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Máirtín Ó Muilleoir
Belfast Lord Mayor Máirtín Ó Muilleoir welcoming participants of the 2013 Horasis Global India Business Meeting (cropped).jpg
Ó Muilleoir in 2013
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Belfast South
In office
4 November 2014 – 7 January 2020
Preceded by Alex Maskey
Succeeded by Deirdre Hargey
Minister for Finance
In office
12 May 2016 – 7 January 2017
Preceded by Mervyn Storey
Succeeded by Conor Murphy
70th Lord Mayor of Belfast
In office
2 June 2013 – 2 June 2014
Preceded by Gavin Robinson
Succeeded by Nichola Mallon
Member of Belfast City Council
In office
5 May 2011 – 7 January 2020
Preceded by Jim Kirkpatrick
Succeeded by Geraldine McAteer
Constituency Balmoral
Personal details
Born (1959-12-31) 31 December 1959 (age 64)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality Irish
Political party Sinn Féin
Spouse Helen O'Hare
Children 4
Alma mater Queen's University Belfast
Profession
  • Publisher
  • businessman

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir (born 31 December 1959) is an Irish Sinn Féin politician, author, publisher and businessman, who served as the 70th Lord Mayor of Belfast from 2013 to 2014.

Ó Muilleoir's siblings include writer, blogger and Huffington Post columnist Adrian Millar, and journalist and editor Gerry Millar/Gearóid Ó Muilleoir of The Belfast Telegraph.

Early life and education

Ó Muilleoir was educated at St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast and at Queen's University Belfast.

Career

Business career

In 1997, Ó Muilleoir became part-owner of the Andersonstown News, which subsequently purchased the New York-based Irish Echo. A fluent Irish speaker, he has interests in other Irish and American businesses. He served as a temporary director of Northern Ireland Water.

Political career

Ó Muilleoir entered politics in 1985, when he stood as a Sinn Féin candidate for the Upper Falls area and narrowly missed out on being elected.

When Pip Glendinning of the Alliance Party resigned her seat two years later due to the birth of the Glendinning's daughter, Ó Muilleoir won the resulting by-election in October 1987. During his time on the council, he initiated a number of legal actions over what he claimed was discrimination by the Unionist-dominated council, detailing these experiences in his book, The Dome of Delight.

He was re-elected at the 1989 and 1993 local elections, retiring at the 1997 local elections to concentrate on his business interests. In 1996 he was an unsuccessful candidate in the Northern Ireland Forum election in North Down.

He re-entered politics in 2011, when he was elected as a Belfast City Councillor for Balmoral, South Belfast, gaining the seat previously held by Jim Kirkpatrick of the Democratic Unionist Party, and was elected Lord Mayor in 2013, serving a one-year term.

In 2014, he was co-opted as an MLA into the Northern Ireland Assembly. He stood in Belfast South in the 2015 United Kingdom general election, losing to the Social Democratic and Labour Party incumbent, Alasdair McDonnell. On 12 May 2016, he was appointed Minister of Finance in the Northern Ireland Executive. He resigned as an MLA in December 2019, and Deirdre Hargey was co-opted in his place.

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