Máirtín Ó Muilleoir (born 31 December 1959Profile, niassembly.gov.uk; accessed 10 February 2016.) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician, author, publisher, and businessman, who served as the 70th Lord Mayor of Belfast from 2013 to 2014.
Ó Muilleoir's siblings include writer, blogger, and Huffington Post columnist Adrian Millar,Adrian Millar/Máirtín Ó Muilleoir relation, thewildgeese.irish; accessed 5 June 2015. and journalist and editor Gerry Millar/Gearóid Ó Muilleoir of The Belfast Telegraph.
Early life and education Ó Muilleoir was educated at St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast, and at Queen's University Belfast.
Career Business career In 1997, Ó Muilleoir became part-owner of the Andersonstown News, which subsequently purchased the New York-based Irish Echo. A fluent Irish speaker, he has interests in other Irish and American businesses. He served as a temporary director of Northern Ireland Water.
Political career Ó Muilleoir entered politics in 1985, when he stood as a Sinn Féin candidate for the Upper Falls area and narrowly missed out on being elected.Belfast city council election results 1985–1989, ARK, accessed 21 June 2013
When Pip Glendinning of the Alliance Party resigned her seat two years later due to the birth of Glendinning's daughter, Ó Muilleoir won the resulting by-election in October 1987. During his time on the council, he initiated a number of legal actions over what he claimed was discrimination by the unionist-dominated council, detailing these experiences in his book, The Dome of Delight.
He was re-elected at the 1989 and 1993 local elections, retiring at the 1997 local elections to concentrate on his business interests. In 1996, he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Northern Ireland Forum election in North Down.1996 Forum Elections: Candidates in North Down, ark.ac.uk; accessed 5 March 2017.
He re-entered politics in 2011, when he was elected as a Belfast City Councillor for Balmoral, South Belfast, gaining the seat previously held by Jim Kirkpatrick of the Democratic Unionist Party, and was elected Lord Mayor in 2013, serving a one-year term.Balmoral election results, 1993–2011, ARK.ac.uk; accessed 21 June 2013.
In 2014, he was co-opted as an MLA into the Northern Ireland Assembly.Profile, belfasttelegraph.co.uk; accessed 17 May 2015. He stood in Belfast South in the 2015 United Kingdom general election, losing to the Social Democratic and Labour Party incumbent, Alasdair McDonnell.Belfast South result, BBC News, accessed 6 July 2016 On 12 May 2016, he was appointed Minister of Finance in the Northern Ireland Executive. Ó Muilleoir is new North finance minister, The Irish Echo, 25 May 2016, accessed 22 January 2017 He resigned as an MLA in December 2019, and Deirdre Hargey was co-opted in his place.
References
External links Profile, companieshouse.gov.uk; accessed 9 December 2016. Profile, heraldscotland.com; accessed 25 February 2017.