Mal O'Hara

Malachai O'Hara (born 28 July 1979) is a Northern Irish politician, activist and community worker who has been the leader of the Green Party Northern Ireland since August 2022, having previously served as deputy leader from 2019 to 2022. O'Hara was a Belfast City Councillor for the Castle DEA from 2019, until 2023. In 2024 he was elected unopposed to Seanad Éireann, in a by-election to the Administrative Panel.

Early life
O'Hara was born in North Belfast. He attended St Malachy's College, and was classmates with John Finucane, who also later entered politics. Leaving school the same year the Good Friday Agreement was signed, he then attended the University of Central England in Birmingham. Before entering politics, O'Hara worked as a community worker in loyalist areas, delivered European Union peace funding programmes and managed health initiatives for the Rainbow Project, Ireland's biggest LGBT organisation. While working for the Rainbow Project he was vice-chair of the Equal Marriage Campaign, contributing to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.

O'Hara is the founder of Alternative Queer Ulster, an evening event that brings LGBTQ people into the Northern Ireland Assembly, a place often considered "a cold house to the LGBTQ community".

Political career
O'Hara joined the Green Party in 2014.

He was the Green Party candidate for Belfast North at the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly election, where he was eliminated on the seventh count with 796 first preference votes (2.18%).

O'Hara stood again in Belfast North at the 2017 Assembly election, where he received 711 first preference votes, a 1.7% share of the vote.

At the 2017 general election, O'Hara contested Belfast North, where he finished fifth with 644 votes (1.4%), losing his deposit.

He was elected to Belfast City Council in 2019 for the Castle area, in an election where the Greens quadrupled their seats on the council, moving from 1 seat to 4. O'Hara became the first Green Party councillor to be elected in North Belfast. During his term of office, he was one of the few openly LGBTQ+ elected members on the council.

On the council, O'Hara was a prominent campaigner for clean air, rent controls and climate action. He has called for a citizens' assembly to examine if drugs should be legalised in Northern Ireland, citing increasing drug deaths as evidence that Northern Ireland's current approach is "obviously not working."

He was a candidate in Belfast North in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election receiving 1446 first preference votes thereby increasing his share of the vote to 3.1%.

O'Hara became the leader of the Green Party Northern Ireland on 15 August 2022, following a leadership election in which he was the only candidate. He was the first openly gay leader of a major party in Northern Ireland.

At the 2023 Northern Ireland local elections, O'Hara lost his seat.

In March 2024, O'Hara was announced as the Green Party candidate in the 2024 Seanad by-election and he was elected unopposed. He took his seat on 8 April 2024.

O’Hara contested Belfast North at the 2024 general election. He received 3% of the vote against the incumbent MP, Sinn Féin's John Finucane.

Personal life
During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, O'Hara led a group of over 70 volunteers who set up a cross community soup-kitchen to deliver over 17,000 meals to vulnerable people across North and West Belfast.