*** Welcome to piglix ***

John Alderdice

The Right Honourable
The Lord Alderdice
John Alderdice profile.jpg
President of Liberal International
In office
2005–2009
Preceded by Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck
Succeeded by Hans van Baalen
1st Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly
In office
1 July 1998 – 29 February 2004
Deputy Sir John Gorman (2000–02)
Donovan McClelland (2000–07)
Jane Morrice (2000–07)
Jim Wilson (2002–07)
Preceded by New position
Succeeded by Eileen Bell
Leader of the Alliance Party
In office
1987–1998
Preceded by John Cushnahan
Succeeded by Séan Neeson
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Belfast East
In office
25 June 1998 – 26 November 2003
Preceded by New Creation
Succeeded by Naomi Long
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
8 October 1996
Personal details
Born (1955-03-28) 28 March 1955 (age 61)
Ballymena, Northern Ireland
Political party Liberal Democrats
Other political
affiliations
Alliance
Spouse(s) Joan Hill
Children 3
Alma mater Queen's University Belfast
Religion Presbyterian

John Thomas Alderdice, Baron Alderdice (born 28 March 1955) is a Northern Ireland politician. He was Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1998–2004, leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland 1987–1998, and since 1996 has sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat.

Alderdice was born to the Rev. David Alderdice and Annie Margaret Helena Shields. He was educated at Ballymena Academy and the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB) where he studied medicine and qualified in 1978. In 1977, he married Joan Hill, with whom he has two sons and one daughter. He worked part-time as a consultant psychiatrist in psychotherapy in the NHS from 1988 until he retired from psychiatric practice in 2010. He also lectured at Queen's University's Faculty of Medicine between 1991 and 1999.

Alderdice claims a distant relationship to John King, a nineteenth century Australian explorer and the sole survivor of the Burke and Wills expedition.

The Alliance Party was formed in 1970 as an alternative to sectarian politics. Alderdice was on the Executive Committee of the party between 1984 and 1998, Chair of the Policy Committee between 1985 and 1987, the party Vice-chair in 1987, before becoming the party leader ahead of the 1987 general election, and contested Belfast East for the party in 1987 and 1992. He received 32.1% of the vote in 1987, the highest percentage achieved by Alliance in an individual seat in a Westminster election until Naomi Long's historic victory for the party in Belfast East in the 2010 general election. In 1988, in Alliance's keynote post-Anglo Irish Agreement document, "Governing with Consent", Alderdice called for a devolved power-sharing government based on a voluntary coalition elected by a qualified majority vote. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Alliance's vote across Northern Ireland stabilised at between 6% and 8%.


...
Wikipedia

...