Tom Hartley (politician)

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Tom Hartley
65th Lord Mayor of Belfast
In office
1 June 2008 – 1 June 2009
Preceded byJim Rodgers
Succeeded byNaomi Long
Member of
Belfast City Council
In office
19 May 1993 – 4 September 2013[1]
Preceded bySeán McKnight
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
ConstituencyLower Falls
Personal details
BornBelfast, Northern Ireland
Political partySinn Féin
Websitewww.sinnfein.ie

Tom Hartley (born 1945 or 1946) is a historian and Irish republican politician. Hartley grew up in the Falls Road area of Belfast and became a republican activist in the late 1960s. In 1970, he was imprisoned in the Crumlin Road gaol for ten months for riotous behaviour; he was again detained in 1978. During the 1981 Irish hunger strike, Hartley chaired the POW Committee.[2]

Hartley became active in Sinn Féin, serving as the General Secretary in the mid-1980s and the Chair in the early 1990s.[2] In 1993, he was elected to Belfast City Council for the Lower Falls and has held his seat at each subsequent election.[3] Hartley was one of three Sinn Féin candidates in Northern Ireland at the European election in 1994. Although he took only 3.8% of the votes cast and was not elected, he did receive more votes than the party's other candidates.[4] In 2008, Hartley became the second Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast.[2] In his spare time, he conducts tours of Belfast City Cemetery[5] and authored the 2006 book Written in Stone: The History of Belfast City Cemetery.[6]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Black, Rebecca (4 September 2013). "Sinn Fein's Tom Hartley departs Belfast City Hall as 'a much better place'". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  2. ^ a b c "Sinn Féin's Tom Hartley elected Mayor of Belfast", An Phoblacht, 5 June 2008
  3. ^ Belfast City Council Elections 1993-2005, Northern Ireland Elections
  4. ^ The 1994 European elections, Northern Ireland Elections
  5. ^ Laura Friel, "A winter's tale", An Phoblacht, 16 December 1999
  6. ^ Written in Stone, Belfast City Council
Party political offices
Preceded by General Secretary of Sinn Féin
1984–1986?
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chairperson of Sinn Féin
1990–1996
Succeeded by
Civic offices
Preceded by Lord Mayor of Belfast
2008–2009
Succeeded by