 2003 Assembly election Maskey stood in South Belfast again and won Sinn Féin's first seat there with a boost in the vote share. He contested the same-named House of Commons seat in the 2005 general election with the vote share down on the Assembly elections, losing to the Social Democratic and Labour Party candidate, Alasdair McDonnell.[13]

In March 2006, Maskey participated in the negotiations resulting in the Basque nationalist organisation ETA truce announced on 22 March.[18] On 23 April 2007, he was announced as one of three Sinn Féin members who would sit on the re-vamped Northern Ireland Policing Board.[19]

Maskey resigned from Belfast City Council in October 2010, as part of Sinn Féin's policy of abolishing double jobbing.[20]

Speakership

With the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, Maskey was elected Speaker on 11 January 2020.[21]

On 23 September 2021, he announced that he would not seek re-election at the 2022 Assembly election. In a letter to Sinn Féin parties, he said it had been an "honour" to represent communities, adding "There is a lot of work left to do before the next assembly election and that is where my focus will be until then."[22] In response, party leader and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said Maskey had been "a ferocious champion of the rights of communities within the Assembly, in Belfast City Council and on the ground". She added that he "was imprisoned without trial, faced down sustained threats and attacks by British state forces and their loyalist surrogates and was almost killed in an attack at his home which left him with permanent injuries."[23]

He continued to serve as speaker despite not being an MLA following the 2022 election because the DUP refused to participate in the election of a new speaker. After leaving the post of speaker, in early 2024, he reportedly "retire[d] from frontline politics".[4]

Personal life

Maskey and his wife, Liz McKee[24] have been married since 1981.[25] They have two sons.[26]

On 25 December 2005, Maskey suffered a heart attack while with his family. Several weeks later he appeared on BBC Radio Ulster to talk about his health.[27]

Maskey is teetotal.

References

  1. ^ Young, Connla (11 June 2011). "New Sinn Féin MP Paul Maskey vows to reach out to loyalists". Belfast Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  2. ^ a b c "Biographies of Prominent People". Conflict Archive on the Internet. Archived from the original on 5 February 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
  3. ^ "Alex Maskey". Belfast City Council. Archived from the original on 23 October 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  4. ^ a b "Warms words as Speaker Maskey retires from frontline politics". belfastmedia.com. 9 February 2024. Retrieved 16 February 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e "From barman to Belfast's first citizen". BBC News. 5 June 2002. Archived from the original on 23 July 2004. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
  6. ^ Whyte, Nicholas (25 March 2003). "Northern Ireland Assembly Elections 1982". ARK. Archived from the original on 13 February 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
  7. ^ Whyte, Nicholas (6 June 2002). "Maskey elected Lord Mayor of Belfast". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  8. ^ a b White, Robert (2017). Out of the Ashes: An Oral History of the Provisional Irish Republican Movement. Merrion Press. pp. 201–202. ISBN 9781785370939.
  9. ^ "A scrapper in more ways than one who talks the talk of inclusiveness". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  10. ^ O'Doherty, Malachi (25 October 2008). "Payout for an attack that never was". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  11. ^ McKittrick, David (15 June 2002). "Security services tried to kill me, says Belfast mayor". The Independent. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  12. ^ Nicholas Whyte (3 June 1998). "West Belfast". ARK. Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  13. ^ a b Nicholas Whyte (3 June 1998). "South Belfast". ARK. Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  14. ^ "Alex Maskey". Sinn Féin. Archived from the original on 4 November 2005. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
  15. ^ "Presbyterians welcome Lord Mayor Alex Maskey". BBC News. 10 June 2002. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  16. ^ "Maskey marks Somme with wreath". BBC News. 1 July 2002. Archived from the original on 19 June 2004. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
  17. ^ "Tricolour raised in City Hall". BBC. 4 September 2002. Archived from the original on 11 September 2002. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  18. ^ "Sinn Féin 'involved in ETA move'". BBC News. 24 March 2006. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
  19. ^ "Sinn Féin announces policing board members". RTÉ News. 23 April 2007. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  20. ^ "Alex Maskey Belfast's first republican mayor quits council seat". Belfast Telegraph. 13 October 2010. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  21. ^ McDonald, Henry (11 January 2020). "Northern Ireland assembly reopens three years after collapse". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 12 January 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  22. ^ McCormack, Jayne (2 August 2021). "Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey will not stand in next NI Assembly election". BBC News. Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  23. ^ Moriarty, Gerry (5 August 2021). "Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey to stand down as Assembly member next year". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  24. ^ "Alex Maskey and the UDA assassin". magill.ie. 3 January 2007. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  25. ^ McCreary, Alf (4 July 2008). "Maskey's marathon". Belfast Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  26. ^ "Who is giving up what for Lent?". Belfast Telegraph. 5 March 2014. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  27. ^ "Ex Belfast mayor discharged after heart attack". TCM Archives. 30 December 2005. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2007.
Civic offices
Preceded by Lord Mayor of Belfast
2002–03 		Succeeded by
Northern Ireland Forum
New forum Member for West Belfast
1996–1998 		Forum dissolved
Northern Ireland Assembly
New assembly MLA for Belfast West
1998–2003 		Succeeded by
Preceded by MLA for Belfast South
2003–2014 		Succeeded by
Preceded by MLA for Belfast West
2014–2022 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly
2020–2024 		Succeeded by

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