Life
1944- [née Bourke]; b. Ballina, Co. Mayo, dg. of G.P.; ed. TCD,
occupying a house purchased by the family in Westland Row; proceeded to
Paris and Geneva; Reid Professor of constitutional and Criminal Law, 1969-75;
m. Nick Robinson (a Protestant) in Dublin Airport Church, 1970, her own
family absenting themselves from the service; lect. in European Community
Law, 1975-90; Senate, 1969-89; Snr. Counsel, 1980-90; quit Labour Party
over Anglo-Irish Agreement in protest against its implications for Northern
Unionists, 1985; International Comm. of Jurists, Geneva, 1987-90; Labour
endorsed presidential candidate, 1979; Irish president, 1991- ; placed
a candle in the window of Aras an Uachtaráin for Irish emigrants; visited
N. Ireland on a diplomatically unacknowledged trip, 1992; shook hand of
Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin President, MP, and reputed member of IRA
Army Council, 1993; official visit to Queen Elizabeth in London, 1993;
appointed Human Rights Commissioner, 1997; Address on Human Rights, BBC3,
23 Oct. 1999; contrib. to Global Corruption Report (2004)l received
hon. degree at Emory (Atlanta, Georgia), where she made the commencement
speech in spite of charges of anti-Semitism in regard to the Israel-Palestine
conflict.
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Criticism
Deirdre
Quinlan, Mary Robinson: A President in Progress (Dublin: Gill &
Macmillan 1994), 128pp.
Lorna Siggins, The Woman Who Took Power in the Park (London: Mainstream 1997).
John Horgan, The Woman, the Politics, The Presidency (O’Brien Books 1997).
Olivia O’Leary and Helen Burke, Mary Robinson: The Authorised Biography (London: Hodder & Stoughton 1998), 304pp.
Mary Kenny, Goodbye to Catholic Ireland: a social, personal and cultural history from the fall of Parnell to the realm of Mary Robinson (London: Sinclair-Stevenson 1997).
Fergus Finlay, ‘Beating the Big Guys’, in Snakes and Ladders (Dublin: New Island 1998) [qp.].
David Quin, ‘An Icon for the New Ireland: an assessment of President Robinson’, in Studies: An Irish Quarterly (Autumn 1997), q.p. [feature article].
Valerie Bresnihan, “‘Here’s To You Mrs. Robinson”: A Response to David Quinn’, in Studies (Spring 1988), q.p.
Betty
Purcell, ‘Interview with Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese’,
in Images of the Irish Woman, The Crane Bag, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1980);
rep. in The Crane Bag Studies Book, 1982, pp.573-78.
Valerie Brennan, ‘Here’s to You, Mrs. Robinson!’, in Studies, Vol. 8, No. 345 (Spring 1988), pp.7-14.
Chrystel Hug, Politics of Sexual Morality in Ireland (1998)..
Guardian Weekly, 22 March 2001, front-page story.)
The Irish Times, 16 April 2004.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)