Deirdre Heenan is a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Ulster University and a former Provost of the University's Coleraine and Magee campuses. Prof Heenan was also appointed to the Council of State by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins in 2012. She was appointed Lecturer in Policy Studies at the University of Ulster in 1995, becoming a Professor in 2007. [1] She is a prominent political commentator in Northern Ireland.
The president of Ireland is the head of state of Ireland and the supreme commander of the Irish Defence Forces.
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded as the Ulster Unionist Council in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movement. Following the partition of Ireland, it was the governing party of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. It was supported by most unionist voters throughout the conflict known as the Troubles, during which time it was often referred to as the Official Unionist Party (OUP).
Mary Patricia McAleese is an Irish activist lawyer, academic, author, and former politician who served as the eighth president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. McAleese was first elected as president in 1997, having received the nomination of Fianna Fáil. She succeeded Mary Robinson, making her the second female president of Ireland, and the first woman in the world to succeed another woman as president. She nominated herself for re-election in 2004 and was returned unopposed for a second term. Born in Ardoyne, north Belfast, McAleese is the first president of Ireland to have come from either Northern Ireland or Ulster.
Michelle Angela Gildernew is an Irish Sinn Féin politician from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 2017 to 2024, after previously holding the seat from 2001 to 2015.
The Anglo-Irish Agreement was a 1985 treaty between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland which aimed to help bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The treaty gave the Irish government an advisory role in Northern Ireland's government while confirming that there would be no change in the constitutional position of Northern Ireland unless a majority of its citizens agreed to join the Republic. It also set out conditions for the establishment of a devolved consensus government in the region.
Ulster University, legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It is the largest university in Northern Ireland and the second-largest university on the island of Ireland, after the federal National University of Ireland.
Michael Daniel Higgins is an Irish politician, poet, broadcaster and sociologist who has been serving as the ninth President of Ireland since 2011.
Julia Babette Sarah Neuberger, Baroness Neuberger, is a British rabbi and politician. She previously took the Liberal Democrat whip, but resigned from the party and became a crossbencher in 2011 upon becoming the full-time senior rabbi of the West London Synagogue, from which she retired in 2020. She became the chair of University College London Hospitals (UCLH) in 2019. She is a member of the House of Lords.
John Carmel Heenan was a senior-ranking English prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1963 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.
Roy Mason, Baron Mason of Barnsley,, was a British Labour Party politician and Cabinet minister who was Secretary of State for Defence and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the 1970s.
The Ulster University Derry~Londonderry campus, better known as Magee College, is one of the four campuses of Ulster University. It is located in Derry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and was opened in 1865 as a Presbyterian Christian arts and theological college. Since 1953, it has had no religious affiliation and provides a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate academic degree programmes in disciplines ranging from business, law, social work, creative arts & technologies, cinematic arts, design, computer science and computer games to psychology and nursing.
Eileen Bell CBE is a retired Alliance Party politician from Dromara, Northern Ireland. She was a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Down from 1998 to 2007, and is a former deputy leader of the Alliance Party.
Catherine McGuinness is a retired Irish judge who served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 2000 to 2006, a Judge of the High Court from 1996 to 2000, a Judge of the Circuit Court from 1994 to 1996 and a Senator for the Dublin University from 1979 to 1981 and between 1983 and 1987. She was appointed by President Patrick Hillery to the Council of State from 1988 to 1990 and by President Michael D. Higgins from 2012 to 2019.
Nuala Patricia O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan,, is a public figure in Northern Ireland. From 1999 to 2007, she was the first Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. In July 2009, it was announced that she was to be appointed to the House of Lords and she was so appointed in September 2009. In December 2010, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, appointed her as the chairman of its governing authority. She is a columnist with The Irish Catholic.
Michael Farrell is an Irish civil rights activist, writer and former leader of People's Democracy, from its inception through to the 1969 Burntollet Bridge incident and into the 1970s.
Sydney Millar was a Northern Irish rugby union prop who played for Ballymena RFC and Ulster and international rugby for Ireland and the British Lions. After retiring from playing rugby he became a rugby coach and a rugby administrator. He became chairman of the Irish Rugby Union in 1995 and from 2003 until 2007 was chairman of the International Rugby Board. Former Lions captain Willie John McBride stated that Millar had given "his whole life to the game".
Robert David Stewart Campbell, CBE, usually known as David Campbell, is a Northern Irish unionist politician, Ulster Loyalist activist, farmer and businessman. He was a member of the 1996–1998 Northern Ireland Forum, and Chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party from 2005 to 2012.
The Football Association of Ireland is the governing body for association football in the Republic of Ireland.
Col. Reginald Harvey Bicker OBE TD is a Northern Irish businessman and Fianna Fáil politician from Spa, County Down, though he is originally from Lisburn.
Jake Heenan is a rugby union player from New Zealand. He plays primarily as an openside flanker. Heenan currently plays for English side Bristol. He played for Connacht from 2013 to 2018, winning a Pro12 title with the side in 2016. In March 2020 renewed his contract with Bristol for the 2020/21 season. Having reached the semi-finals of the Gallagher Premiership finals Heenan both captained and played number 8 on a number of occasions. Heenan was integral in the Bears first European trophy with Challenge Cup victory over Toulon.