- born in Derry on the 18th January 1937.
- He was secondary school teacher
- founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (S.D.L.P.)
- one of the leading figures behind the peace process, from the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985 to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
- Member of the European Parliament and a Member of Parliament for Foyle as well as member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with David Trimble, his leading role in the Northern Ireland peace process
- recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Award
MARY ROBINSON - Former Irish President and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
- born in Ballina, Co. Mayo on the 21st May 1944.
- At 25, Mary Robinson became Ireland's youngest professor of law when she was appointed Reid Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law at Trinity College, where she also served as lecturer in European Community Law.
- s a member of Seanad Éireann.
- a strong advocate for human rights, campaigning to eliminate discrimination against women in Irish society and reform of homosexuality laws.
- In 1990, she was the first woman to be elected President of Ireland. While in office, she used her influence to draw attention to global humanitarian issues.
- She traveled to Somalia in 1992 and went to Rwanda after the genocide in 1994.
- When she visited Queen Elizabeth in London, it was the first such meeting between the heads of state of the two countries.
- She famously put a symbolic light in the kitchen window in Áras an Uachtaráin, (the candle in the window) to remember the Irish Diaspora.
- In 1997, she became United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a post she held until 2002.
- In July 2009 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour bestowed by the United States.