Alban Maginness (SDLP)

He was educated at St Malachy's College, Belfast and the University of Ulster at Coleraine. He read for the Northern Ireland Bar at Queen's University Belfast, and was called to the Northern Ireland Bar Michaelmas in 1976 and the Bar of Ireland Michaelmas in 1984. In 2007 he completed a Masters in Human Rights Law from Queen’s University, Belfast.

North Belfast through and through, Alban has represented the area for over two decades in Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Assembly. He made history by becoming the first nationalist Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1997.

The party’s justice spokesman, he has been recently appointed to chair the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Enterprise, Trade and Investment committee. He is also chair of the SDLP Assembly Group.

Alban is passionately pro-European and regularly represents the SDLP at meetings of the Party of European Socialists. He has served on Europe's Committee of the Regions and in the National Forum on Europe.