Alex Maskey

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Alex Maskey (2012)

Alex Maskey (born January 28, 1952 in Belfast , Northern Ireland ) is a Northern Irish politician of the Sinn Féin party .

youth

Maskey came from a Catholic working-class family and found first employment in the docks of Belfast and later as a bartender. After that he was an amateur boxer for several years. With the start of the Troubles around 1969, he joined the Republican movement and was interned twice by British security forces.

Political activity

Maskey is one of the leading exponents of Gerry Adams' political strategy . In 1983 he was elected as the first member of Sinn Féin to the Belfast City Council. As a representative of the IRA-affiliated party, he became the target of loyalist assassins. He barely survived an attack by the Ulster Defense Association in 1987 .

In the local elections in 2002, Sinn Féin won the most votes and Maskey was named Lord Mayor of Belfast. He was the city's first Republican mayor. As a gesture of reconciliation, he laid a wreath at a memorial for Protestant soldiers of the British Army who died in the Battle of the Somme in World War I. Nevertheless, he was unable to dispel the reservations of many Unionist MPs.

In 2003 he moved to the Northern Ireland Assembly as a MP for the constituency of South Belfast . He acts as his party's spokesman on police matters and is a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board , a bipartisan body that oversees the work of the Police Service of Northern Ireland . Maskey also appeared internationally as a representative of the peace process in Northern Ireland. In 2006 he mediated the negotiations between the Spanish government and the Basque underground movement ETA , which led to a (ultimately short) ceasefire.

After the Northern Ireland Assembly was unable to act for more than 3 years, the representatives of the Protestant DUP and Sinn Féin agreed to continue their work in the regional parliament in January 2020. Alex Maskey was chosen as the new speaker .

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ BBC: Maskey marks Somme with wreath July 1, 2002
  2. ↑ BBC: SF policing board nominees named April 23, 2007
  3. ↑ BBC: Sinn Fein involved in Eta move March 24, 2006
  4. ↑ Northern Ireland assembly reopens three years after collapse. The Guardian , accessed January 12, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Maskey, Alex
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Northern Irish politician (Sinn Féin)
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Belfast