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Revision as of 09:02, 11 April 2006
Nigel Alexander Dodds, OBE (born August 20, 1958) is a barrister and Northern Ireland unionist politician. He is a Member of the British Parliament for North Belfast, and a member of the Democratic Unionist Party. He has been Lord Mayor of Belfast twice, and from 1993 has been General Secretary of the DUP. Dodds became North Belfast's MP in the 2001 UK general elections. He is also a member of the currently-suspended Northern Ireland Assembly, and had been Minister for Social Development in the power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive.
Nigel Dodds was born in Londonderry, and was educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh (whose other famous alumni include Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett) and St John's College, Cambridge. Upon graduation, he returned to Northern Ireland and after further training was called to the bar.
His family were heavily involved in the Orange Order and unionist politics; his father, Joe, is a long standing DUP member of Fermanagh District Council. Dodds himself entered municipal politics in 1981 when he stood unsuccessfully for the Enniskillen part of Fermanagh District Council. 4 years later in 1985, he was elected to Belfast City Council for the religiously and socially mixed Castle electoral area in the north of the city.
Dodds, with the advantage of his education, soon rose to prominence in the party. He was elected for two one-year terms as Lord Mayor of Belfast (an honorary position) in June 1988 and June 1992. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996 and topped the poll in North Belfast in both sets of elections to the reconstituted Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998 and 2003. Dodds was awarded the OBE in 1997, an award which some viewed as an attempt to win DUP support for the Good Friday Agreement.
The troubled and fragmented constituency of North Belfast, with its kaleidoscope of rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant areas, had historically been strong territory for the DUP, with Johnny McQuade representing the constituency in the British House of Commons from 1979-1983. However, the DUP had stood down in favour of the Ulster Unionist Party in Westminster elections in the late 1980s and 1990s, in order to avoid splitting the unionist vote. However, in 2001, Dodds challenged sitting Ulster Unionist Party MP Cecil Walker, despite the dangers of losing the mixed constituency to a nationalist. However, after a series of faltering TV performances in which Walker appeared to show signs of senility, Dodds won just over 40% of the vote, and a comfortable 6,387 majority over Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly, with Walker being pushed into a humiliating fourth place.
Dodds was Minister of Social Development in the Northern Ireland Executive from 21 November, 1999 but resigned on 27 July, 2000, then served again from 24 October, 2001, when the devolved institutions were restored, until resigning on 11 October, 2002, shortly before the executive and the Assembly were collapsed by the Ulster Unionist Party.
Dodds was perceived as a quietly effective Minister, carrying out important reforms on the control of public sector housing, but was dogged by allegations that formulae allocating funding to deprived areas were favouring Protestant areas. Not only was Dodds Minister for Social Development, but an unprecedented four of his five Assembly colleagues from North Belfast sat on the relevant Assembly committee, as the DUP considered it an important brief.
Dodds also courted controversy during the Holy Cross dispute which took place in the Ardoyne area of his constituency. In June 2001, after a dispute between local loyalist and republican activists over the flying of loyalist paramilitary flags in an interface area, unionists began to blockade the nearby Holy Cross Primary School, a Catholic Primary School which was left behind a peace line in a Protestant area at the beginning of the troubles. After the school holidays, protests resumed in September and continued into early 2002. While there were undoubtedly causes for grievance on both sides of the Ardoyne peace line, the sight of grown men and women shouting abuse and throwing faeces-filled condoms at girls as young as four was a public relations disaster for the predominantly Protestant community of Upper Ardoyne as well as unionism in general. Dodds, however, felt that he had to support his section of the community. Many feel that Dodds did not play a courageous enough role in challenging his own community over what was, for them, a simple case of young girls being allowed to attend school in peace. Dodds's supporters claim that he was instrumental in eventually allowing the dispute to be resolved peacefully.
Dodds's strong evangelical views also raised disquiet within the Catholic community during the Holy Cross dispute. Dodds and local Catholic priest Aidan Troy were key figures in the talks surrounding in the dispute, both clearly wanting to see the dispute resolved, and each retaining influence with hard line elements. Dodds refused to use the title 'Father', referring to 'Mr. Troy' instead, even behind closed doors. This struck most non-evangelicals as a rather bizarre and calculated insult, although it was probably principle rather than personal animosity.
In December 1996, Dodds was visiting his sick son in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast when a group of IRA gunmen ambushed him in the corridors. No-one was hurt, and the nature of the attack disgusted many, even in republican circles. Despite his role in the Holy Cross dispute, Dodds is not yet a hate figure among nationalists in the way that colleagues Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson are. This seems to stem from his relaxed and relatively less histrionic style of speaking, particularly on television.
Although DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson remains favourite to succeed the ailing Ian Paisley as leader of the DUP, Dodds is increasingly mentioned in despatches as a serious contender for the post. His intellectual capacity and standard of education are unparalleled within the DUP, and he also manages to bridge the urban, secular, working-class and rural, evangelical wings of the Party.
Nigel Dodds is married with one son and one daughter, and lives in a rural area outside Banbridge in County Down.