Former president, Mary Robinson is the most consequential Irish woman of the 20th century

Mary Robinson was the first woman to achieve this position in the history of the state . She is the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and currently Chair of The Elders and has always been a passionate advocate for gender equality, women’s participation in peace-building, human dignity and climate justice.

Mary was elected Irish President in 1990 and served for seven years as a principled and transformative leader who continued to fight for equality and women’s rights throughout her time in office.

A firm believer in dialogue and reconciliation, she broke taboos by being the first Irish head of state to make official visits to Britain, as well as regularly visiting Northern Ireland.

She was the first head of state to visit Somalia following the crisis there in 1992, and brought global media attention to the suffering of Rwandans as the first Head of State to visit the country just after the 1994 genocide.

Charlie Bird interviewed Mary Robinson on the 3oth anniversary of her inauguration.

The Elders which Mary Chairs are an independent group of global leaders working together for peace, justice and human rights. Nelson Mandela brought a selected group of leaders together as Elders, and he did so in the belief that together we are stronger, that change happens when people collectively take action to make our world a better place. Part of the wisdom of the Elders is to remind the world that we actually have universal values that are accepted by every government in the world and yet they are not being implemented Mary Says'

As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), Mary Robinson integrated human rights into the United Nations system and became renowned as an outspoken voice dedicated to investigating and exposing human rights abuses across the world.

As an academic, legislator and barrister, Mary Robinson has always sought to use law as an instrument for social change, arguing landmark cases before the European Court of Human Rights as well as in the Irish courts and the European Court in Luxembourg.