Oliver McMullan

Oliver McMullan is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who was elected as an MLA to the Northern Ireland Assembly to represent the East Antrim constituency in May 2011 and elected to Larne Borough Council in the 2011 local elections.^[1][2]

McMullan was active in business life in his native Cushendall, where he owned a local pub.^[3] He entered politics in 1993 when he was elected as an Independent to Moyle District Council, topping the poll.^[4] He also topped the poll in the same elections in 1997^[4] and 2001,^[4] standing as either an Independent or Independent Nationalist.

McMullan headed the Independent McMullan list in the 1996 elections to the Northern Ireland Forum. He received 670 votes (2%) in North Antrim^[5] with the list receiving 927 votes (0.12%) across Northern Ireland, meaning that no candidates were elected. McMullan failed to be elected in the same constituency in the 1998 elections where he polled 1.0%.

He joined Sinn Féin before the 2003 Assembly elections and stood unsuccessfully for the party in East Antrim in those elections and the 2007 Assembly elections. He was re-elected to Moyle District Council in 2005 serving as the first Sinn Féin chairman of the council^[3] and a board member on the North Eastern Education and Library Board.^[3] He was also a member of Sinn Féin's All Ireland Advisory Committees for Agriculture, Tourism and Rural Development ^[6]

After 18 years as a member of Moyle council, McMullan contested and won a seat on the Larne Borough Council election in May 2011 standing in and topping the poll in the Coast Road electoral area.^[7] In doing so he has become become the first Sinn Fein representative to become a councillor in the predominately Unionist council.

Just over a week after gaining election he received a death threat from a group claiming to be called the 'Loyalist Action Force'.^[8]

References