![]() |
Bronagh Anne Hinds CBE (born 27 July 1951) is a women's rights advocate from Northern Ireland. She was a participant in the Good Friday Agreement negotiations for the Women's Coalition and was the Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.
Bronagh Hinds was born on 27 July 1951 and grew up in Belfast. Hinds enrolled as a law student at Queen's University Belfast, where she later became the first woman to be elected as President of an Irish university student's union at 22 years old. [1] Whilst a student, she attended the march that would later be dubbed Bloody Sunday. [2] During her time at Queen's, she campaigned for an increase in student grants and women's representation. [3]
In 1975, Hinds co-founded the Northern Ireland Women's Rights Movement (NIWRM). Her focus at NIWRM was to ensure access to quality childcare. She was the Northern Irish Information Officer in the Northern Ireland Citizen's Advice Bureaux. She later moved to Dublin in 1977 as the Information Coordinator for Combat Poverty.
She later returned to Belfast to serve as Secretary to the Northern Ireland Consumer Council before leading one-parent family organization Gingerbread, North Ireland from 1981 to 1991. In 1989, Hinds helped establish the Northern Ireland Women's European Platform. Hinds then served as the Northern Ireland Director of Oxfam from 1990 to 1992 and then as the Director of the Ulster People's College from 1993 to 2001.
In the early stages of the Good Friday talks, Hinds successfully worked with Monica McWilliams and Avila Kilmurray to lobby for women's participation in the peace talks and formed the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition because they "noticed that there was going to be very few female voices around the table that was negotiating the future landscape for Northern Ireland. I think there was a recognition that more female voices could bring new perspectives and a positive dynamic."
In 2000, Bronagh Hinds founded DemocraShe in order to promote the advancement of women in political and public life by training women in election confidence, public speaking and campaign building
From 1999 to 2003, Hinds also served as the Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. [4]
In 1999, Hinds was awarded UK Woman of Europe for her work on the Good Friday Agreement. [5]
The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has seven members in the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLAs) and two members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, British nationalist and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. It is currently led by Gavin Robinson, who initially stepped in as an interim after the resignation of Jeffrey Donaldson. It is the second largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and was the fifth-largest party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom prior to its dissolution. The party has been described as centre-right to right-wing and socially conservative, being anti-abortion and opposing same-sex marriage. The DUP sees itself as defending Britishness and Ulster Protestant culture against Irish nationalism and republicanism. It is also Eurosceptic and supported Brexit.
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, was a Northern Irish politician who was the inaugural First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 2005. He was also Member of Parliament (MP) for Upper Bann from 1990 to 2005 and Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Upper Bann from 1998 to 2007.
Seamus Frederick Mallon was an Irish politician who served as deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2001 and Deputy Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) from 1979 to 2001. He also sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1986 to 2005.
Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet of Tony Blair as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
The Northern Ireland Women's Coalition (NIWC) was a minor cross-community political party in Northern Ireland from 1996 to 2006.
Mark Durkan is a retired Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland. Durkan was the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from November 2001 to October 2002, and the Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) from 2001 to 2010. He contested the Dublin constituency for Fine Gael at the 2019 European Parliament election.
The Northern Ireland peace process includes the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and subsequent political developments.
Naomi Rachel Long MLA is a Northern Irish politician who has served as Minister of Justice in the Northern Ireland Executive since February 2024, having previously served from January 2020 to October 2022. She has served as leader of the Alliance Party since 2016 and a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Belfast East since 2020.
Monica Mary McWilliams is a Northern Irish academic, peace activist, human rights defender and former politician.
May Blood, Baroness Blood, was a British politician who was a member of the House of Lords, where she was a Labour peer and the first peeress from Northern Ireland from 31 July 1999 to 4 September 2018.
Jane Morrice is a Northern Irish politician and journalist who helped architect the Good Friday Agreement. She is the former Deputy Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, former Head of the European Commission Office in Northern Ireland and former reporter for BBC Belfast. Morrice was Vice President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) from 2013 to 2015 and again from 2019 until 2020 when Brexit forced the United Kingdom out of the European Union. Morrice served two terms as Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Equality Commission and was a prominent member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition until it ceased to exist in 2006.
Martina Anderson is an Irish former politician from Northern Ireland who served as Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Foyle from 2020 to 2021, and previously from 2007 to 2012. A member of Sinn Féin, she served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing Northern Ireland from 2012 to 2020.
Michelle O'Neill is an Irish politician who has served as First Minister of Northern Ireland since February 2024 and Vice President of Sinn Féin since 2018. She has also been the MLA for Mid Ulster in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2007. O'Neill was previously deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2020 to 2022. O'Neill served on the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council from 2005 to 2011.
Lucilita Bhreatnach is an Irish republican politician and member of Sinn Féin.
The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) or Belfast Agreement is a pair of agreements signed on 10 April 1998 that ended most of the violence of the Troubles, an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland since the late 1960s. It was a major development in the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s. It is made up of the Multi-Party Agreement between most of Northern Ireland's political parties, and the British–Irish Agreement between the British and Irish governments. Northern Ireland's present devolved system of government is based on the agreement.
Inez McCormack was a Northern Irish trade union leader and human rights activist. She was the first female president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, representing the UNISON union. She also successfully campaigned for the inclusion of strong equality and human rights provisions in the Good Friday Agreement, and was a signatory to the MacBride Principles for fair employment. In 2002 she was described as "probably the best known and most experienced human rights campaigner in this country."
Kathleen Funchion is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South constituency since 2024. She was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency from the 2016 general election to 2024. She was appointed Chair of the Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration in September 2020. She previously served as Chair of the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement from 2016 to 2020.
The Conservative–DUP agreement between the Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) followed the 2017 United Kingdom general election which resulted in a hung parliament. Negotiations between the two parties began on 9 June, the day after the election, and the final agreement was signed and published on 26 June 2017.
Human rights in Ireland are protected under the Irish Constitution and European provisions. Since 2014 the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has overseen human rights in the republic. Human rights issues in the country that have raised concern include abortion rights, child abuse, and human trafficking.