Nichola Mallon


Nichola Mallon is an Irish SDLP politician. She has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Belfast North since 2016, and was Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2014–2015. She was elected Deputy Leader of the SDLP in 2017.

Background

Nichola Mallon was born in Belfast in 1979. Her father was a printer and her mother was a dress-maker. She grew up in the Ardoyne district of North Belfast.
She attended Mercy Primary School followed by St Dominic's Grammar School for Girls. She read Economics and Politics at Trinity College, Dublin and graduated with a BA, followed by an MA in Comparative Ethnic Conflict from Queen's University Belfast.
When she left QUB, she joined the civil service before moving to the General Medical Council and then to a job with the SDLP.

Family

She is married to Brendan Scott and has three children, two daughters and a son.

Political life

Her family were involved in the trade union movement and she took part in May Day rallies as a girl. At school she became more interested in politics and was attracted to the SDLP.
In 2010 she was co-opted by the SDLP onto Belfast City Council to replace Alban Maginness in the Oldpark. In 2014, she won the seat in her own right, polling just under 1,000 first preferences. In 2013, she was appointed a special adviser to the SDLP's Environment Minister Mark H Durkan, but stood down from that position when elected Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2014. She served as the Lord Mayor of Belfast from 2014 to 2015, the first female Irish nationalist politician to hold the position.
She was elected a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Belfast North in 2016 and re-elected in 2017, increasing the SDLP vote to 5,431 first preferences.
She was elected Deputy Leader of the SDLP in 2017.