David Calvert
Member of Craigavon Borough Council
In office
15 May 1985 – 17 May 1989
Preceded byDistrict created
Succeeded byRuth Allen
ConstituencyCraigavon
In office
30 May 1973 – 15 May 1985
Preceded byDistrict created
Succeeded byDistrict abolished
ConstituencyCraigavon Area D
Personal details
BornCounty Armagh, Northern Ireland
Political partyTraditional Unionist Voice (since 2007)
Democratic Unionist (1971 - 1993)
Other political
affiliations		Independent Unionist (2001 - 2007)

David Calvert (born 1946) is a Northern Irish unionist politician. He worked as a director of a family shirt manufacturing company. He was a founder member of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in County Armagh.[1]

Career

He was elected to Craigavon Borough Council in 1973,[2] and held his seat until he stood down in 1989.[3]

He stood for the party in Fermanagh and South Tyrone at the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention election in 1975, but was not elected.[4]

He then moved to Armagh, which he contested at the 1979 UK general election, but took only 8.6% of the vote.[5]

In the early 1980s, Calvert was Deputy Chairman of the DUP,[6] and in the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election, he won a seat.[5] In 1987, he was seriously injured in an assassination attempt on his life by the Irish National Liberation Army, but recovered fully.[7] The INLA had also tried to kill him in 1981.[8] He fell out with the DUP in 1993, in a dispute over candidate selection, and was expelled from the party.[9]

Calvert stood as an independent candidate in Craigavon at the 2001 local elections, and narrowly missed taking a seat. He stood again in 2005, without success.[10] In 2006, he attended a meeting of critics of the Belfast Agreement, addressed by Robert McCartney of the UK Unionist Party,[9] but at the 2007 Assembly election he stood as an independent again, this time in Upper Bann, taking 3.1% of the vote.[11]

Following the elections, Calvert joined Traditional Unionist Voice, and stood for the party in a by-election to Craigavon Borough Council in January 2010, taking a distant second place.[12]

References

  1. ^ Times Guide to the House of Commons, May 1979, p. 36
  2. ^ The Local Government Elections 1973-1981: Craigavon, Northern Ireland Elections
  3. ^ Local Government Elections 1985-1989: Craigavon, Northern Ireland Elections; accessed 11 November 2015.
  4. ^ Fermanagh and South Tyrone 1973-1982, Northern Ireland Elections; accessed 11 November 2015.
  5. ^ a b Armagh 1973-1983, Northern Ireland Elections; accessed 11 November 2015.
  6. ^ Dod's parliamentary companion, Issue 164, p. 557
  7. ^ Coogan, Tim Pat, The IRA, p. 357
  8. ^ The Belfast Telegraph, 19 September 1983.
  9. ^ a b Gareth Gordon, "Murmurs of 'betrayal' over power-sharing", BBC News, 8 December 2006
  10. ^ Craigavon Borough Council Elections 1993-2005, Northern Ireland Elections
  11. ^ Upper Bann, Northern Ireland Elections; accessed 11 November 2015.
  12. ^ "Ulster Unionists win by-election", Belfast Telegraph, 14 January 2010.
Northern Ireland Assembly (1982) New assembly MPA for Armagh 1982–1986 Assembly abolished
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