http://embeecavaliers.com/2018/01/ This week we are delighted to sit down with SDLP MLA Claire Hanna, an international relations and law graduate, originally from Connemara, Galway. Her professional background is in international development, latterly in a policy and education role, and included work in Bangladesh, Haiti and Zambia. Claire discusses the SDLP-Fianna Fail link up, the New Ireland Forum, making Stormont work, dealing with flags and bonfires while respecting cultures and identities.

http://tempforcegainesville.com/medical-device-labeling-specialist/ You can follow SDLP Claire Hanna on twitter here.

You can find the bonus podcast here.

Born in Connemara, County Galway, Hanna has lived in South Belfast since the age of three. She attended St Bride’s Primary and Rathmore Grammar School. She has an honours degree in International Relations from the Open University and a master’s degree in Law from Queen’s University Belfast. Her professional background is in international development, latterly in a policy and education role, and included work in Bangladesh, Haiti and Zambia.

Hanna was elected to Belfast City Council, representing the Balmoral ward, from 2011 until her appointment as MLA, winning re-election in 2014. During her time in council, she sat on the Strategic Policy & Resources and Town Planning committees as well as the Historic Centenaries Working group.

She brought the motion that led to Belfast becoming the first Living Wage council in Northern Ireland – paying a fair wage to all employees – and introduced measures to combat the rise of predatory payday lending, as well as leading successful campaigns for the reinstatement of Lisburn Road Post Office in 2013, better traffic management in Finaghy in 2014 and on a variety of issues like improving recycling facilities and sustainable transport.

She secured all-party agreement to award the Freedom of Belfast to poet Michael Longley. She initiated a campaign to name the new Greenway bridge after playwright and trade unionist Sam Thompson. In the Assembly, she serves on the Regional Development Committee, the Public Accounts Committee and the Environment Committee and she chairs the Assembly All Party Groups on International Development and the Arts.

Hanna was chair of the East Belfast Policing Board and Community Partnership. Her home was attacked in the midst of the flag protests.

In February 2019, Hanna resigned the party whip after the SDLP agreed to form an electoral alliance with Fianna Fáil. She also quit as the party’s Brexit spokesperson. However, she remains a member of the SDLP.