WHEN former British army officer Danny Kinahan takes his seat at Westminster, he will begin the next chapter in an already distinguished life.
In one of the shocks of the night, the Ulster Unionist ousted the DUP's William McCrea to take the South Antrim seat.
Regarded as a hard-working politician, he is the cousin of Chris de Burgh and lives with his wife and four children at Castle Upton, Templepatrick.
He is the son of the late Sir Robin Kinahan, who was a politician, businessman and a senior member of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland.
In Sir Robin's obituary, he was described as one of the last of the "county elite" to remain a high-ranking member of the Orange Order during the turbulent years of The Troubles.
Before entering politics, Mr Kinahan was an officer in the British Army, where he did tours of duty in Germany, the Falklands as well as Northern Ireland.
After leaving the army, he became an antiques expert and worked as Christie's auctioneers Irish representative for 18 years.
He dealt with everything from silver to paintings to antique furniture, sending the items over to Christie's if he thought they were of sufficient value.
Mr Kinahan has been a member of the Ulster Unionists since 1998 and was a member of Antrim Borough Council from 2005 until 2010.
He stood unsuccessfully for the party in South Antrim in the assembly election of 2007, where he failed to hold the party’s second seat behind former MP for the area David Burnside.
He later replace Mr Burnside as South Antrim MLA in 2009 and was later elected in 2011.
Mr Kinahan was appointed chair of the audit committee in May 2011 and is deputy chair of Stormont's education committee.
He also sits on the enterprise, trade and investment committee and is the UUP spokesperson on the economy.
