From barman to Belfast's first citizen

Republicans have gained ground at Belfast City Hall

Belfast councillor Alex Maskey has become the city's first Sinn Fein's lord mayor.

A victory looked all the more likely this time around after the Alliance Party members of the council said they would back the former Belfast barman.

It was a battle to convince the Alliance councillors but Mr Maskey is well used to fighting.

His amateur boxing record speaks for itself - 75 fights, only four losses.

Alex Maskey: Belfast's first Sinn Fein councillor

Winning boxing belts is one thing - winning chains of office is very different, and unionists are extremely reluctant to hand over Belfast's most prestigious post to a die-hard republican.

Back in 1983, Mr Maskey was the first Sinn Fein councillor to be elected to Belfast City Hall.

He said at the time: "The City Hall has for too long been a bastion of loyalism."

In more recent years, he has been at the forefront of Sinn Fein's campaign for access to the council's leading positions.

He also plays a key role at the Northern Ireland Assembly as the Sinn Fein chief whip.

It was thought that his job at the assembly might persuade him to withdraw from the council.

But he ran again in the local government election last year and was comfortably elected, even though he switched wards from Upper Falls to Laganbank.

Survived shootings

In the early 1970s, at the start of the Troubles, he was twice interned.

He has survived a number of loyalist murder attempts, including one in 1987 when he was rushed into intensive-care after being shot in the stomach.

In a four-hour operation, he had parts of his kidneys removed.

On leaving hospital, three weeks later, he said: "I was shot by loyalists because I am prepared to stand up for the rights of nationalist people."

He went to the Channel Islands to recover from the shooting. On his journey back to Belfast, he was detained at London's Heathrow Airport under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

The police action forced Mr Maskey to miss a city council meeting the following night, and Sinn Fein claimed that it was part of a plot to try to unseat him from the council.

Regarded as 'giant'

Now aged 50, he is married with two grown-up sons and a grandchild.

In the City Hall, he is regarded as the father-figure within the 14-strong Sinn Fein group.

He may be small in stature, but in republican eyes, Alex Maskey is regarded as a giant.