Mark Durkan

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Irish politician

title: "Mark Durkan" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1960-births", "living-people", "alumni-of-queen's-university-belfast", "alumni-of-ulster-university", "members-of-the-parliament-of-the-united-kingdom-for-county-londonderry-constituencies-(since-1922)", "uk-mps-2005–2010", "uk-mps-2010–2015", "leaders-of-the-social-democratic-and-labour-party", "members-of-the-northern-ireland-forum", "northern-ireland-mlas-1998–2003", "northern-ireland-mlas-2003–2007", "northern-ireland-mlas-2007–2011", "ministers-of-the-northern-ireland-executive-(since-1999)", "social-democratic-and-labour-party-mps-(uk)", "people-educated-at-st-columb's-college", "politicians-from-derry-(city)", "uk-mps-2015–2017", "ministers-of-finance-and-personnel-of-northern-ireland", "social-democratic-and-labour-party-mlas"] description: "Irish politician" topic_path: "economics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Durkan" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Irish politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Mark Durkan
image	MarkDurkan.jpg
image_size	200px
office1	Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland
term_start1	6 November 2001
term_end1	14 October 2002
alongside1	David Trimble
predecessor1	Seamus Mallon
successor1	John Reid (As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland)
Martin McGuinness (2007)
office2	Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party
term_start2	6 November 2001
term_end2	7 February 2010
deputy2	Bríd Rodgers
Alasdair McDonnell
predecessor2	John Hume
successor2	Margaret Ritchie
office3	Member of Parliament
for Foyle
term_start3	5 May 2005
term_end3	3 May 2017
predecessor3	John Hume
successor3	Elisha McCallion
office4	Member of the Legislative Assembly
for Foyle
term_start4	25 June 1998
term_end4	9 November 2010
predecessor4	Constituency established
successor4	Pól Callaghan
office5	Member of
Derry City Council
constituency5	Northland
term_start5	19 May 1993
term_end5	7 June 2001
predecessor5	Anna Gallagher
successor5	Séan Carr
birth_name	John Mark Durkan
birth_date
birth_place	Derry, Northern Ireland
nationality	Irish
party	Fine Gael

Mark Durkan (born 26 June 1960) is a retired Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland. Durkan was the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from November 2001 to October 2002, and the Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) from 2001 to 2010. He contested the Dublin constituency for Fine Gael at the 2019 European Parliament election.

Early life

John Mark Durkan was born in Derry, County Londonderry; his father, Brendan, was a Royal Ulster Constabulary District Inspector in Armagh. He was raised by his mother, Isobel, after his father was killed in a road accident in 1961. He was educated at St. Patrick's Primary School and at St. Columb's College, where he was Head Boy.

He studied politics at the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB), and later did a part-time postgraduate course in Public Policy Management with the University of Ulster at Magee. While at QUB Durkan served as Deputy President of Queen's Students' Union from 1982 to 1983. He was also elected Deputy President of the Union of Students in Ireland from 1982 to 1984.

Political career

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Congressman_James_Walsh,_Chairman_of_the_Friends_of_Ireland,_and_other_Members_of_the_Congressional_delegation_pictured_with_Mark_Durkan,_Deputy_First_Minister_of_the_Northern_Ireland_Assembly_at_Stormont.jpg" caption="Stormont]] in 2002"] ::

He became involved in politics in 1981 when he became a member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party. In 1984 he went to work for John Hume as his Westminster Assistant. He became a key figure in organising by-election campaigns for Seamus Mallon and Eddie McGrady in the 1980s.

In 1990 Durkan became chairperson of the SDLP, a position he served in until 1995. He was a key member of the party's negotiating team in the run up to the Good Friday Agreement. Following the Agreement he was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998, and became a member of the Northern Ireland Executive as Minister for Finance and Personnel. He served in that position until 2001 when he replaced Seamus Mallon as deputy First Minister. He was also elected Leader of the SDLP the same year.

Durkan was re-elected to the Assembly in the election of November 2003. However, the Assembly and the Executive remained suspended. In the 2005 general election he retained the Foyle seat at Westminster for the SDLP, succeeding John Hume. While down on Hume's vote, Durkan won with a comfortable majority, despite a strong effort by Sinn Féin to take the seat. He garnered 21,119 votes, 46.3% of the total.

Durkan announced his intention to stand down as leader of the SDLP in September 2009 so he could concentrate on his parliamentary career. He is a Fellow of the British-American Project.

Durkan has publicly supported gay rights by supporting the Foyle Pride Festival in Derry, in solidarity with those who suffer homophobic prejudice and in some cases violent hate attacks.

In 2011, he voted against the military intervention in Libya.

He joined Fine Gael in March 2019 to contest the 2019 European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency but failed to gain a seat. He is now retired from frontline politics, but remains an active member and supporter of the SDLP.

Family

He and his wife Jackie have one child, Dearbháil. His nephew Mark H. Durkan is an SDLP MLA for Foyle.

References

"''Who's Who'' (UK) profile (subscription required)".
"Debrett's profile of Mark Durkan".
(4 March 2019). "'I'm making no pretence here' - Fine Gael European elections candidate Mark Durkan unable to name four streets in Dublin".
"House of Commons Hansard Debates for 20 April 2006 (pt 32)".
[http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/members/biogs/mdurkan.htm Mark Durkan biodata at the Northern Ireland Assembly website] {{webarchive. link. (28 June 2009)
"Election Data 2005". [[Electoral Calculus]].
[http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0920/durkanm.html Durkan announces intention to step down] {{webarchive. link. (12 February 2010 [[RTÉ News]], 20 September 2009)
He was replaced as leader by [[Margaret Ritchie (politician). Margaret Ritchie]] in February 2010.[http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0207/sdlp.html Cowen congratulates new SDLP leader] {{webarchive. link. (10 February 2010 RTÉ News, 7 February 2010)
"Durkan urges people to support Gay Pride". The Londonderry Sentinel.
(2011-03-22). "The full list of how MPs voted on Libya action". [[BBC News]].

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