Roy Beggs Jr

Roy Beggs Jr (born 3 July 1962) is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician, who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Antrim from 1998 until March 2022. Beggs is the son of the politician Roy Beggs, who was the UUP Member of Parliament (MP) for East Antrim from 1983 to 2005.[1]

This article is about the junior Roy Beggs Jr. For his father Roy Beggs, see Roy Beggs.

Roy Beggs Jr
Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly
In office
11 January 2020 – 31 May 2022
Preceded byDanny Kennedy
In office
12 May 2011 – 30 March 2016
Preceded byDavid McClarty
Succeeded byDanny Kennedy
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for East Antrim
In office
25 June 1998 – 27 March 2022
Preceded byNew Creation
Succeeded byDanny Donnelly
Personal details
Born (1962-07-03) 3 July 1962
Glenoe, Northern Ireland
NationalityBritish
Political partyUlster Unionist Party
SpouseSandra Beggs
Children3
Residence(s)Glenoe, County Antrim
Alma materQueen's University of Belfast
ProfessionEngineer
WebsiteOfficial webpage

He served as a local councillor on Carrickfergus Borough Council from 2001 to 2011. 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]

In 2011 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.

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."[3]

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."[4]

He lost his seat in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election.[5]

Election results
Roy Beggs MLA - Carrickfergus constituency office

Beggs Jr had successfully contested every election to the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 until he lost his seat to the Alliance Party in 2022. In 1998 Beggs Jr polled 16.1% of the popular vote; 16.7% in 2003; and 10.2% in 2007. Beggs Jr topped the poll in 1998 and 2003 and the UUP returned two candidates.[6]

References
  1. Cullen, Paul. "Son of Beggs may find it hard to match father's share of UUP vote". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  2. Information Office, Northern Ireland Assembly (26 November 2003). "Northern Ireland Assembly - Biography - Roy Beggs". archive.niassembly.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  3. "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)
  4. "Not Found | BreakingNews.ie". www.breakingnews.ie. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  5. "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.
  6. Nicholas. "East Antrim". Ark.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
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