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Malachi Curran

Malachi Curran is a Northern Irish politician.

Career[edit]

He was elected to Down District Councilin1981 as a Labour candidate. He did not stand in 1985, but was elected to the same council in 1989 for the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).^[1]

He resigned from the SDLP to stand as a Labour coalition candidate for the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996. Although the group did not win any constituency seats, it was awarded two top-up seats, which went to Hugh Casey and Curran.^{[citation needed]}

Shortly after the elections to the Forum, the Coalition dissolved. Curran was recognised as leader of the Labour group in the Forum.^[2]

With seven other leaders of Forum groupings that had supported the Good Friday Agreement, he won the Harriman Democracy Prize of the National Democratic Institute in 1998.^[3]

Curran then formed the Labour Party of Northern Ireland. Under this label, he failed to take a seat standing in South Down at the 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election, winning only 1% of the first preference votes.^[4]

Curran stood as an independent at the 2003 elections to the Assembly, but saw his vote drop to 0.4%.^[4] At the 2007 election, he placed bottom in South Down, taking just 123 votes.^[5]

After leaving politics, Curran became the owner of a pub, the Ann Boal Inn in Killough, County Down, following the death of Ann Boal, who had been a longtime friend of Curran.^[6]

References[edit]