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Mary McAleese, President of Ireland from 1997 - 2011, to speak on the 1998 Good Friday Agreement
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Mary McAleese, President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011, will speak at Loyola University Chicago on February 16 on her involvement in the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement between the political parties in Northern Ireland and the British and Irish Governments and on her commitment to bridge building and human rights in social and religious conflicts. Profs. Hille Haker, Richard A. McCormick, S.J., Chair of Catholic Moral Theology, and Miguel H. Diaz, The John Courtney Murray, S.J., University Chair in Public Service, will engage President McAleese in a conversation about peacemaking during times of conflict. The program, co-sponsored by the Theology Department and the College of Arts and Sciences, will be held on Friday, February 16, at 5:00 pm in Jo Ann Rooney Hall in the Mundelein Center (1020 W. Sheridan Road) at Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus.
Bio of Mary McAleese
Dr. Mary McAleese was President of Ireland from 1997 until 2011. She was the first President to come from Northern Ireland. Born in Belfast in 1951, the eldest of nine children, she grew up in Ardoyne, a sectarian flashpoint area of the city and experienced first-hand the violence of The Troubles. The theme of her presidency was Building Bridges and her work for peace and reconciliation, begun long before becoming President, culminated in the historic state visit to Ireland by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011. A barrister, author, and broadcast journalist, she was Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin, Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies, and first female pro-Vice Chancellor at the Queen's University of Belfast. On retiring from office in 2011 she became a full-time student at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome obtaining a Licentiate and Doctorate in Canon Law. She researches and writes on human rights and children’s rights in the Catholic Church. She was Professor of Children, Law, and Religion at the University of Glasgow, 2018-2022 and is currently Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin.
