Esmond Birnie

John Esmond Birnie is an economist, author and former politician. He was an MLA for Belfast South from 1998 until 2007. Birnie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He attended Ballymena Primary School and later Ballymena Academy. He studied Economics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge before completing a PhD at Queen’s University Belfast.

Esmond Birnie
Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Belfast South
In office
25 June 1998 – 7 March 2007
Preceded byBelfast Agreement
Personal details
Born (1965-01-06) 6 January 1965
Edinburgh, Scotland
Political partyUlster Unionist Party
Alma materCambridge University
Queen's University Belfast
ProfessionEconomist
Academic

He was an unsuccessful Conservative Party candidate in the elections to Belfast City Council for Balmoral in the 1993 Northern Ireland Local Election. In the 2005 Northern Ireland Local Election, he stood again for Balmoral, this time for the Ulster Unionist Party and failed to get elected by 0.95 votes on the final count. Birnie was also second on the Conservative regional list for the 1996 Forum Election,[1] but was not elected as the party was 12th most popular in electoral support, and only the top 10 parties were eligible for two top up seats.

He was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998. During the Assembly he was Chairman of the Assembly's Employment and Learning Committee. He retained his seat in 2003 but lost it in the 2007 elections. He was then employed as a special advisor to Employment and Learning Minister, Sir Reg Empey. He is now Chief Economist for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Northern Ireland.[2]

Works
  • John Bradley; J. Esmond Birnie (2001). Can the Celtic tiger cross the Irish border?. Cork University Press. ISBN 978-1-85918-312-0.
  • Firm, Competitiveness and Environmental Regulations: A Study of the European Food Processing Industries by David Hitchens, Esmond Birnie, Angela McGowan, and Ursula Triebswetter (Hardcover - 28 October 1998)
  • The Northern Ireland Economy: Performance, Prospects and Policy by Esmond Birnie and D.M.W.N. Hitchens (Hardcover - 23 February 1999)
  • Environmental Regulation and Competitive Advantage: A Study of Packaging Waste in the European Supply Chain by David Hitchens, Esmond Birnie, William Thompson, and Ursula Triebswetter (Hardcover - 29 March 2000)

References
  1. 1996 Elections - List of Candidates
  2. http://pwc.blogs.com/northern-ireland/esmond-birnie.html
Northern Ireland Assembly
New assembly MLA for Belfast South
1998–2007		 Succeeded by
Anna Lo
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.