John Cushnahan

John Walls Cushnahan (born 23 July 1948) is a former politician in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland who served as leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland and then as a Member of the European Parliament for Fine Gael.

John Cushnahan
Leader of the Alliance Party
In office
1984–1987
Preceded byOliver Napier
Succeeded byJohn Alderdice
Member of the European Parliament
In office
1989–2004
ConstituencyMunster
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
In office
1982–1986
ConstituencyNorth Down
Personal details
Born (1948-07-23) 23 July 1948
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Political partyAlliance
Fine Gael
Other political
affiliations		Fine Gael
Alma materQueen's University Belfast
ProfessionTeacher

Cushnahan was educated at St Mary's Christian Brothers Grammar School and Queen's University, Belfast and worked as a teacher before going into politics. He worked as General Secretary of the Alliance Party from 1974 until 1982 and was a member of Belfast City Council between 1977 and 1985.

In 1982 he was elected to the Prior Assembly for North Down and two years later he became the new leader of Alliance, succeeding Oliver Napier. During his tenure as leader he sought to strengthen the party's links with the British Liberal Party. The Anglo Irish Agreement was signed during this period and Cushnahan faced the difficult position of giving Alliance support to it and facing the united opposition of the Unionist parties. However, when the Assembly was dissolved in 1986, Cushnahan found it financially difficult to remain in politics and so stood down as leader in 1987 to be succeeded by John Alderdice.

Two years later Cushnahan made a surprise political comeback when he moved to the Republic of Ireland and stood as a Fine Gael candidate in the 1989 election to the European Parliament, winning a seat in the Munster constituency. He was an MEP for fifteen years before retiring at the 2004 elections.[1]

Cushnahan now serves as a board member of the peace and reconciliation charity Co-operation Ireland.[2]

References
  1. http://www.irishobserver.com/free13.htm%5B%5D
  2. http://www.cooperationireland.org/aboutus/board#board Archived 21 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
Northern Ireland Assembly (1982)
New assembly MPA for North Down
1982–1986		 Assembly abolished
Party political offices
Preceded by
Bob Cooper?		 General Secretary of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
1974–1982		 Succeeded by
?
Preceded by
Oliver Napier		 Leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
1984–1987		 Succeeded by
John Alderdice
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.