Paul Butler (Irish: Pól de Buitléir^[1]) is a republican politician in Northern Ireland and a former member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He served as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Lagan Valley from 2007 to 2011.^[2][3]

At the age of 17, Butler was convicted of killing 50-year-old reserve Royal Ulster Constabulary officer. As a result, he spent 15 years in jail.^[4][5]

Paul Butler is the leader of the Sinn Féin group on the Lisburn City Council. The party currently holds four seats on the council, making it the third party and the largest nationalist party. Butler has a served as a Councillor for Lisburn City Council since 1997 and is a member of their Strategic Policy, Planning and Finance Committees.^[6][7] Butler claims he campaigns against discrimination on the council, culminating in the Irish Government sending a representative to witness council proceedings. Nationalists claim that the unionist majority on the council has prevented nationalists from taking council positions. Butler campaigned for the town to gain city status which was bestowed on the city by the British Monarch.^{[citation needed]}

Butler stood in the UK general elections in 2001 and 2005 in the Lagan Valley constituency but was not elected.^[8] In the 2005 general election, Sinn Féin received the largest share of the vote by a nationalist party, overtaking the SDLP.

In October 2023, he called on the Social Democratic and Labour Party to not stand a candidate in Lagan Valley in the next general election.^[9]

Butler announced that he will not contest the May Assembly elections after only one term as an MLA. "I am standing down," confirmed Butler. "The Party's position on this is that anyone who is a councillor and an MLA should only have one job."^[10]