Alliance's Kate Nicholl installed as Belfast lord mayor

Councillor Kate Nicholl of the Alliance Party has been installed as the new Lord Mayor of Belfast.

Born in Zimbabwe, the 33 year old is the first person in recent times to hold the post who was not brought up in the UK or Ireland.

Speaking after her installation, she said she hoped to bring a fresh approach to the job.

"I am going to bring energy and positivity and my love and pride for Belfast to this year," she said.

"I hope it's infectious," she added.

"I hope at the end of the year everyone sees a kinder, more inclusive, more positive, forward-thinking city," she said.

The Alliance Party councillor succeeded the DUP's Frank McCoubrey as the first citizen of Belfast at an installation ceremony on Tuesday.

The DUP's Tom Haire was installed as the new deputy Lord Mayor.

Mr Haire is a prominent member of the Orange Order.

Before Ms Nicholl was installed her mother said her daughter's upbringing in Africa would give her a broader outlook on the role.

Ms Nicholl was born in Zimbabwe but left with her mother when violence broke out in the country in 2000 and arrived in Belfast at the age of 12.

Her 72-year-old mother, Helen, who was born in South Africa, was at City Hall for the ceremony.

She believes that Belfast being represented by someone who was not born in the city should be seen as a positive not a negative.

"I think it is such a hopeful sign," she said.

"Kate has slightly an outsider's eye but, like me, she loves the place and feels it is her home because she has been so welcomed."

So what can we expect from the new lord mayor?

Her mum smiles and says: "She's got a couple of wonderful qualities that her mother certainly doesn't have - she is very tactful, she is very diplomatic."

She added: "In my family we were always interested in politics. My parents were political. They were anti-apartheid activists (in South Africa).

"There has been quite a lot of politics in my daughter's life whether she wanted it or not."

Ms Nicholl is the sixth member of the Alliance Party to become lord mayor of Belfast.

While her mother grew up in Cape Town in South Africa, her father is from Northern Ireland.

The couple lived in County Down after they got married in the 1970s but moved to Zimbabwe in 1982.

Among the previous lord mayors of Belfast who were born outside of the UK and Ireland was Sir Otto Jaffe, who held the office in 1899. He was born in Hamburg, Germany.

Viscount Pirrie, who was born in Quebec, Canada, became mayor in 1896. At the time he was also chairman of shipbuilders Harland and Wolff.