Alex Maskey
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Alex Maskey MLA |
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| Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast West |
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Assumed office 3 November 2014 |
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| Preceded by | Sue Ramsey |
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In office 25 June 1998 – 26 November 2003 |
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| Preceded by | New Creation |
| Succeeded by | Fra McCann |
| Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast South |
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In office 26 November 2003 – 22 October 2014 |
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| Preceded by | Monica McWilliams |
| Succeeded by | Máirtín Ó Muilleoir |
| 47th Lord Mayor of Belfast | |
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In office 2002–2003 |
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| Preceded by | Jim Rodgers |
| Succeeded by | Martin Morgan |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
8 January 1952 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Political party | Sinn Féin |
| Website | Sinn Féin profile |
Alex Maskey (born 8 January 1952) is an Irish politician who was the first member of Sinn Féin to serve as Belfast's Lord Mayor. He was Sinn Féin's longest sitting councillor and is currently an MLA for West Belfast as well as being a former councillor for the Laganbank area of Belfast.
Maskey was educated at St. Malachy's College and at the Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education and then worked in Belfast docks as a labourer and barman. He was a successful amateur boxer, having only lost 4 out of 75 fights.
When the Troubles broke out in 1969 he became involved with the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and was interned twice in the 1970s.
Maskey stood unsuccessfully in West Belfast in the 1982 Assembly Election. In 1983, as part of the armalite and ballot box strategy, Maskey won a by-election for a seat on Belfast City Council from the Upper Falls area and became the first member of Sinn Féin to be elected to Belfast City Council since the beginning of The Troubles and only the second to be elected in Northern Ireland. Maskey emerged as a key ally of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams' approach to the strategy. In 1987 he survived being shot at close range by loyalist paramilitaries.
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