David Calvert

Not to be confused with David Calvert-Smith.
For the Australian politician, see David Calvert (Australian politician).

David Calvert (born 1946) is a unionist politician in Northern Ireland.

Calvert worked as a director of a family shirt manufacturing company. He was a founder member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in County Armagh.[1] He was elected to Craigavon Borough Council in 1973,[2] and held his seat until he stood down in 1989.[3] Calvert also stood for the party in Fermanagh and South Tyrone at the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention election in 1975, but was not elected.[4] He then moved to Armagh, which he contested at the 1979 UK general election, but took only 8.6% of the vote.[5]

In the early 1980s, Calvert was Deputy Chairman of the DUP,[6] and in the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1982, he won a seat.[5] In 1987, he was seriously injured in one of a string of Irish National Liberation Army attacks on DUP councillors.[7] He fell out with the DUP in 1993, in a dispute over candidate selection, and was expelled from the party.[8]

Calvert stood as an independent candidate in Craigavon at the 2001 local elections, and narrowly missed taking a seat. He stood again in 2005, without success.[9] In 2006, he attended a meeting of critics of the Belfast Agreement, addressed by Robert McCartney of the UK Unionist Party,[8] but at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 2007 he stood as an independent again, this time in Upper Bann, taking 3.1% of the vote.[10]

Following the elections, Calvert joined Traditional Unionist Voice, and stood for the party in a by-election to Craigavon Borough Council in January 2010, taking a distant second place.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Times Guide to the House of Commons, May 1979, p.36
  2. ↑ The Local Government Elections 1973-1981: Craigavon, Northern Ireland Elections
  3. ↑ Local Government Elections 1985 - 1989: Craigavon, Northern Ireland Elections
  4. ↑ Fermanagh and South Tyrone 1973-1982, Northern Ireland Elections
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Armagh 1973-1983, Northern Ireland Elections
  6. ↑ Dod's parliamentary companion, Issue 164, p.557
  7. ↑ Tim Pat Coogan, The IRA, p.357
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Gareth Gordon, "Murmurs of 'betrayal' over power-sharing", BBC News, 8 December 2006
  9. ↑ Craigavon Borough Council Elections 1993 - 2005, Northern Ireland Elections
  10. ↑ Upper Bann, Northern Ireland Elections
  11. ↑ "Ulster Unionists win by-election", Belfast Telegraph, 14 January 2010