Mary McAleese

Mary Patricia McAleese (Máire Pádraigín Mhic Ghiolla Íosa; Leneghan; born 27 June 1951 ) is an Irish activist lawyer, academic, author, and former politician who served as the eighth president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011.

She is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders and was ranked the 64th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

In spite of some minor controversies, McAleese remained popular, and her presidency is regarded as successful.

Born Mary Patricia Leneghan (Máire Pádraigín Ní Lionnacháin), in Ardoyne, north Belfast to Paddy Leneghan from Croghan, County Roscommon and Claire McManus from County Antrim.

She is a Catholic but grew up in a largely Protestant neighbourhood.

Loyalists forced her family to leave the area when the Troubles broke out.

She was educated at St Dominic's High School, an all-girls Catholic grammar school in Belfast.

She studied law at Queen's University Belfast, graduating in 1973 with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB Hons) degree.

She was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1974, and was later called to the Irish Bar.

In 1975, she was appointed Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College Dublin, and in 1987 she returned to her alma mater, Queen's, to become director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies.

In 1975, having spent a year as a practising barrister in Belfast, she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology in Trinity College Dublin, succeeding Mary Robinson.

Also in 1975, McAleese chaired a meeting at Liberty Hall that advocated a woman's right to choose and was quoted as saying that "I would see the failure to provide abortion as a human rights issue".

She later claimed that she was given to understand that the nature of the meeting was to be a discussion among all sides and opinions.

During the same decade, she was a legal advisor to and a founding member of the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform.

In 1976, she married Martin McAleese, an accountant and dentist.

He assisted his wife with some of her initiatives as president.

She left this position in 1979, to join RTÉ as a journalist and presenter, during one period as a reporter and presenter for their Frontline replaced by Today Tonight in 1980 programme.

However, in RTÉ, she and Alex White (then a TV producer and later a Labour Party TD) were attacked and criticised by a group led by Eoghan Harris, associated with the Workers' Party, over what they perceived as her bias towards republican groups in the North.

McAleese was critical of the Provisional IRA, but believed it was important to hear their side of the story; she opposed the Harris faction's support for Section 31, which she believed was an attack on free speech.

In 1981, she returned to the Reid Professorship, but continued to work part-time for RTÉ for a further four years.

They have three children: Emma, born in 1982, who graduated as an engineer from University College Dublin and graduated as a dentist from Trinity College Dublin; and twins born in 1985, Justin, an accountant with a master's degree from University College Dublin, and SaraMai, who obtained a master's degree in biochemistry at the University of Oxford.

In 1987, she returned to Queen's University, to become Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies.

She stood, unsuccessfully, as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the Dublin South-East constituency at the 1987 general election, receiving 2,243 votes (5.9%).

McAleese has a long-standing involvement in ecumenism and anti-sectarianism.

In 1994, she became the first female pro-vice-chancellor of Queen's University.

She worked as a barrister and as a journalist with RTÉ.

She is an Honorary Fellow of St Edmund's College, Cambridge.

She has also earned a doctorate in Catholic canon law.

McAleese used her time in office to address issues concerning justice, social equality, social inclusion, anti-sectarianism and reconciliation.

She described her presidency's theme as "Building Bridges".

This bridge-building materialised in her attempts to reach out to the unionist community in Northern Ireland.

These steps included celebrating the Twelfth of July at Áras an Uachtaráin and taking Communion in a Church of Ireland cathedral in Dublin, for which she incurred some criticism from some of the Irish Catholic hierarchy.

Though a Catholic, McAleese holds liberal views on homosexuality and women priests.

McAleese was first elected as president in 1997, having received the nomination of Fianna Fáil.

She succeeded Mary Robinson, making her the second female president of Ireland, and the first woman in the world to succeed another woman as president.

She nominated herself for re-election in 2004 and was returned unopposed for a second term.

Born in Ardoyne, north Belfast, McAleese is the first president of Ireland to have come from either Northern Ireland or Ulster.

McAleese graduated in law from Queen's University Belfast.

Ahead of the 2015 marriage equality referendum, Justin spoke publicly about growing up gay.

Every year she spends some time with the Poor Clares.