Debate contribution: Anna Lo

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 11 November 2024.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

11 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Assembly Business

Heading

Anna Lo

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4667017

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I join everyone else who has paid sincere and fulsome tribute to Anna Lo on her passing. I extend the condolences of the SDLP and me to her family, including her partner, Robert, her two sons and her grandchildren, and to her colleagues in the Alliance Party, who will be feeling her loss most acutely, having stood with and worked with her so closely over the years. When you become a representative for South Belfast, as I am proud to be — as are you, Mr Speaker, and others in the Chamber — one of the things that you are most proud of and feel most passionate about representing is the diversity of South Belfast. Of course, Anna Lo represented that in a very obvious way in that she was not only the first and, so far, frustratingly, the only ethnic minority MLA to serve in the Assembly but as others, including Naomi Long, her party leader, have said, the first legislator from a Chinese background in all of western Europe. What an extraordinary achievement. If that were the sum total of Anna's achievement, that would in itself be remarkable, but it was not. She was a fierce advocate, a talented legislator, an extraordinary communicator and campaigner and a diligent constituency worker. People from all backgrounds in that wonderfully diverse constituency of South Belfast that we serve feel real affection and, as the deputy First Minister said, love for Anna Lo, because she was an extraordinary representative and an extraordinary human being. She represented extraordinary qualities in overcoming division. It is often said by people who get frustrated by this place — sometimes by people who leave this place and wonder whether they should come back — that Northern Ireland never changes. In many ways, Anna Lo was the rebuke to that view. Anna Lo represented positive change. She was not just an emblem or symbol of that change; she helped to deliver it by working for her constituents, including but not limited to those from ethnic minority backgrounds, for all of South Belfast and, indeed, for all of Northern Ireland when she was Chair of the Environment Committee. The extent and depth of her achievement are evidenced by the warmth and sincerity of the praise that we have heard for her today. We are all the poorer for her loss. I offer my condolences again to not only her family, who will be feeling the loss most acutely, but her friends and colleagues in the Alliance Party, who rightly treasured her contribution so much. We offer them our sincere condolences.

431 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:32 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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