Danny Kinahan


Daniel de Burgh Kinahan is a British politician from the Ulster Unionist Party, a former Member of Parliament for South Antrim and former member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for South Antrim. In 2005 he was elected to Antrim Borough Council, and in June 2009 he was appointed to the South Antrim seat in the Assembly vacated by the resignation of David Burnside.

Personal

He is the son of the late Sir Robin Kinahan and Coralie de Burgh and was educated at Craigflower Preparatory School, Stowe School and the University of Edinburgh. He is a cousin of singer Chris de Burgh. Professionally Kinahan is an antiques expert and worked as Christie's auctioneers Irish representative. He lives with his wife and four children at Castle Upton, Templepatrick. In 2016 he announced he was selling the family home to downsize following the moving out of his children.

Northern Ireland Assembly

On 28 May 2009, the UUP South Antrim branch selected Danny to replace the outgoing MLA David Burnside who resigned to pursue business interests. Mr Burnside officially stood down on 1 June. Danny was sworn in on 9 June.
Danny faced his first NI Assembly election in May 2011 and was returned to Parliament Buildings with 3,445 first preference votes. During his second period in Stormont, he was heavily involved in education legislation as the UUP's spokesperson on the policy area.
As Deputy Chair of the Education Committee, Danny became a leading figure during the passage of the Education Bill. As Deputy Chair of the Education Committee, Danny became a leading figure during the passage of the Education Bill. Danny was vehemently opposed to the Sinn Féin policy of politicising Grammar Schools which are among the top performing schools in the United Kingdom. Sinn Féin's campaign to scrap Grammar Schools was thwarted by Danny and his UUP colleagues who diligently argued the case for academic capability streaming. He is also strongly in favour of shared and integrated education, greater emphasis on STEM subjects, a wider selection of apprenticeships, stronger provision of careers advice and more thorough and engaging university degrees. He is strongly in favour of shared and integrated education, greater emphasis on STEM subjects, a wider selection of apprenticeships, stronger provision of careers advice and more thorough and engaging university degrees.
He stepped down after his election to Westminster and was replaced by Adrian Cochrane-Watson.

Westminster

The UUP decided to run Kinahan in the 2015 General Election. He ousted the incumbent DUP MP Rev. William McCrea with a majority of 949.
General Election 2017
Following a strong resurgence of the DUP and Sinn Féin in the 2017 General Election, Kinahan lost his seat to Paul Girvan by 3,208 votes.