Famous people from Ireland
Here is a list of famous people from Ireland. Curious if anybody from Ireland made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.
C. S. Lewis
Novelist
Clive Staples Lewis, commonly called C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, and Christian apologist. Born in Belfast, Ireland, he held academic positions at both Oxford University, 1925–1954, and Cambridge University, 1954–1963. He is best known both for his fictional work, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain. Lewis and fellow novelist J. R. R. Tolkien were close friends. Both authors served on the English faculty at Oxford University, and both were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the "Inklings". According to his memoir Surprised by Joy, Lewis had been baptized in the Church of Ireland at birth, but fell away from his faith during his adolescence. Owing to the influence of Tolkien and other friends, at the age of 32 Lewis returned to the Anglican Communion, becoming "a very ordinary layman of the Church of England". His faith had a profound effect on his work, and his wartime radio broadcasts on the subject of Christianity brought him wide acclaim.
Gary Moore
Blues-rock Artist
Robert William Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician, most widely recognised as a singer and guitarist. In a career dating back to the 1960s, Moore played with artists including Phil Lynott and Brian Downey during his teens, leading him to memberships with the Irish bands Skid Row and Thin Lizzy on three separate occasions. Moore shared the stage with such blues and rock musicians as B.B. King, Albert King, Colosseum II, George Harrison, and Greg Lake, as well as having a successful solo career. He guested on a number of albums recorded by high profile musicians, including a cameo appearance playing the lead guitar solo on "She's My Baby" from Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.
Kenneth Branagh
Actor
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is a British actor and film director. He has directed or starred in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, and As You Like It. He has also starred in numerous other films and television series including Fortunes of War, Wild Wild West, The Road to El Dorado, Conspiracy, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Warm Springs, Valkyrie, Wallander, and My Week with Marilyn as Sir Laurence Olivier; and directed such notable films as Dead Again, Swan Song, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Magic Flute, Sleuth, and the blockbuster superhero film Thor. Branagh has been nominated for five Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, and has won an Emmy and three BAFTAs. He was appointed a knight bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours and was knighted on 9 November 2012.
Rory McIlroy
Golfer
Rory McIlroy, MBE is a Northern Irish professional golfer from Holywood in County Down who is a member of both the European and PGA Tours. He is a former World Number One and a two-time major champion. He won the 2011 U.S. Open, setting a record score of 16-under-par on his way to an eight-stroke victory. The following year he won the 2012 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island by a record eight strokes for his second major championship victory. He has been cited as the most exciting young prospect in golf and as having the potential to become one of the highest earners in sports in terms of endorsements. McIlroy has represented Europe, Great Britain & Ireland, and Ireland as both an amateur and a professional. He had a successful amateur career, topping the World Amateur Golf Ranking for one week as a 17-year-old in 2007. Later that year he turned professional and soon established himself on the European Tour. He had his first win on the European Tour in 2009, and on the PGA Tour in 2010. He represented Europe in the 2010 and 2012 Ryder Cup. In 2011 at the age of 22, he became the youngest player ever to reach €10 million in career earnings on the European Tour. In 2012 he became the youngest player to reach $10 million in career earnings on the PGA Tour.
George Best
Soccer Midfielder
George Best was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. In 1968 he won the European Cup with United, and was named the European Footballer of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year. He is described by the national team's governing body, the Irish Football Association, as the "greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland". Born and brought up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Best began his club career in England with Manchester United, who had spotted his talent at the age of 15. He went on to see success with United, scoring 179 goals from 470 appearances over 11 years. His playing style combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders. Best unexpectedly quit United relatively early in 1974 at age 27, but returned to football for a number of clubs around the world in short spells, until finally retiring in 1983, age 37. In international football, he was an automatic choice when fit, being capped 37 times and scoring nine goals from 1964 to 1977, although the team's performance never allowed his talent to be displayed in the finals of a European Championship or World Cup.
Sam Neill
Actor
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a Northern Irish-born New Zealand actor who first achieved leading roles in films such as Omen III: The Final Conflict and Dead Calm and on television in Reilly, Ace of Spies. He won a broad international audience in 1993 for his roles as Alisdair Stewart in The Piano and Dr. Alan Grant in the blockbuster Jurassic Park, a role he reprised in 2001's Jurassic Park III. Neill also had notable roles in Merlin, The Hunt for Red October, and The Tudors.
Seamus Heaney
Playwright
Seamus Justin Heaney, MRIA was an Irish poet, playwright, translator and lecturer, and the recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. In the early 1960s, he became a lecturer in Belfast after attending university there, and began to publish poetry. He lived in Sandymount, Dublin, from 1972 until his death. Heaney was a professor at Harvard from 1981 to 1997 and its Poet in Residence from 1988 to 2006. From 1989 to 1994 he was also the Professor of Poetry at Oxford and in 1996 was made a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres. Other awards that he received include the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the E. M. Forster Award, the PEN Translation Prize, the Golden Wreath of Poetry, T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread Prizes. In 2012, he was awarded the Lifetime Recognition Award from the Griffin Trust For Excellence In Poetry. His literary papers are held by the National Library of Ireland. Robert Lowell called him "the most important Irish poet since Yeats" and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have echoed the sentiment that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller". Upon his death in 2013, The Independent described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world".
