Coulter and Swann selected for North Antrim UUP
Sitting UUP MLA, Rev Dr Robert Coulter, and the President of the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster, Mr Robin Swann, have been selected by the North Antrim Ulster Unionist Constituency Association as its two candidates for the forthcoming Assembly election on 7 March.
Dr Coulter and Mr Swann were selected at an Association meeting in Cloughmills District Orange Hall on Friday evening.
In a joint statement, the two UUP candidates said: “We would thank the delegates of the North Antrim Ulster Unionist Association for their confidence in us by selecting us as their standardbearers in the 7 March election, which will be one of the most important – if not the most significant – in the history of Northern Ireland.
“The Ulster Unionist Party is going into this election as a united party, on an agreed manifesto and with clear leadership and direction. In this respect, we hope the pro-Union community in North Antrim will support us in bringing stable, legislative and devolved government back to the country we all cherish so dearly.”
Both Dr Coulter and Mr Swann are members of the Loyal Orders. Dr Coulter is a Past Assistant Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Black Institution and is currently a Deputy Imperial Grand Chaplain. Mr Swann is a Past Master of both the Orange Order and Royal Black and is currently Chairman of Cromkill Pipe Band.
Dr Coulter, the former minister of Clough Presbyterian Church, has been an Assembly member for North Antrim since 1998 and successfully defended his seat in 2003. He is presently a Stormont Commissioner and Ulster Unionist Spokesman on Health.
He has also served on the Assembly’s Further and Higher Education, and Health Committees. Before winning an Assembly seat, Dr Coulter represented North Antrim in the Northern Ireland Forum from 1996 to 1998, where he was UUP Chief Whip.
Dr Coulter was a Ballymena Borough Councillor from 1985 to 2001, during which time he was Mayor of Ballymena for three years from 1993 to 1996.
Mr Swann has been a UUP member for 10 years and is secretary of the Kellswater Branch.
He has a detailed knowledge of farming and rural issues, both as a member and Vice-President of Kells and Connor Young Farmers’ Club and chairing the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster’s National Executive and Rural Affairs Committees. In these latter committees, he has taken a leading role in their Active Citizenship Programme.
He is also a member of the Ulster Farmers’ Union’s Executive Committee, and is Vice Chairman of the European Committee of Young Farmers and ‘4H Clubs’. He has also been a member of three YFCU delegations to lobby the European Parliament on local and agricultural issues.