Introduction
Alban Maginness (born 9 July 1950) is a politician from Holywood, County Down, in Northern Ireland. From 1998 to 2016, he was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast North.
Early life and education
He completed his grammar education at St. Malachy's College, Belfast. He then attended the University of Ulster and Queen's University of Belfast before being called to the Bar in 1976.
Whilst at university he became involved in the non-violent protests organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. Maginness participated in the famous civil rights march in Derry in 1972 at which British troops killed 14 unarmed civilians. This event, now termed Bloody Sunday, has gone down in Northern Ireland politics as one of the turning points in The Troubles that contributed to the development of the Provisional IRA.
Political career
Maginness became increasingly involved in politics and became a member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. He stood unsuccessfully for the party in East Belfast in the 1975 Constitutional Convention election.
He has been an elected member of Belfast City Council since 1985 and in 1997 he became the first Catholic politician to hold the position of Lord Mayor of Belfast. In 1998 he was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly to represent Belfast North.
He was Chair of the SDLP from 1984 to 1991.
In November 2008 Maginness had his trademark moustache shaved off for the BBC's Children in Need.
Maginness was the SDLP candidate for the 2009 European Election.
Maginness accused the Secretary of State of interning dissident republican Marian Price without trial, saying "We do not support putting people away in prison because of intelligence or because of some political point of view and we are convinced that she has been detained without trial because of that by the secretary of state."
In 2012, 2014 and 2015, Maginness was one of a minority of SDLP MLAs to not vote in favour of same-sex marriage.