Jim Kirkpatrick

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Jim Kirkpatrick is a Unionist politician who has represented both the Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party twice. He sat in the 1982 Assembly and is currently a Belfast City councillor for the DUP.

Kirkpatrick was first elected as a UUP member of the Assembly for Belfast South in 1982. Three years later he was elected to Belfast City Council, representing the Balmoral electoral area, which covers the Lisburn, Malone and Donegal Road areas of the city ^[1].

Kirkpatrick joined the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in 1996 and lost his council seat in 1997, having moved from Balmoral to Laganbank. He subsequently rejoined the UUP and became chairman of the Drumbo branch in Lagan Valley. ^[2]

He was selected to contest the elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2003 by Lagan Valley UUP in a controversial selection meeting^[3] but polled less that 700 votes and was quickly eliminated ^[4].

Following this, in December 2004 he again defected to the DUP and was returned for that party to Belfast City Council in 2005, regaining his original seat in Balmoral. In 2007 however, Kirkpatrick was pictured at a fundraising dinner with Jim Allister MEP, held to raise funds for a new Unionist Party opposed to powersharung^[5].

Councillor Kirkpatrick was first elected to the council in 1983. He has also served as High Sheriff before, having fulfilled the role in 1990. Councillor Kirkpatrick was sworn in again as High Sheriff of Belfast in a traditional ceremony at Belfast City Hall in January 2007, succeeding Councillor William Humphrey ^[6]