Patricia O'Lynn was born on 28 September 1989 and is a Northern Irish academic, educator, and politician who was an Alliance Party Member of the Legislative Assembly from 2022 to 2023.
20 Facts About Patricia O'Lynn
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Patricia O'Lynn was elected as an MLA in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election for North Antrim.
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In 2016, as part of the Washington-Ireland Program, O'Lynn worked as a congressional intern for US Senator John McCain.
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Patricia O'Lynn ran as the Alliance Party candidate for North Antrim in the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election, but was unsuccessful.
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In September 2017, Patricia O'Lynn met with Kate Nicholl, then an Alliance councillor on Belfast City Council, who encouraged her to join Alliance and run as a candidate.
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Patricia O'Lynn was an Alliance candidate again later that year, this time for the 2017 UK general election, running in North Antrim.
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Patricia O'Lynn came fifth, with 2,723 votes, maintaining Alliance's percentage share of the vote from the previous general election.
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Patricia O'Lynn then served as a councillor, representing Ballymena, in Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.
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Patricia O'Lynn was elected at the 2019 local elections, gaining a seat from the DUP.
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Later that year, at the 2019 general election, Patricia O'Lynn was again the Alliance candidate for the parliamentary constituency of North Antrim.
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From April 2021 to October 2021, Patricia O'Lynn served as a special adviser to Justice Minister Naomi Long while Long's other special adviser Claire Johnson was on maternity leave.
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On 7 May 2022, Patricia O'Lynn was elected as the first ever Alliance MLA and the first woman to represent North Antrim in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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Patricia O'Lynn was elected on the sixth stage of the count, defeating incumbent DUP MLA Mervyn Storey by a margin of 288 votes - the third tightest margin of victory in Northern Ireland.
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Patricia O'Lynn's election was considered an upset in the staunchly unionist constituency of North Antrim with BelfastLive describing it as a "seismic shift".
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On 22 February 2023, Patricia O'Lynn announced that she would resign from Stormont on 31 March to take up a job at Queen's University Belfast.
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Patricia O'Lynn said that it "has been an honour to serve the people of North Antrim" but regrets that she could not "do so in the Assembly chamber itself due to the ongoing impasse, which has proved frustrating".
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Former MLA Mervyn Storey, who lost his seat to Patricia O'Lynn, questioned her "commitment" to North Antrim.
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In 2021, Patricia O'Lynn completed doctoral research at Queen's University Belfast.
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Patricia O'Lynn received the Sir Tomas Dixon Award and the Department for Economy doctoral scholarship.
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Patricia O'Lynn officially graduated from Queen's University Belfast with a PhD on 2 July 2022.