biography
| name: |
Robinson, Mary
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| |
née Bourke
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1944– )
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| biography:
| Constitutional lawyer, academic, civil rights campaigner, politician, and president of the Irish Republic (1990–7), born in Ballina, Mayo, W Ireland. Born into a Roman Catholic family, she graduated in law from Trinity College, Dublin, and furthered her legal studies at Harvard University. Appointed Trinity College Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law in 1969 at 25 years of age, she was elected to the Senate or upper house of the Dáil Eireann (the Irish parliament) in the same year. As a barrister she has been responsible for landmark legal cases, particularly in relation to the rights of women and minority groups. In 1976 she joined the Irish Labour Party but left in protest against the Anglo-Irish Agreement (1985), which she argued did not represent the rights of Unionists in Northern Ireland. In 1990 she became the first woman to hold the office of President of the Republic and the first successful candidate to be nominated from outside the two largest parties in the state. During her term of presidency, she elevated what was a figurehead role into a means of highlighting the needs of the disadvantaged. In 1997 she became the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in which role she expanded the UN system of monitoring and exposing the abuse of economic, social, civil, and political rights on a global scale. She retired from the post in 2002. |
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