David Ford is a Northern Ireland politician. He is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and has been leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland since 2001.
He was born on 24 February, 1951 to mixed Northern Irish and Welsh parents and grew up in Orpington, Kent, England. Ford was educated at Warren Road Primary School, Orpington and Dulwich College, London. He spent summer holidays on his uncle's farm in Gortin, County Tyrone, and moved to Northern Ireland permanently in 1969 when he went to study Economics at the Queen's University of Belfast. There he joined the Queen's Alliance. After University, he took a year out to work as a volunteer at the ecumenical Corrymeela Community in Ballycastle, County Antrim, before starting work as a social worker in 1973.
Ford stood unsuccessfully for Antrim Borough Council in 1989, and entered politics full-time when be became general secretary of the Alliance Party. In that rôle, he was best known as a strong supporter of then leader John Alderdice and an advocate of better political organisation and community politics. He was elected to Antrim Borough Council in 1993, 1997 and - after leaving the Council in 2001 to concentrate on Assembly business - again in 2005. In 1996, he stood unsuccessfully for election to the Northern Ireland Forum in South Antrim, but was a key member of Alliance's team to the talks which led to the Good Friday Agreement. In 1997, he obtained 12% of the vote in the British General Election in South Antrim, and in 1998 was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the same constituency. He fought South Antrim again in the 2000 by-election and the 2001 and 2005 general elections.
In 2001, Séan Neeson resigned from the Party leadership following poor election results, and David Ford won the leadership election on 6 October by 86 votes to 45, ahead of Eileen Bell. Ford was identified with the more consciously Liberal, internationalist wing of Alliance, while Bell was a more traditionalist, bridge-building, candidate. Notably, Ford was, at the time, the only Alliance MLA to be also a member of the Liberal Democrats
Ford outlined his internationalist view point in his speech at the leadership selection when he said:
I am keen to co-operate with other non-sectarian groups in Northern Ireland, including political parties that will stand against the tribal divide. Our links to the South are not as good as they should be, either with the PDs or with Fine Gael, where we have many natural allies.
We must also recognise that Northern Ireland is not unique in the world.
Our stand is not different in substance from those who work for peace and reconciliation in Cyprus, Palestine or Bosnia. We should learn from friends abroad. To suggest that 'our wee province' is unique is to do a disservice. There is little more objectionable than the sight of the political begging bowl being dragged out by sectional politicians.
Ford gave Alliance a stability which it had lacked since the departure of John Alderdice, but the Party had declined seriously in the late 1990s and all Ford could do was stabilise the situation. Within a month of taking over the leadership, however, Ford had a chance to establish Alliance's relevancy in the post-Good Friday Agreement environment - on 6 November, 2001, the Northern Ireland Executive was to be re-established. However, due to defections within his own Ulster Unionist Party, First Minister David Trimble, had insufficient support within the Unionist bloc in the Assembly to be re-elected to his post. Ford and two of his five colleagues re-designated as Unionist, for just 22 minutes, in order to secure Trimble's position, and thereby enabled the devolved institutions to operate for another year. However, Alliance failed to make any political gains from their move, and the UUP and Sinn Féin failed to reach agreement on the decommissioning issue, ensuring that the institutions collapsed again in October 2002.
In the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections of 2003, Ford's seat in the Assembly was perceived to be under severe threat from Sinn Féin's Martin Meehan, with many commentators expecting him to lose it. However, Ford's expertise in nuts and bolts electioneering stood him in good stead. Although Alliance's vote almost halved, Ford's own vote in South Antrim increased from 8.6% to 9.1%. Meehan's vote increased dramatically, from 7.3% to 11.5%, and he started the election count ahead. However Ford had much greater transfer appeal and finished 180 votes ahead of Meehan at the end of a dramatic three-way fight for the last two seats, with the SDLP's Thomas Burns just 14 votes ahead of Ford. Despite the dramatic fall in vote, Alliance, almost miraculously, held on to its six seats in the Assembly, which remained suspended. Details at blank">http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/03sa.htm
In 2004, Ford made good his leadership election pledge to work with other parties, as Alliance joined with the _Workers' Party, Northern Ireland Conservatives and elements of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition to support Independent Candidate John Gilliland in the European Elections, achieving the best result for the centre ground for 25 years.
