She is married to Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) councillor and former North Antrim MLA, Declan O'Loan; they have five sons. In June 2006, one of her sons, Damian, was seriously wounded in the Oldpark section of North Belfast. The 23-year-old was left with serious head injuries and a broken arm after being attacked with an iron bar by a gang of four youths. The motive for the attack has not yet been established.[4] She was a voluntary marriage counsellor, working particularly to prepare young people from different religions who are getting married.
Baroness O'Loan was appointed as latest chair of the Daniel Morgan inquiry in July 2014.[5] Following the long gap after Stanley Burnton was forced to quit,[clarification needed] Baroness O'Loan was made the new head of a long-running series of inquiries into the murder of the ex-private investigator and the subsequent police cover up.
Vice-chair of the Police Authority's Community Relation Committee;
Member of the Northern Health and Social Services Board
Convenor for Complaints for the Northern Health and Social Services Board
Member of the General Consumer Council, and Convenor of the Transport and Energy Group of that Council
Legal expert member of the European Commission's Consumers Consultative Council
Member of the Green Economy Working Group
Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's Human Rights Enquiry
Independent custody visitor (formerly known as "lay visitor")
For seven years, she was an independent custody visitor ("lay visitor") to police stations, which meant she could speak to people being detained, at any time of the day or night.[6]
Career as Ombudsman
O'Loan was appointed by Her Majesty's Government to the post of Police Ombudsman designate in 1999. The Ombudsman's Office was created by the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998. This reform came into force some two weeks prior to the Belfast Agreement and the office's existence and practice has been the subject of continued controversy since. In August 2001, she was tasked with looking into police handling of the Omagh bombing in 1998. This attack killed 29 people (and 2 unborn children). Her report, published in December 2001, found that the Royal Ulster Constabulary had prior knowledge of some form of attack planned for that area and it questioned the leadership of Northern Ireland's then Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan. [citation needed]
Responding to the report, Flanagan said he considered the report to represent neither a "fair, thorough or rigorous investigation".[7] He said he was considering legal action on a "personal and organisational basis".[7] An application for a High Court judicial review of the report was made by the Police Association trade union in 2002 and withdrawn in 2003.[8]
He further added: "I consider it to be a report of an erroneous conclusion reached in advance and then a desperate attempt to find anything that might happen to fit in with that, and a determination to exclude anything which does not fit that erroneous conclusion". Flanagan said that if he believed the allegations in the report had been true "I would not only resign, I would publicly commit suicide."[7]
O'Loan attracted both praise and criticism for her robust activity in investigating alleged abuses by officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). She has also served as a trusted intermediary in controversial cases involving alleged criminal activity by Irish Republicans. This role came about because many Republicans did not yet recognise the PSNI as a legitimate and unbiased police service, and so refused to co-operate in its investigations. This role has largely disappeared as Sinn Féin have now called upon republicans to assist the PSNI.[9]
A UK House of Commons Committee reported on the Police Ombudsman in 2005 and praised O'Loan, recommending that she be given wider powers. The same committee acknowledged that the Office was not seen as impartial by the PSNI and its officers and urged that these concerns be addressed. In December 2006, an independent survey by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency found that Protestants and Catholics are equally supportive of the Police Ombudsman. More than four out of five people questioned from both communities also believed that police officers and complainants would be treated fairly. In addition, a survey of police officers investigated by the Police Ombudsman's Office, suggests 85% believe they have been treated fairly by the office.[10]
On 26 June 2007 former RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Hutchinson was announced as the successor to O'Loan as Police Ombudsman, and he took up the office on 5 November 2007.
Former Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis said, in relation to her handling of the Omagh Bomb Inquiry, that it was as though she had walked through "police interests and community interests like a suicide bomber".[11] Former Secretary of StatePeter Mandelson said she has displayed a "certain lack of experience and possibly gullibility" in relation to the same affair.[12]
During the summer of 2006 her youngest son Ciarán, 18, was allegedly involved in an altercation with police in his home town. The PSNI officers involved were alleged to have manufactured false statements in relation to the matter, and later reversed the decision without comment.[13]
In October 2006 she was involved in a public row with Ian Paisley Jr. The incident happened in a Belfast coffee shop when Paisley was approached by O'Loan. She voiced her concerns on alleged comments made by Paisley about her children. Her marriage to a nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) councillor has, in the past, caused Paisley to question her ability to remain independent.[14] Upon her retirement, a farewell party was organised, to which all political parties were invited. However, no representatives from the Ulster Unionist Party, Democratic Unionist Party or Sinn Féin attended.[15] In August 2008 O'Loan while being interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour caused controversy by reportedly claiming that Protestants in Northern Ireland were brought up not to trust Catholics.[16]
Awards
In 2003, the Annual Conference of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (a US organisation) presented O'Loan with an award for her contribution to police accountability. In 2008 Dame Nuala was made Person of the Year at Ireland's Annual People of the Year Awards. On 3 July 2008, Dame Nuala was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of Ulster in recognition of her work as Police Ombudsman and for her contribution to the social development of Northern Ireland.[17]
In 2008 O'Loan was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by the Higher Education and Technical Awards Council, Ireland. That same year, she was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. In 2010, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Laws by Queen's University Belfast. In 2012, she was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA).[18][19]
Operation Ballast investigation into collusion
On 22 January 2007 she published the results[20] of Operation Ballast, an investigation into collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Ulster Volunteer Force in relation to the murder of Raymond McCord Jr., in 1997.
