Alan McFarland

Who is Alan McFarland?

Major Robert Alan McFarland, MLA was an Independent Unionist politician and MLA for North Down in Northern Ireland. He lost his Assembly seat in the 2011 election.

He attended Rockport School near Holywood and Campbell College in east Belfast. After a short career in banking he was admitted to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in 1974. He is also a member of Mensa.

He retired from the Army in 1992 with the rank of major and became a Parliamentary Assistant to James Molyneaux MP and the Rev. Martin Smyth MP. In 1995, he was selected by the Ulster Unionists to contest the North Down by-election over the favourite for the nomination, Sir Reg Empey, but was beaten in the election by Robert McCartney. He was again beaten by McCartney in the 1997 general election, but by a narrower margin.

In 1996, he was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue for North Down and was involved in the talks process that resulted in the Belfast Agreement of 1998. He was one of three UUP members returned to the Assembly for North Down in the first elections to the body in 1998 and he retained his seat in the November 2003 election and March 2007 election.