Paul Givan

Shortly after the Partition of Ireland in the early 1920s, this section of his family moved north from County Monaghan to County Tyrone.

It was near Dungannon in South Tyrone that his paternal grandfather, Herbie Givan, was born and raised.

Herbie later became one of the foundational members of the DUP.

Paul Jonathan Givan (born 12 October 1981) is a Northern Irish unionist politician who is serving as Minister of Education since 3 February 2024.

He was first elected to Lisburn City Council in 2005.

His father, Alan Givan, was a prison officer with the Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) who later became a DUP councillor in Lisburn.

Givan was born and raised in Lisburn.

However, he is partially of County Monaghan descent, one section of his family having come from Ballybay in County Monaghan.

He was later to work as a special adviser when Poots was Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure between 2007 and 2008, and then again between 2009 and 2010 when he was Minister of the Environment.

Givan has stated that his interest in the DUP resulted from listening to Ian Paisley – at a rally against the Good Friday Agreement in Kilkeel.

"He captured me emotionally for the DUP and Peter Robinson's and Nigel Dodds' forensic analysis of the failing of the Agreement captured me intellectually", he said.

Givan has been a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Lagan Valley since 2010.

Givan became First Minister of Northern Ireland on 17 June 2021, becoming the youngest person to hold that office.

He resigned on 4 February 2022 as part of DUP protests against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Givan was first co-opted to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2010, replacing Jeffrey Donaldson.

According to a 2014 article in the Belfast Telegraph, Givan's "first experience of 'real politics' came when he was 18", at which time he was part-time assistant in the constituency and Stormont offices of Edwin Poots.

From 2016 to 2017, Givan served as the Minister for Communities in the Northern Ireland Executive under First Minister Arlene Foster.

Givan has been associated with socially conservative views and has been described as being on the Paisleyite right wing of the DUP.

Givan was educated at Laurelhill Community College, where he studied Business and History, and is a graduate of the University of Ulster, where he obtained a degree in Business Studies and completed an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice.

In May 2016, Givan was appointed Minister for Communities.

As sports minister in November 2016, he visited a GAA club in Lisburn to award a grant and played Gaelic football with some child players of the club.

In May 2021, there was speculation that Givan, having worked for Edwin Poots previously, might be nominated to become First Minister of Northern Ireland after Poots was elected DUP leader.

On 8 June 2021, Poots introduced Givan as "Northern Ireland's first minister designate".

At age 39, Givan was the youngest First Minister in Northern Ireland's history.

On 17 June 2021, a letter from the DUP party chairman and other senior party members asked Poots to delay Givan's nomination as First Minister to oppose the British government's decision to introduce Irish language legislation in the Westminster Parliament.

However, Poots nominated Givan as First Minister and Sinn Féin re-nominated Michelle O'Neill as deputy First Minister, restoring the Northern Ireland Executive.

Prior to this nomination DUP officials objected to Givan being nominated for the role.

As such, within hours of his being sworn in as First Minister, Givan's DUP colleagues convened a party meeting to oust Poots as the leader of the party.

Poots resigned shortly after, triggering another leadership contest.

On 19 June it was reported Givan would be required to resign as First Minister once the next DUP leader had been chosen.

However, in July, the Irish News said Givan was expected to remain in his position until "later this year" after the new DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said in a UTV interview that he intended to resign his seat as a Westminster MP and become First Minister before the planned 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, but also said that he did not yet know precisely how he would bring this about.

On 3 February 2022, Givan announced his resignation as First Minister, as part of DUP protests against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

He became Northern Ireland's shortest serving First Minister, having spent 231 days in office.

Givan retained his seat as an MLA for Lagan Valley in the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election.

Givan was appointed Minister of Education following the formation of the Executive of the 7th Northern Ireland Assembly on 3 February 2024.

He had previously been tipped for the role of deputy First Minister.

Following his appointment, on 8 February 2024, Givan set out his key priorities for education after visiting Rathmore Grammar School.

He said he has "ambitious plans to invest in our schools’ estate..."

He said he wanted the "gap to close" between wages for school staff in Northern Ireland and their counterparts in Great Britain.

On 12 February 2024, in his first Ministerial statement in the assembly, he set out plans for capital investment across the education sector.