Several crimes committed by informants working for Special Branch were investigated, including the killings of:
On 19 February 2008, O'Loan was appointed by the Irish Government as special envoy in Timor-Leste (East Timor). Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern announced the appointment of O'Loan during a two-day visit to the country.[24]
In July 2014, it was announced that Baroness O'Loan would chair the inquiry into the 1987 murder of a private investigator Daniel Morgan. This followed the withdrawal of the previous chair Sir Stanley Burnton.[28]
The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) following the partition of Ireland. At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers, with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve.
The Omagh bombing was a car bombing on 15 August 1998 in the town of Omagh in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It was carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) splinter group who opposed the IRA's ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement, signed earlier in the year. The bombing killed 29 people and injured about 220 others, making it the deadliest single incident of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Telephoned warnings which did not specify the actual location had been sent almost forty minutes beforehand but police inadvertently moved people toward the bomb.
The Northern Ireland Policing Board is the police authority for Northern Ireland, charged with supervising the activities of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). It is a non-departmental public body composed of members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and independent citizens who are appointed by the Minister of Justice using the Nolan principles for public appointments.
Jean McConville was a woman from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was kidnapped and murdered by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and secretly buried in County Louth in the Republic of Ireland in 1972 after being accused by the IRA of passing information to British forces.
The Claudy bombing occurred on 31 July 1972, when three car bombs exploded mid-morning, two on Main Street and one on Church Street in Claudy in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The attack killed nine civilians, injured thirty and became known as "Bloody Monday". Those who planted the bombs had attempted to send a warning before the explosions took place. The warning was delayed, however, because the telephones were out of order due to an earlier bomb attack. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) issued an immediate denial of responsibility, and later stated that "an internal court of inquiry" had found that its local unit did not carry out the attack. On the thirtieth anniversary of the bombing, there was a review of the case and in December 2002 it was revealed that the IRA had been responsible for the bomb explosions.
Stormontgate is the name given to the controversy surrounding an alleged Provisional Irish Republican Army spy ring and intelligence-gathering operation based in Stormont, the parliament building of Northern Ireland. The term was coined in October 2002 after the arrest of Sinn Féin's Northern Ireland Assembly group administrator Denis Donaldson, his son-in-law Ciarán Kearney, and former porter William Mackessy for intelligence-gathering on 4 October 2002.
Sir Ronald Flanagan is a retired senior Northern Irish police officer. He was the Home Office Chief Inspector of Constabulary for the United Kingdom excluding Scotland. Sir Ronnie was previously the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) since its creation in 2001 to 2002, and had been Chief Constable of its predecessor, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) until 2001.
The Historical Enquiries Team was a unit of the Police Service of Northern Ireland set up in September 2005 to investigate the 3,269 unsolved murders committed during the Troubles, specifically between 1968 and 1998. It was wound up in September 2014, when the PSNI restructured following budget cuts.
The Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland is a non-departmental public body intended to provide an independent, impartial police complaints system for the people and police under the Police Acts of 1998 and 2000.
Owen Martin O'Hagan was an Irish investigative journalist from Lurgan, Northern Ireland. After leaving the Official Irish Republican Army and serving time in prison, he began a 20-year journalism career, during which he reported on The Troubles in Northern Ireland before being murdered, allegedly by dissident Ulster Loyalist paramilitaries in September 2001.
The Loughinisland massacre took place on 18 June 1994 in the small village of Loughinisland, County Down, Northern Ireland. Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, burst into a pub with assault rifles and fired on the customers, killing six civilians and wounding five. The pub was targeted because it was frequented mainly by Catholics, and was crowded with people watching the Republic of Ireland play against Italy in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. It is thus sometimes called the "World Cup massacre". The UVF claimed the attack was retaliation for the killing of three UVF members by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
The St Andrews Agreement is an agreement between the British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland's political parties in relation to the devolution of power in the region. The agreement resulted from multi-party talks held in St Andrews in Fife, Scotland, from 11 to 13 October 2006, between the two governments and all the major parties in Northern Ireland, including the two largest, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Féin. It resulted in the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the formation of a new Northern Ireland Executive and a decision by Sinn Féin to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland, courts and rule of law.
Declan O'Loan is a former Irish Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) politician who served as a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for North Antrim from 2007 to 2011. O’Loan was also a Member of Ballymena Borough Council from 1993 to 2014.. Following comments about merging with Sinn Fein, he had the SDLP whip suspended, sitting as an Independent in 2010. He would later serve as a Mid and East Antrim Councillor for the Ballymena DEA from 2014 to 2019
Events during the year 2007 in Northern Ireland.
Events during the year 1951 in Northern Ireland.
Torrens Knight is a Northern Ireland loyalist, who belonged to the North Antrim and Londonderry Brigade of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). In 1993 he took part in two mass murders in County Londonderry: the Greysteel massacre and the Castlerock killings. After being convicted—along with three others—for the killings, he served seven years in the Maze Prison before his release in 2000 under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Al Hutchinson is a former RCMP Assistant Commissioner, who served as the Police Oversight Commissioner in Northern Ireland, who in November 2007 became the second Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.
The International Contact Group (ICG) is a group promoted by Brian Currin aiming to "expedite, facilitate and enable the achievement of political normalization in the Basque Country". The members of the Group, presented on 14 February 2011 in Bilbao, are Silvia Casale, Pierre Hazan, Raymond Kendall, Nuala O'Loan and Alberto Spektorowski.
Raymond Irvine McCord is a victims rights campaigner from Northern Ireland. McCord became involved in the issue of victims rights after his son, Raymond McCord Jr., was killed by the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in 1997. He is an outspoken critic of the UVF.
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