John Junkin (Northern Ireland politician)

John Junkin (born 1949) is a former Northern Irish unionist politician.

John Junkin
Member of Magherafelt District Council
In office 15 May 1985 – 5 May 2005
Preceded by	District created
Succeeded by	John Crawford
Constituency	Moyola
In office 20 May 1981 – 15 May 1985
Preceded by	Thomas Kelso
Succeeded by	District abolished
Constituency	Magherafelt Area B
Member of the Northern Ireland Forum for Mid Ulster
In office 30 May 1996 – 25 April 1998
Personal details
Born	1949 County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Political party	Independent Unionist (2005)
Other political affiliations	UUP (until 2005)

Background

Long active in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Junkin was elected to Magherafelt District Council at the 1981 Northern Ireland local elections,^[1] and held a seat in Moyola in 1985, 1989 and 1993.^[2][3] By the start of the 1990s, he was a Vice-President of the UUP, serving alongside Ken Maginnis, Martin Smyth and Hazel Bradford.^[4]

Junkin was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum in 1996, representing Mid Ulster,^[5] and held his council seat in 1997,^[3] but lost out in the 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly election, to fellow party member Billy Armstrong.^[6]

Although Junkin was re-elected to Magherafelt Council in 2001, he then resigned from the UUP and stood as an independent in 2005.^[3] He lost his seat, defeated by new UUP candidate Jackie Crawford.^[7] He subsequently left politics, but hit the local news in 2007 after a boat which he had fitted out for the use of an autistic child was destroyed by arson.^[8]