Brief
Biography:
Nigel Dodds was born in Londonderry and educated at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, St John's College, Cambridge University, and the Institute of Professional Legal Studies, Queens University Belfast. In addition to his legal career as a barrister, Dodds joined the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and served as European Parliamentary Assistant to Ian Paisley, then leader of the DUP, and Member of the European Parliament (MEP), as well as holding the position of Party Secretary (1993-present). In 1985 Dodds was elected to Belfast City Council (1985-present) and later on two occasions, in 1988-89 and 1991-92, held the office of Lord Mayor of the city. At the Westminster general election of April 1992 he unsuccessfully stood for the DUP in the constituency of East Antrim but succeeded in being returned as a member of the Northern Ireland Forum (1996-98) and Northern Ireland Assembly (1998-present) for North Belfast.
Although he had developed a strong political base within North Belfast, Dodds was not nominated by his party to contest the parliamentary seat at the 1997 Westminster election so as to avoid splitting the unionist vote. In June 2001 however this consideration was abandoned given the fact that the DUP was by now engaged in a bitter contest with the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA). As a result Dodds was not only to contest the seat but went onto soundly defeat the sitting UUP member, Cecil Walker. During the period 1996-97 he also acted as one of the DUP's negotiating team in the multi-party talks and with the rest of his party colleagues vigorously campaigned for a 'No' vote during the referendum on the GFA. This opposition to the GFA by the DUP has been maintained and he has often been at the forefront of such efforts. Furthermore as part of the DUP's policy of rotating their appointments to the Northern Ireland Executive between various members of their Assembly party, Dodds has twice served as Minister for Social Development (November 1999-July 2000 and November 2001-October 2002).
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