Nelson McCausland

Nelson McCausland, MLA
Minister for Social Development
Preceded by	Alex Attwood
Member of the Legislative Assembly for Northern Ireland
Incumbent
Assumed office 2003
Preceded by	Fraser Agnew
Personal details
Born	(1951-08-15) 15 August 1951 Belfast, Northern Ireland
Political party	Democratic Unionist Party
Alma mater	Queen's University, Belfast Oxford University
Religion	Independent Methodist
Other organisations	Orange Order member
Website	DUP website

Nelson McCausland (right), Orange Parade, Belfast, 12 July 2011

Nelson McCausland, MLA (born 15 August 1951) is a unionist politician from Northern Ireland. He is the current Minister (MLA) for Social Development in the Northern Ireland Executive.

Education

He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland and educated at Belfast Royal Academy, Worcester College, Oxford and Queen's University. He is a former teacher and a member of the Belfast Education and Library Board.

Career

McCausland made his political debut in the 1982 Assembly elections, standing in North Belfast for the United Ulster Unionist Party (UUUP), when he was eliminated early on in the count. He appears to have quit the UUUP before the party was formally disbanded in May 1984 as he ran as an Independent Unionist in a by-election to Belfast Area H in February 1984,^[1] but polled only 9% of the vote. He stood again the following year for the Oldpark area in the local government elections,^[2] but managed only 5% of the vote. He finally succeeded in gaining election for the Castle area in 1989, taking the seat of Alfie Redpath, the by-election victor of five years before.^[2] Around this time McCausland briefly served as a member of the Ulster Independence Committee.^[3]

He was re-elected in 1993 as an Independent Unionist but announced the week after the election that he would join the Ulster Unionist Party and became the High Sheriff of Belfast in 1997.^[4] He was a candidate for the UUP in the 1996 Northern Ireland Forum elections, but was placed third on the UUP list, effectively giving him no chance of election. He attempted to dislodge Cecil Walker as North Belfast MP during the 1990s.^[5] Disenchanted with the UUP under David Trimble, whom he had supported for the leadership, he defected to the Democratic Unionist Party in 2001 and was re-elected as a local councillor for the Oldpark area in 2001 and 2005. McCausland represented the Council on the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and the Community Relations Council.^[6] He stepped down as a councillor in November 2010.^[4]

He has been a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2003. He has been suspended twice from the Assembly for unparliamentary language^[7] in respect of allegations of Provisional IRA membership made against Gerry Adams.

In June 2009, he was appointed Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, and it was in his capacity as Minister that in May 2010, after lobbying by the Caleb Foundation pressure group, he wrote to the Ulster Museum requesting that it display a range of Creationist and other anti-Evolution material, claiming that it was the Museum's job to "reflect the views of all the people in Northern Ireland" rather than to reflect the understanding of modern science. In response to McCausland's letter, the prominent evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, said "If the museum was to go down that road then perhaps they should bring in the stork theory of where babies come from. Or perhaps the museum should introduce the flat earth theory".^[8]

In 2011, he was appointed as Minister for Social Development.^[9]

Regarding coverage of a loyalist band filmed playing tunes outside a Catholic church, McCausland said, "If someone was intending to be provocative or inflammatory which is the suggestion that is being made, it wasn't really very provocative...It was just an empty building. There was no-one there to be provoked."^[10]

Affiliations

He was Director of The Ulster-Scots Heritage Council from 1997 until his election to the Assembly in 2003, when he was succeeded by his party and Council colleague William Humphrey. McCausland served as DUP spokesman and Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure.^[11]

He is a member of Cross of Saint Patrick LOL 688. McCausland served as the Northern Ireland Secretary of the Lord's Day Observance Society from 1983–93.^[12] He has been described as a "Protestant fundamentalist".^[13] Further, McCausland is of the belief that Ulster Protestants descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel,^[14] and has addressed events organised by the British-Israel-World Federation.^[15][16]

Works

• Patrick, Apostle of Ulster: A Protestant View of Patrick. Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland; ISBN 978-0-9501444-5-0
• Cross of St Patrick LOL 688 publication on St Patrick

References

External links

• Stratagem profile
• Official blog