Ford's greatest triumph came in the 2007 election, when the party achieved its highest vote share since Alderdice's departure and picked up a seat in what was an otherwise poor election for the moderates. Despite media predictions once again of his demise, Ford himself was elected third in South Antrim, with over 13% of the poll. Ford's ability to lead the party to build further on this outcome will be the true test of his party leadership.
David Ford is married to Anne, has four grown up children and lives in rural County Antrim. He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
David Ford (born March 23, 1967 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian whitewater slalom kayaker. He began kayaking at age 10, and is a graduate of the University of Alberta. He won a gold medal in the K1 event of the 1999 World Championships La Seu d'Urgell, Spain and won a silver in the same event at the 2003 World Championships in Augsburg, Germany.
David Ford (October 30, 1925 – August 7, 1983) was an American character actor known for playing John Hancock in the musical-turned-motion-picture 1776. He replaced Mark Allen in the role of Sam Evans, a widower and an artist and father of Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott) on the ABC-TV serial Dark Shadows from 1966-1968. His other role on Dark Shadows was as Andre duPres, the father of Josette duPres in the 1795 storyline.
He later played a contract role of Karl Devlin on the CBS soap opera Search for Tomorrow.
On the Broadway stage, he was noted for his role in the musical 1776.
Born in La Jolla, California, he was married to his Dark Shadows co-star, actress Nancy Barrett, from 1967 until they divorced in 1969; that same year his character Sam Evans was killed off from Dark Shadows.
On August 7, 1983 David Ford died of a heart attack in New York, New York; he was 57 years old. On that same day two years later, actress Grayson Hall of Dark Shadows died from cancer.
David James Ford (formerly known as Dav Ford, born on May 16 1978 in Dartford, Kent) is a British singer-songwriter, currently living in Lewes, East Sussex. He first achieved prominence with the indie rock group Easyworld, who released an independent mini-album, ...Better Ways to Self Destruct and two full-length albums on Jive Records before disbanding in 2004.
Ford branched into a solo career soon after, and he now has a large following having released two albums.
David Ford is a former professional football player, who played for Sheffield Wednesday F.C., Newcastle United F.C., Sheffield United F.C. and Halifax Town A.F.C.. His career lasted from 1965 to 1976 during which time he made 245 league appearances with 15 as substitute and scored 42 goals. He was an attacking right sided player.
Ford was born in Sheffield on March 2nd 1945, he joined Sheffield Wednesday as an 18 year old in 1963 and made his debut in the 1965-66 season against Sunderland on October 23rd. He scored his first goal in a 1-0 home league victory over Fulham on November 20th 1965. Ford’s career really took off in the latter stages of that first season when he scored 13 goals in 18 league and cup matches between March 5th and May 14th. His goals helped Wednesday reach the 1966 FA Cup final, he scored in the fifth round victory over Huddersfield Town and twice in the quarter final win at Blackburn Rovers. Ford’s greatest career moment happened in that year's F.A Cup final when he scored after 57 minutes to put Wednesday 2-0 up against Everton and on the way to victory after their goalkeeper Gordon West spilled a fierce shot by John Fantham and Ford followed up to slide the ball into the far corner, however Wednesday were defeated as Everton came back to score three times and win the trophy.
David Ford’s second season (1966-67) for Wednesday was also a success he finished the season joint top scorer with John Ritchie with 15 goals, however the goals dried up after this and he was sold to Newcastle United in December 1969. Ford made 26 league appearances in his 14 month stay with Newcastle, scoring three goals. He returned to play in Sheffield in January 1971 when he joined Wednesday’s city rivals Sheffield United. He was not a regular in the United side making only 21 league appearances and scoring twice in over two years. He moved to Halifax Town in July 1973 and played there for three seasons making 83 league appearances and scoring six goals. He was released by Halifax in May 1976 ending David Ford’s professional career.
David Ford has been running his own plumbing and heating business in Sheffield for many years and he is part owner of the Champs sports bar on Ecclesall road in the city.
