Roy Beggs Jr

Roy Beggs Jr
Roy Beggs Jr
Member of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 18 May 2023
Preceded by	Keith Turner
Constituency	Larne Lough
Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly
	In office; 11 January 2020 – 31 May 2022
Preceded by	Danny Kennedy
Succeeded by	John Blair (2024)
	In office; 12 May 2011 – 30 March 2016
Preceded by	David McClarty
Succeeded by	Danny Kennedy
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly; for East Antrim
	In office; 25 June 1998 – 27 March 2022
Preceded by	New Creation
Succeeded by	Danny Donnelly
Member of Carrickfergus Borough Council
	In office; 7 June 2001 – 5 May 2011
Preceded by	Joseph Reid
Succeeded by	John Stewart
Constituency	Knockagh
Personal details
Born	3 July 1962 (age 62); Glenoe, Northern Ireland
Nationality	British
Political party	Ulster Unionist Party
Spouse	Sandra Beggs
Children	3
Residence(s)	Glenoe, County Antrim
Alma mater	Queen's University of Belfast
Profession	Engineer
Website	Official webpage

Roy Beggs Jr (born 3 July 1962) is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician, serving as a Mid and East Antrim Councillor for the Larne Lough DEA since 2023. Beggs served as a Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly from 2011 to 2016, and 2020 to 2022. He was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Antrim from 1998 to 2022.

Political career

Beggs was first elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for East Antrim at the 1998 election, where he topped the poll. ^[1]

At the 2001 local elections, he was elected to Carrickfergus Borough Council, representing the Knockagh District.

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.^[2]

Beggs was re-elected to the Assembly at the 2003 election, with 16.7% of first-preference votes.

At the 2007 Assembly election, Beggs was elected on the 12th count with 10.2% of first-preference votes.

Beggs did not seek re-election as a councillor in the 2011 local elections, but did retain his Assembly seat in the Assembly election held the same day.

Following this, Beggs was elected as a Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He served as a member of the Assembly's Social Development Committee, Public Accounts Committee, 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.

Beggs was the Ulster Unionist candidate for East Antrim at the 2015 UK General election, where he came second to the incumbent MP, Sammy Wilson, of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

He lost his seat to Danny Donnelly of the Alliance Party in the 2022 Assembly election.^[3]

In the 2023 local elections, Beggs was elected onto Mid and East Antrim Borough Council as his party’s representative for the Larne Lough District.

Personal life

Beggs is the son of the politician Roy Beggs, who was the UUP Member of Parliament (MP) for East Antrim from 1983 to 2005.^[4]

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 militant, armed republicanism" 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."^[5]

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."^[6]

References

^ Nicholas. "East Antrim". Ark.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
^ Information Office, Northern Ireland Assembly (26 November 2003). "Northern Ireland Assembly - Biography - Roy Beggs". archive.niassembly.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
^ "NI election results 2022: Sinn Féin tops first preference vote in NI election". BBC. 6 May 2022. Archived from the original on 6 May 2022.
^ Cullen, Paul. "Son of Beggs may find it hard to match father's share of UUP vote". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
^ "Archived copy". www.roy-beggs.co.uk. Archived from the original on 13 April 2003. Retrieved 17 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "Not Found | BreakingNews.ie". www.breakingnews.ie. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2022.

External links

Northern Ireland Assembly
New assembly	MLA for East Antrim 1998–2022	Succeeded by Danny Donnelly
Preceded by John Dallat David McClarty Francie Molloy	Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly 2011–2016 With: John Dallat	Succeeded by Danny Kennedy Patsy McGlone

[1] Nicholas. "East Antrim". Ark.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 3 March 2017.

[2] Information Office, Northern Ireland Assembly (26 November 2003). "Northern Ireland Assembly - Biography - Roy Beggs". archive.niassembly.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2022.

[election_info-3] "NI election results 2022: Sinn Féin tops first preference vote in NI election". BBC. 6 May 2022. Archived from the original on 6 May 2022.

[4] Cullen, Paul. "Son of Beggs may find it hard to match father's share of UUP vote". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 April 2022.

[5] "Archived copy". www.roy-beggs.co.uk. Archived from the original on 13 April 2003. Retrieved 17 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[6] "Not Found | BreakingNews.ie". www.breakingnews.ie. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2022.

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