Carmel Hanna
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Carmel Hanna | |
|---|---|
| Minister for Employment and Learning | |
| In office 14 December 2001 – 14 October 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Sean Farren |
| Succeeded by | Sir Reg Empey |
| Member of the Legislative Assembly forSouth Belfast | |
| In office 25 June 1998 – 18 January 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Conall McDevitt |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Carmel McAleenan 26 March 1946 Warrenpoint,Northern Ireland |
| Political party | SDLP |
| Spouse | Eamon Hanna |
| Children | 4 (includingClaire Hanna) |
| Website | Official website |
Carmel HannaMLA (néeMcAleenan;26 April 1946, inWarrenpoint,County Down,Northern Ireland) is an Irish politician. She is a member of theSDLPand was MLA forSouth Belfastfrom 1998 to 2010.
Early life and nursing career[edit]
Born asCarmel McAleenan,the seventh of nine children, her father was a factory worker in a local packaging plant. She was educated at Star of the Sea Primary School inWarrenpoint,andOur Lady's Grammar School,Newry.
She came toBelfastin 1964 to train as a nurse atBelfast City Hospitaland qualified there as Registered Nurse in 1967 and later in 1970 at theRoyal Maternity Hospitalas a State Certified Midwife. She worked in hospitals inNorthern Ireland,theRepublic of Ireland,Great Britainand mainland Europe.
After living and working abroad (which gave her a long-term interest in third world development), she returned to Northern Ireland to work as a staff nurse in the Casualty department at theMater Hospital,Crumlin Road,at the height ofthe Troubles.Her experiences there made an indelible impression and strengthened her belief that political change must be made by peaceful means. She was active in theNorthern Ireland Civil Rights Campaignof the early 1970s.[citation needed]
She married Eamon Hanna in 1973. They have four adult children and they have lived and worked inBelfast,Dublin,Galwayand theUnited States.In 1987 Carmel returned to work as a nurse and subsequently transferred to social services working for the South & East Belfast Trust assessing domiciliary care for the elderly. She also became an officer for her trade union,NIPSA.[citation needed]
Political career[edit]
Carmel first joined the SDLP in 1972 and was an ordinary member for many years as well as being secretary and committee member of the Galway and Dublin SDLP support groups. She became chairperson of her local branch in 1996, in which year she was also an SDLP candidate in aBelfast City Councilby election andNorthern Ireland Forumelections.
She was elected to Belfast City Council for theBalmoral areain1997.Her committee duties include Planning, Health & Environment and Cultural Diversity. She was elected toNorthern Ireland Assemblyin June 1998. Hanna was Deputy Chair of the Environment Committee in the Northern Ireland Assembly until December 2001. She was appointed as Minister of Employment and Learning in December 2001.[citation needed]
Her ministerial career ended in October 2002 when the Northern Ireland Assembly was suspended as a result of the 'Stormontgate' affair.
Carmel Hanna was founder and chair of the All-Party Group on International Development in the Assembly and, following her resignation from the Assembly in 2010, she worked with Voluntary Service Overseas in Namibia. Following the publication of the Murphy and Ryan Reports into institutional child abuse in state and church-run homes in the Irish Republic, Carmel Hanna tabled a motion in the Assembly on 2 December 2009 calling for a similar inquiry in Northern Ireland. The motion was passed unanimously and led to the setting up of the Hart Inquiry.
Her stated major political aims are:
- Preserving and enhancing South Belfast's townscape character
- Improving health, education and social services
- Retaining maternity services at the Jubilee hospital
- Working on social justice and cultural issues
- Working for social inclusion
First diagnosed with cancer in 2000, she resigned on 18 January 2010 as an MLA on grounds of ill-health. She received a Lifetime Achievement award in 2010 from theRoyal College of Nursing Northern Irelandfor her services to nursing; for many years she was the only serving registered nurse in the Assembly.Conall McDevittwas sworn in to replace her on 21 January 2010.[1]Regarding her resignation, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said: "Carmel Hanna has served her constituents of South Belfast, the people of Northern Ireland and the wider SDLP with dignity, determination and dedication during a distinguished political career as a councillor, assembly member and as a minister."[2]
She is the mother ofClaire Hanna,who was elected as an SDLP Belfast City councillor for Balmoral in 2011 and served as an SDLP MLA for Belfast South from 2015 to 2019, when she was elected to representBelfast Southin parliament in Westminster.
References[edit]
- ^Conall McDevitt's blogArchived24 January 2010 at theWayback Machine
- ^"BBC News – Hanna to step down from assembly".BBC News.BBC News. 5 November 2009.Retrieved29 August2012.
External links[edit]
- 1946 births
- Living people
- 20th-century women politicians from Northern Ireland
- 21st-century women politicians from Northern Ireland
- British midwives
- Female members of the Northern Ireland Assembly
- Members of Belfast City Council
- Ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive (since 1999)
- Northern Ireland MLAs 1998–2003
- Northern Ireland MLAs 2003–2007
- Northern Ireland MLAs 2007–2011
- People from Warrenpoint
- Social Democratic and Labour Party MLAs
- Women councillors in Northern Ireland
- Women ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive