Brian Ervine
Brian Ervine | |
|---|---|
 Ervine in 2011 | |
| Leader of the Progressive Unionist Party | |
| In office 16 October 2010 – 2 June 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Dawn Purvis John Kyle (Interim) |
| Succeeded by | Hugh Smyth (Interim) Billy Hutchinson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 1951 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Political party | Progressive Unionist Party |
Brian Ervine (born October 1951,
Biography
 | This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources. (February 2017) |
He was educated at
His play, Somme Day Mourning, tells the story of working class east Belfast men who gave their lives at the battle of
In 2005, at a special
When his brother, David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, died in 2007, Brian Ervine stood for the leadership of the party. He lost to Dawn Purvis.
At his brother David's funeral, Ervine was pictured in the international media standing next to his brother's widow, Jeanette Ervine, while she was embraced by the president of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams.[2] In his address to mourners at the funeral, Brian Ervine said his brother was able to "translate the bloodstained tragic prose of violence and hatred to the poetry of peaceful co-existence . . . He had the guts and the courage to climb out of the traditional trenches, meet the enemy in no-man's land and play ball with him."
In October 2010, Ervine was elected leader of the PUP. He unsuccessfully stood in Belfast East at the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly election, where he was eliminated on the tenth count with 1,493 first-preference votes (4.62%).