Dermot Nesbitt

Dermot Nesbitt
Minister of the Environment
In office
20 February 2002  15 October 2002
Preceded by Sam Foster
Succeeded by Arlene Foster
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for South Down
In office
25 June 1998  7 March 2007
Preceded by New Creation
Succeeded by John McCallister
Personal details
Born (1947-08-14) 14 August 1947
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Nationality British
Political party Ulster Unionist Party
Spouse(s) Oriel (m.1970)
Children Andrew
Elaine
Alma mater Queen's University Belfast
Profession Economist
Academic
Religion Anglican

Dermot Nesbitt (born 14 August 1947) is a politician from Northern Ireland.

Nesbitt was educated at Down High School and later studied economics at Queens University Belfast and joined the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). He was the election agent for Brian Faulkner from 1973 until 1977, most of this period spent as a member of the Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.

Nesbitt worked as a lecturer at Queens and by 1981 he had rejoined the UUP, being elected to Down District Council. He held this seat until 1989.

Nesbitt was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum for South Down in 1996, and held this seat on the Northern Ireland Assembly at the 1998 and 2003 elections. He was a junior minister in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 until 2002, when he took up the post of Minister of the Environment. He retired in 2007, and party colleague John McCallister retained a UUP seat in the South Down constituency.

At the 1997, 2001 and 2005 general elections, Nesbitt stood unsuccessfully for the Westminster seat of South Down. He currently works as a lecturer in finance at Queens.

In mid-morning on 7 December 1983, while chatting to UUP party and Queen's colleague Edgar Graham at the University Square side of the main campus library, Graham was shot in the head a number of times by an IRA gunman and died almost instantly. He was 29 years old. Two persons were later convicted of withholding evidence from the police, but no one was ever convicted for Graham's murder.[1]

References

  1. Details on the attack, see: PROTESTANT PARTY LEADER SLAIN IN ULSTER, The New York Times, 8 December 1983,
    NORTHERN IRELAND, Terrorist Activities, reports of British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland's office, in answer to questions: 16 April 1999. The government account reads:
    "Mr. Edgar Graham: At approximately 10.50 am on 7 December 1983, at University Square, Belfast, Mr. Graham was shot dead. The murder was claimed by the Irish Republican Army. RUC investigations resulted in one person being convicted of making property available and withholding information and sentenced to 2 years imprisonment suspended for 3 years. Another person, convicted of withholding information, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for 2 years. A number of other persons were arrested and interviewed in relation to this murder but released without charge."
Northern Ireland Assembly
Preceded by
New creation
MLA for Down South
1998 - 2007
Succeeded by
John McCallister
Political offices
Preceded by
New creation
Junior Minister
1999-2000
Succeeded by
Office suspended
Preceded by
Office suspended
Junior Minister
2000-2002
Succeeded by
James Leslie
Preceded by
Sam Foster
Minister of the Environment
2002
Succeeded by
Office suspended
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