Martina Purdy, is a former print and TV journalist currently training to be a nun. Born in Belfast, she moved at an early age with her family to Canada in 1971. She earned a degree in international relations from the University of Toronto after working in local journalism in Ireland, she returned to Canada for postgraduate study at the Ryerson School of Journalism. [1] Purdy was a business editor with the Irish News and then the Belfast Telegraph, before joining the BBC in 1999, and becoming the political correspondent for BBC Northern Ireland Television. [2] In 2014 she left the BBC to become a nun with the Sisters of Adoration, on the Falls Road, in West Belfast, along with former Barrister Elaine Kelly. [3] In 2019 due to the convent not having enough nuns meeting the church's rules, she and another trainee nun left formation. [4] In 2020 she became a guide for the St. Patricks' Way, at the St. Patrick's Centre, Downpatrick [5] In 2021, moved to continue her formation as a nun this time with Poor Clares monastery at Faughart, north of Dundalk, in Co Louth.[ citation needed ]
The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare, originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and also known as the Clarisses or Clarissines, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis, are members of an enclosed order of nuns in the Roman Catholic Church. The Poor Clares were the second Franciscan branch of the order to be established. Founded by Clare of Assisi and Francis of Assisi on Palm Sunday in the year 1212, they were organized after the Order of Friars Minor, and before the Third Order. As of 2011, there were over 20,000 Poor Clare nuns in over 75 countries throughout the world. They follow several different observances and are organized into federations.
Orla Guerin MBE is an Irish journalist. She is a Senior International correspondent working for BBC News broadcasting around the world and across the UK.
Lady Mary Elizabeth Peters, is a Northern Irish former athlete and athletics administrator. She is best known as the 1972 Olympic champion in the pentathlon, for which she won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award. Peters was named as Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter on 27 February 2019. She was installed in St. George's Chapel, the chapel of the Order, on Garter Day, 17 June.
Eileen Emily Paisley, Baroness Paisley of St George's, Baroness Bannside, is a Northern Irish Unionist politician, a vice-president of the Democratic Unionist Party, and the widow of Ian Paisley, Lord Bannside, former leader of the DUP. She became a life peer in 2006. She retired from the House of Lords on 30 October 2017.
Alban Maginness is an Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician who was a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for Belfast North from 1998 to 2016.
Dolours Price was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer.
Christine Louise Lampard is a Northern Irish broadcaster. She has presented various television programmes with Adrian Chiles, such as The One Show (2007–2010) and Daybreak (2010–2011), while with Phillip Schofield she has presented Dancing on Ice (2012–2014) and This Morning. Lampard has also presented factual series for ITV including Off The Beaten Track (2013) and Wild Ireland (2015). Since 2016 she has been a presenter of the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women.
The Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, also known as the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, is a Catholic religious order that was founded in 1835 by Mary Euphrasia Pelletier in Angers, France. The religious sisters belong to a Catholic international congregation of religious women dedicated to promoting the welfare of women and girls.
Donna Traynor was born in October 1964 and is a journalist and broadcaster in Northern Ireland. She is best known as the former main anchor of BBC Newsline.
Mary Kenny is an Irish journalist, broadcaster and playwright. A founding member of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement, she was one of the country's first and foremost feminists, often contributes columns to the Irish Independent and has been described as "the grand dame of Irish journalism". She is based in England.
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.
Margaret Anna Cusack, also known as Sister Mary Francis Cusack and Mother Margaret, was first an Irish Anglican nun, then a Catholic nun, then a religious sister and the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, and then an Anglican. By 1870 more than 200,000 copies of her works which ranged from biographies of saints to pamphlets on social issues had circulated throughout the world, the proceeds from which went towards victims of the Famine of 1879 and helping to feed the poor.
Philippa Thomas is a former television newsreader and journalist, both domestic and foreign. At the BBC she was a chief news presenter at BBC World News, presenting evening bulletins on BBC News Channel and BBC World News. She was presenter of Coronavirus: Your Stories on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. She left the BBC in 2021 to become a full-time Executive Coach.
Henry Patrick McDonald was a Northern Irish journalist and author. He was a correspondent for The Guardian and Observer, and from 2021 was the political editor of The News Letter, one of Northern Ireland's national daily newspapers, based in Belfast.
On 9 June 2011, a by-election was held for the United Kingdom constituency of Belfast West. The by-election was prompted by the resignation of the constituency's Member of Parliament, Gerry Adams in advance of his candidacy in the 2011 general election in the Republic of Ireland.
The Colettine Poor Clares are a reform branch of the Order of St. Clare, founded by Clare of Assisi in Italy in 1211. They follow the interpretation of the Rule of St. Clare established by Saint Colette in 1410, originally a French hermit and member of the Third Order of St. Francis.
NI21 was a short-lived political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 2013 by former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MLAs, Basil McCrea and John McCallister. Although it explicitly supported Northern Ireland staying part of the United Kingdom, it planned to designate as "other" rather than "unionist" in future Stormont elections. It presented itself as a "cross-community party" and promoted a Northern Irish national identity for the 21st century. The party had two MLAs in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a single councillor on Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.
Claire Sugden is a Northern Irish politician who was the Minister of Justice in the fourth Northern Ireland Executive from May 2016 to March 2017. She is a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for East Londonderry, having been co-opted to the position after the death of David McClarty in 2014, and won election to the seat in 2016, 2017 and 2022. She is an Independent Unionist, and is considered to be one of the most socially liberal unionist MLAs in the Assembly.
Théodelinde Bourcin-Dubouché, known commonly as Marie-Thérèse of the Heart of Jesus, was a Roman Catholic French nun, artist, and founder of the Sisters of Adoration in Paris, France. The cause for her canonization has been formally accepted by the Holy See, and thus she has been declared "venerable".
The Sisters of Adoration, in full the Sisters of Reparative Adoration are a Catholic enclosed religious order of women that follows the religious rule of the Discalced Carmelite Order, established in 1848 by Théodelinde Bourcin-Dubouché. They are dedicated to perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to reparation to God for the sins of the world. To this end, they serve to help deepen the faith of laywomen though conducting spiritual retreats in their monasteries.