Andrew McMurray to replace Patrick Brown as Alliance’s South Down MLA

​Mr Brown announced last week that he would be resigning from his seat for “personal reasons”.

At the weekend the party selected Mr McMurray, who is from Castlewellan and has served as a councillor for the Slieve Croob area of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, to replace Mr Brown.

In a post on Facebook, Mr Brown said that he remained “proud of my track record on local issues, the environment, animal welfare and UBI, and most recently supporting those devastated by last year's flooding.”

However, he felt that he had been “struggling in the role, and have neither felt myself nor able to give the job the dedication it deserves.

"This May I will have been in elected life for 10 years and trust me when I tell you it takes a toll. Anyone familiar with my first election in 2014 will know I never expected to go into politics, and I suppose I've struggled with a mix of imposter syndrome and uncertainty about what's best for me career-wise throughout my time in office.

“More recently, on the advice of friends, I secured a diagnosis for adult ADHD, something I've always suspected I had, and frankly the pressures of being in full-time politics combined with a neurodiverse brain, and a typical male reluctance to shut down rather than discuss how I was feeling, was a fairly potent mix for my wellbeing.

"As colleagues rightly highlighted in the Assembly just this week, there are basically no treatment pathways for adult ADHD in NI, and I didn't feel it was likely I could come learn to cope with and fully understand this diagnosis within formal politics.”

Mr Brown, who had been “offered another job working in a field more aligned with my academic background”, said he acknowledged that there would be speculation about the “real” reason for his departure.

"I was hoping people might respect this and give me some space, but it does appear there are some intent on speculating that there are other reasons for my resignation and I can say categorically this is not the case.

"Unfortunately, whilst I have always had the greatest of respect for our media and I'll be the first to admit I've made mistakes whilst elected, there are certain journalists who I feel have treated me, and others, unfairly in the past, running repetitive and damaging stories, insinuating wrongdoing and generally hounding elected representatives in their role. This has, ultimately, been a contributing factor to how I now feel.”

Mr Brown added that a complaint had been made about him to the Assembly by a South Down school, and that this was “a counter-complaint in direct response to a complaint I made to them on behalf of numerous constituents who had raised incredibly serious concerns with me about the governance and ethos of the school”.

He continued: “I consider this complaint to be vexatious and an attempt to silence someone speaking out about these serious issues, and I maintain that I did absolutely nothing wrong in pursuing it.

"However, despite the speculation, this had no bearing on my reasons for resigning, with the timing of my resignation more to do with my new job and finding the right time to inform staff and colleagues.”