Born 1940s.
Ancestors 
Daughter of Aubrey de Vere Bourke
and Teresa Agnes (O'Donnell) Bourke
Sister of
Aubrey Bourke Jr. [half]
[children unknown]
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Preceded by
Patrick Hillery
Patrick Hillery
Succeeded by
Mary McAleese
Mary McAleese
Biography
Mary (Bourke) Robinson was born in Ireland.
Mary is a Roman Catholic.
Dr Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (née Bourke; b.21st May 1944) is an Irish politician who was the 7th president of Ireland, the first woman to hold this office, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002.
Mary Therese Winifred, daughter of Drs Aubrey and Tessa (née O'Donnell) Bourke, was born on the 21st May 1944 in Ballina, County Mayo.[1][2] She was third of their five children, and their only daughter.[2]
In 1969 she took a position as Reid Professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law in Trinity College, Dublin.[3]
She married Nicholas Robinson in 1970. They have three children.
Robinson served as a Seanadóir on the University of Dublin panel from 1969 to 1989, in the 12th through 18th Seanaid.[4]
In 1990 she was a surprise winner of the election for the presidency of the Republic of Ireland. Brian Lenihan, the candidate of the dominant political party, Fianna Fáil, ahd been expected to win easily, but his campaign was set back by public revelations of illegal political shenanigans by Lenihan. As the first woman to hold high office in Ireland, she was criticized by Catholic church leaders for her support of family planning, but was able to sign the first legislation allowing contraceptives in Ireland, as well as measures to legalise divorce and descriminalise homosexuality. She was noted for her efforts to encourage Irish people living abroad to return to their native land. By meeting with Gerry Adams, who was then the banned president of Sinn Féin, and shaking his hand, she helped to foster reconciliation between long-hostile factions in the country. As President, she had a 93% approval rating. She resigned from the Presidency on 1997 to become United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.[5]
In 1997, she was appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, only the second person to hold that position, which was established in 1994. In that office, she visited 60 countries and was known for "outspoken and uncompromising criticism" of governments' human rights records and for speaking out about matters including the legality of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia, China's campaigns against Muslim separatists and Tibetan supporters of the Dalai Lama, and Afghanistan government abuse of the rights of captured Taliban forces. She described the job as one of "the most demanding positions ever created by the international community," but she was credited for making the office one of the highest-profile departments in the United Nations. In March 2002 she announced that she would not seek an additional term in the office.[3]
She also served as Chancellor of Trinity College Dublin from 1998 to 2019. [6]
Sources
- ↑
Birth:
"Ireland Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958"
citing Page: 7; Digital film/folder number: 004195651; FHL microfilm: 101236; Record number: 111390; Packet letter: A
FamilySearch Record: F1HY-147 (accessed 6 December 2023)
Marie [sic'] T W Bourke birth Apr 1944 in Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland, child of O'Donnell. - ↑ 2.0 2.1 O'Mahony, John (2001). A voice for the voiceless. The Guardian, 20 October 2001. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/oct/20/books.guardianreview.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Snelling, Mark. Mary Robinson: Human rights champion, BBC News Online, 18 March 2002.
- ↑ Mary Robinson. TDs & Senators. Houses of the Oireachtas. https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/member/Mary-Robinson.S.1969-11-05.
- ↑ O'Dowd, Niall. Mary Robinson, the woman who changed Ireland, Irish Central
- ↑ Former Chancellors, Trinity College Dublin website, accessed 4 March 2022.
- See also:
- Wikidata: Item Q188214, en:Wikipedia
- “Mary Robinson – Máire Mhic Róibín.” President of Ireland. https://president.ie/en/the-president/mary-robinson.
- The Mary Robinson Centre - Ireland’s first Presidential Library
- Marsh, Michael. Mary Robinson. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Robinson.
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Mary Terese Winifred Bourke was born in Ballina, County Mayo on May 21, 1944, the only daughter of two doctors, Aubrey and Tessa (née O'Donnell) Bourke. The family was upper middle-class and the main challenge of Mary's early life would have been coping with the demands of four unruly brothers - Aubrey and Oliver, who were older, and Henry and Adrian, who were younger - a predicament that by her own admission transformed her into something of a tomboy. "She became more one of the boys than any of us," says Henry. "There was no television, just the radio and the local cinema. So we would play out all the heroes from Roy Rogers to Batman. She would tend to be very much the leader, Roy Rogers or Batman rather than Tonto or Robin."
Life at a glance: Mary Terese Winifred Robinson
Born: Ballina, County Mayo, May 21 1944.
Education: Miss Ruddy's Junior School, Ballina, 1949-54; Convent of the Sacred Heart, Mount Anville '54-61; Paris finishing school '61-62; BA (legal science), Trinity College Dublin '63-67; Harvard law school '67-68.
Married: 1970 Nicholas Robinson (three children, Tessa '72, William '74 and Aubrey '81).
Career highlights: Deputy, Irish Senate 1969-89; Reid professor, Trinity College '69-75; Called to the Bar, Middle Temple, London '73; Member Dublin City Council '79-83; Founder (with her husband) Irish Centre for European Law,Trinity '88; President of Ireland '90-97; UN high commissioner for human rights '97-.
edited by Bill Orme III
Thanks for drawing attention to this source. I must point out that much of this is already present on this profile, but I'll be sure to add all that is extra!
edited by Feargal Hennigan