Brian Wilson (Northern Ireland politician)

For other people named Brian Wilson, see Brian Wilson (disambiguation).

Brian Wilson former MLA
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for North Down
In office 7 March 2007 – 2011
Preceded by	Robert McCartney
Succeeded by	Steven Agnew
Personal details
Born	(1943-05-15) 15 May 1943 Bangor, Northern Ireland
Nationality	British
Political party	Independent Greens (2004-2011) Alliance (1975-1997)
Spouse(s)	Anne Wilson
Children	2
Alma mater	Open University University of Strathclyde
Profession	Civil servant, Academic

Brian Wilson MLA (born 1943) is an Independent and former Green Party politician in Northern Ireland. He was the first member of the Green Party to be elected as member of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Early life

Wilson was born in 1943 in Bangor, County Down. He attended Trinity Primary School and Bangor Grammar School. A former civil servant in the Department of Education, he took studied part-time at the Open University and in 1973 left the civil service to do a full-time master's degree in Politics at the University of Strathclyde.

Career

Academic career

On his return to Northern Ireland he lectured at Omagh Technical College in 1979 from where he transferred to the College of Business Studies as a lecturer in government and economics. He was a senior lecturer at BIFHE for 24- years, until he retired in 2003.

Political career

In the 1970s he became a member of the Northern Ireland Labour Party and then joined the Alliance Party in 1975. He was elected to North Down Borough Council at the 1981 local elections and was elected Mayor in 1993/1994. During this period, he unsuccessfully contested North Down in the 1982 Assembly Election.

In 1997 Wilson left the Alliance Party and was elected as an Independent councillor for Bangor West in 2001 topping the poll for the fourth successive election with 1871 votes (1.6 quotas). In 2003 he again stood as an independent candidate for the Assembly increasing his share of the poll by 10% and finishing tenth out of 19 candidates on the first count.

In 2004 he joined the Green Party. The following year he became the first Green Party representative to be elected to public office in Northern Ireland when he again topped the poll in Bangor West.

Then in 2007 he won the first Green Party's seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly, winning a seat in the North Down constituency on the 10th count, after increasing the Green vote from 730 to 2,839 first preferences. He served on the Environment Committee, DRD Committee and Privileges Committee in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

In 2011 he stood down from the Northern Ireland Assembly, in favour of his research assistant Steven Agnew who retained the seat for Green Party.

He stood instead for Bangor West seat on North Down Council, as an Independent standing against both his wife (Anne Wilson, Alliance Party) and the Green Party candidate. Both Wilson and his wife were reelected as councillors. He again topped the poll with his highest ever percentage of first preference votes (1458).

Personal life

In 1979 he married Anne whom he met when studying in Scotland. They have two children Scott (born 1980) and Allan (born 1982) and two step children Roy and Caroline.

He was a member of the Board of Governors of Rathmore Primary School from 1981 - 2011. He is presently a member of the BoG of St. Columbanus College, former member of South Eastern Education and Library Board, former member of North Down District Policing Partnership, former member of the Eastern Health Board & Health Council and former governor of the North Down & Ards Institute.

Brian is also a member of Greenpeace, RSPB and Friends of the Earth.

External links

• Personal site
• Councillor details on North Down Council site
• Greens make assembly breakthrough, BBC

Political offices
Preceded by Ellie McKay	Mayor of North Down 1993 - 1994	Succeeded by Roy Bradford
Northern Ireland Assembly
Preceded by Robert McCartney	MLA for North Down 2007 - 2011	Succeeded by Steven Agnew