Many expected Robinson to be the attorney-general, but the Labour party leader instead picked an unknown, new senior counsel called John Rogers. One ancestor was a leading activist in the Irish National Land League in Mayo and the Irish Republican Brotherhood; an uncle, Sir Paget John Bourke, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II after a career as a judge in the Colonial Service; while another relative was a Roman Catholic nun. In 1969, she was elected to the Irish Senate as an independent senator. During her tenure she criticised the Irish system of permits for non-EU immigrants, and criticised the United States' use of capital punishment. The Korea Liberator: [2] Criticism of Robinson's failure to speak out while North Korea deliberately starved two million of its people to death, largely during her tenure (warning: graphic image). Facts about Mary Robinson 5: criticism. Bruton and Ahern both tried to get her the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Irish Post is the biggest selling national newspaper to the Irish in Britain. She welcomed visits by senior British royals, most notably the Prince of Wales to Áras an Uachtaráin. But the government threatened to fall over the issue. As president she signed two very important Bills that she had fought for throughout her political career. They gambled that former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald would run as its candidate (but for two years he had been saying no), then they asked Peter Barry, who had previously been willing to run but had run out of patience and was no longer interested. One year later she agreed to become the first Labour candidate for the presidency and the first woman candidate in what was only the second presidential election to be contested by three candidates since 1945. It was her husband Nick (who she met at Trinity College, Dublin) who urged her think seriously about the Presidency, 20. Archbishop Tutu will serve as the Chair of The Elders. Like Robinson he had made liberal policy reforms. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She resigned the presidency four months ahead of the end of her term of office to begin a five year term in the United Nations, as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “I knew that problem for 19 years,” she added, referring to her first significant visit to Rwanda in 1994 to witness the aftermath of the genocide there. On 18 July 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela, his wife Graça Machel, and Desmond Tutu convened a group of world leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and honesty to tackle some of the world's toughest problems. Lenihan became the first Fianna Fáil presidential candidate in the history of the office to lose a presidential election. Robinson got the permission of the then Arch… Her victory was achieved against all odds. She was elected one of Trinity College's three members of Seanad Éireann in 1969. Fianna Fáil chose Tánaiste and Minister for Defence, Brian Lenihan. All rights reserved. Robinson now became President. Facts about Mary Robinson … Lenihan still managed to win the first count. The Irish Post delivers all the latest Irish news to our online audience around the globe. Shortly afterwards, Robinson resigned from the party in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement, she said that unionist politicians in Northern Ireland should have been consulted as part of the deal. In the Single Transferable Vote system Austin Currie was eliminated and his second choice votes were counted. Lenihan was dismissed as Tánaiste and Minister for Defence. On one trip to Belfast she met with the local MP, Gerry Adams, the President of Sinn Féin. In the 1960s he abolished censorship, for example. Some background came via an interview with Mrs. Robinson. Born Mary Therese Winifred Bourke in Ballina, County Mayo in 1944, Mary Robinson was the daughter of two medical doctors. Mrs Robinson is the twenty fourth, and first female, Chancellor of University of Dublin. Foreign Minister Dick Spring, who was leader of the Labour Party, privately advised her not to meet Adams. Mary Robinson, née Mary Teresa Winifred Bourke, (born May 21, 1944, Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland), Irish lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as president of Ireland (1990–97), the first woman to hold that post. She signed the Yogyakarta Principles in meeting of International Commission of Jurist and from 2008 to 2010 she was the predident of the International Commission of Jurists. Robinson said that because her mother assumed she would be the only girl in her family, "she gave me as many names as she could", 4. Mary Robinson founded the Imagine center for kids to provide what she didn't have after her father died. In a swerve from tradition, Irish State broadcaster RTÉ chose to air Robinson's victory speech instead of the nightly Angelus, 12. She campaigned for issues such as contraception and women’s rights. 2. She was the Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee and the Social Affairs … That did it for Lenihan and Robinson, to everyone’s astonishment, was elected. She was also the first head of state to visit Somalia following the crisis there in 1992, See More: Charles Haughey died not like her, even stopping her from delivering the important BBC Dimbleby Lecture. President Of Ireland. She served on the Joint Committee on Marital Breakdown and the Joint Committee on EC Secondary Legislation. Mary Robinson, Robinson receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. Robinson got the permission of the then Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid to study in Trinity College, Dublin (TCD); at the time Roman Catholics were forbidden by church rules from studying in TCD without special permission, called a dispensation. Also briefing notes issued on various occasions (notably state, official or personal visits by Robinson abroad) supplied by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Buckingham Palace, Áras an Uachtaráin, the Holy See and the press offices of the United Nations (including [1] the text of her Romanes Lecture in November 1997).