Seán Neeson

Seán Neeson (6 February 1946 – 14 June 2025) was a politician in Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland between 1998 and 2001, and a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for East Antrim from 1998 to 2011.

Background Neeson was educated at St. Malachy's College and then the Queen's University of Belfast before working as a teacher for many years. In the 1970s he joined the Alliance and in 1977 he was first elected to Carrickfergus council, serving as Mayor in 1993–94.

Neeson died on 13 June 2025, at the age of 79. The party lost a number of council seats in the local elections held on the same day. Shortly after the election the party's deputy leader, Seamus Close, resigned citing differences over direction with the leadership. Subsequently, in September 2001 Neeson chose to resign from the leadership, being succeeded by David Ford, although he remained a member of the Assembly.

In the 2003 Assembly election he held his seat and was subsequently selected by his local association to fight East Antrim in the 2005 general election. Having increased the party's vote at that election, Neeson was re-elected to the Assembly comfortably at the 2007 election, on a party vote share of 16%.

Seán Neeson stepped down from the assembly to spend more time with his family, saying "It has been an honour and a privilege to serve the people of East Antrim at the Assembly. It has been very rewarding and at time extremely challenging trying to build peace in Northern Ireland. I want to pay tribute to all those who, during the darkest days of the Troubles, worked hard from the centre ground to bring this society forward towards a peaceful and shared future."