Tom Hartley (politician)
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Tom Hartley | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Hartley in 2016 | |
| 65th Lord Mayor of Belfast | |
| In office 1 June 2008 – 1 June 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Jim Rodgers |
| Succeeded by | Naomi Long |
| Belfast City Councillor | |
| In office 19 May 1993 – 4 September 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Seán McKnight |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Constituency | Lower Falls |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1945 (age 80–81) Falls Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Party | Sinn Féin |
| Occupation | Irish Republican activist and author |
Tom Hartley (born 1945[1]) is a historian and Irish republican politician. Hartley grew up in the Falls Road area of Belfast and became a republican activist in the late 1960s. In 1970, he was imprisoned in the Crumlin Road gaol for ten months for riotous behaviour; he was again detained in 1978. During the 1981 Irish hunger strike, Hartley chaired the POW Committee.[2]
Hartley became active in Sinn Féin, serving as the General Secretary in the mid-1980s and the Chairperson in the early 1990s.[2][3] In 1993, he was elected to Belfast City Council for the Lower Falls and held his seat in each subsequent election until 2013 when he stood down.[4][5] Hartley was one of three Sinn Féin candidates in Northern Ireland at the European election in 1994. Although he took only 3.8% of the votes cast and was not elected, he did receive more votes than the party's other candidates.[6] In 2008, Hartley became the second Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast.[2]
In his spare time, he conducts tours of Belfast City Cemetery[7] and authored the book series The History of Belfast, Written in Stone.[1][8][9][10]
