Roy Beggs Jr

Roy Beggs Jr MLA (born 3 July 1962) is a Northern Ireland Unionist politician, and the son of the politician Roy Beggs. He was born in Larne, and lives in Glenoe.^[1] He is also a Presbyterian.^[2]

He is currently an Ulster Unionist member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for East Antrim, which his father formerly represented in the Westminster Parliament. He served as a local councillor on Carrickfergus Borough Council from 2001 to 2011. During this period he had been elected as Chairman of the District Policing Partnership and Vice-chairman of the Local Strategic Partnership and of the Community Safety Partnership.

In 2011 Beggs was elected as a Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He serves as a member of the Assembly’s Social Development Committee and the Public Accounts Committee. He has served as a member of the Health Committee, Environment Committee, Finance Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Agriculture Committee and Regional Development Committee. He is the Ulster Unionist Party spokesperson on Social Development.

In 2003, Beggs succeeded in having Irish rebel music removed from the in-flight entertainment of Aer Lingus airplanes. He complained of the "blatant promotion of opposing points of view" on a music channel during a flight from Dublin to Boston after seeing that Derek Warfield had a radio channel dedicated to his music. Beggs, it was the same as "the speeches of Osama Bin Laden being played on a trans-Atlantic Arabian airline."^[3]

Aer Lingus removed the material from their flights stating: "It is something that should not have been on board and we removed it immediately we became aware of it."^[4]

Election results

Beggs Jr has successfully contested every election for the Northern Ireland Assembly since 1998. In 1998 Beggs Jr polled 16.1% of the popular vote; 16.7% in 2003; and 10.2% in 2007. Beggs Jr topped the poll in 1998 and 2003 and the UUP returned two candidates.^[5]

References

External links

• Roy Beggs Jr's website