Target of loyalist attacks is set to be Larne’s new mayor
Belfast Telegraph
09 June 2006
A Nationalist councillor who vowed in the past not to be driven out of politics after his home in mainly unionist Larne was attacked several times by loyalists is set to become the first SDLP mayor of the Co Antrim town.
Danny O’Connor (40) is expected to take up the post next week as part of a power-sharing deal hammered out last year.
He said yesterday: “A week is a long time in politics but if it comes to pass on Monday night it will be a powerful symbol that Larne has come out of the dark ages. We have had our share of problems in the past.”
The SDLP has two councillors on the 15-member council.
Alderman O’Connor, an ex-Ulster Defence Regiment soldier, was also a former East Antrim Assembly member.
Two years ago he fired a legally held gun in the air when surrounded by a loyalist mob outside his home.
In 1999, his home was targeted by petrol bombers. After that incident, Alderman O’Connor said: “This sort of attack will not deter me from doing what I was elected to do.”
Though he is set to be the first SDLP councillor to hold Larne Council’s top office, Alderman O’Connor will not be the first Catholic in the post. Alderman Hugh McKay, an independent member, was mayor in the mid-1960s.
Mr O’Connor said that as a man born and brought up in Larne it will be an honour to accept the position of First Citizen.
He added: “I want to put Larne on the radar for all the right reasons and to be an ambassador for the town and to work for everyone. I have an empathy for the town and its people.
“I want to be as inclusive as possible in the post and do a job for the entire community. It is not about nationalism and unionism. I will have an Ulster Unionist deputy mayor and it is about working together as Larne men and women.”