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
Physicist
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE, was a Belfast-born British mathematical physicist and engineer. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form. He worked closely with mathematics professor Hugh Blackburn in his work. He also had a career as an electric telegraph engineer and inventor, which propelled him into the public eye and ensured his wealth, fame and honour. For his work on the transatlantic telegraph project he was knighted by Queen Victoria, becoming Sir William Thomson. He had extensive maritime interests and was most noted for his work on the mariner's compass, which had previously been limited in reliability. Lord Kelvin is widely known for determining the correct value of absolute zero as approximately -273.15 Celsius. The existence of a lower limit to temperature was known prior to Lord Kelvin, as shown in "Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat", published by Sadi Carnot in French in 1824, the year of Lord Kelvin's birth. "Reflections" used -267 as an estimate of the absolute zero temperature. Absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honour.
Eddie Irvine
Racing driver
Edmund "Eddie" Irvine, Jr. is a former racing driver from Northern Ireland. He grew up in Conlig, County Down, and was influenced by his parents, who were also involved in motor racing. His father, Edmund Sr, and his sister, Sonia, worked with him during his career. His professional racing career began in 1983 and he progressed to Formula Three racing in 1988, before moving on to Formula 3000 in 1989. He got his break in the top of the Formula racing series after he started racing for Jordan in the Formula 3000 series in 1990, and was subsequently picked up by the Jordan Formula One team in 1993. His reputation steadily increased in Formula One, eventually leading Ferrari to sign him to partner Michael Schumacher in 1996. His most successful season was 1999; Irvine won four races, taking the Drivers' Championship to the last race in which he finished third. In the overall Championship he finished as runner-up to McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen. He left Ferrari the following year for the new Jaguar Racing team and was the only driver to get Jaguar to the podium in their short F1 history; he achieved this feat twice.
Sasha
Progressive electronic Artist
Sasha is a Welsh DJ and record producer. Sasha began his career playing acid house dance music in the late 1980s. He partnered with fellow DJ John Digweed in 1993, touring internationally and producing a series of mixes. Sasha has remixed tracks for artists such as Madonna, The Chemical Brothers and Hot Chip. His remix of Felix da Housecat's "Watching Cars Go By" earned him a 2004 Grammy nomination. Sasha's remixing and production often combine electronic music genres, making it difficult for critics to pinpoint his musical style, including on his debut album of original work, Airdrawndagger. After achieving success as a producer and DJ, Sasha worked with younger DJs and producers such as BT and James Zabiela, influencing their musical styles and techniques. His use of live audio engineering equipment helped popularise technological innovations among DJs who formerly relied on records and turntables. Despite the changing trends in electronic dance music, Sasha continues to perform in large dance venues. In 2007, he formed a record label with Renaissance Records called emFire, which is the exclusive outlet for his new music. Sasha is managed by Three Six Zero Group.
Ciarán Hinds
Actor
Ciarán Hinds is an Irish film, television and stage actor. He has built a reputation as a versatile character actor appearing in such high-profile films as Road to Perdition, The Phantom of the Opera, Munich, There Will Be Blood, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, The Woman in Black and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. His television roles include Gaius Julius Caesar in the series Rome, DCI James Langton in Above Suspicion, Bud Hammond in Political Animals and Mance Rayder in Emmy Award winning Game of Thrones. As a stage actor, Hinds has enjoyed spells with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre in London and six seasons with Glasgow Citizens' Theatre. Adding to his New York Broadway theatre performances, Hinds is starring in a new production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Big Daddy. The revival of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer classic opened January 17, 2013, with preview performances beginning December 18, 2012.
James Nesbitt
Actor
James Nesbitt is an actor, presenter and comedian from Northern Ireland. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster. He dropped out after a year when he decided to become an actor, and transferred to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. After graduating in 1987, he spent seven years performing in plays that varied from the musical Up on the Roof to the political drama Paddywack. He made his feature film debut playing talent agent Fintan O'Donnell in Hear My Song. Nesbitt got his breakthrough television role playing Adam Williams in the romantic comedy-drama Cold Feet, which won him a British Comedy Award, a Television and Radio Industries Club Award, and a National Television Award. His first significant film role came when he appeared as pig farmer "Pig" Finn in Waking Ned. With the rest of the starring cast, Nesbitt was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. In Lucky Break, he made his debut as a film lead, playing prisoner Jimmy Hands. The next year, he played Ivan Cooper in the television film Bloody Sunday, about the 1972 shootings in Derry. A departure from his previous "cheeky chappie" roles, the film was a turning point in his career. He won a British Independent Film Award and was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.
James Galway
Flautist
Sir James Galway OBE is a virtuoso flute player from Belfast, Northern Ireland, nicknamed "The Man With the Golden Flute". Following in the footsteps of Jean-Pierre Rampal, he became one of the first flute players to establish an international career as a soloist.
Bobby Sands
Politician
Robert Gerard "Bobby" Sands was an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who died on hunger strike while imprisoned in HM Prison Maze. He was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike in which Irish republican prisoners protested against the removal of Special Category Status. During his strike he was elected as a member of the British Parliament as an Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner candidate. His death resulted in a new surge of IRA recruitment and activity. International media coverage brought attention to the hunger strikers, and the republican movement in general, attracting both praise and criticism.
Ian Paisley
Politician
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, PC is a politician and former church minister from Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, he and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness were elected First Minister and deputy First Minister respectively on 8 May 2007. In addition to co-founding the DUP and leading it from 1971 to 2008, he is a founding member and was Moderator for 57 years of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. In 2005, Paisley's political party became the largest unionist party in Northern Ireland, displacing his long-term rivals, the Ulster Unionists, who had dominated unionist politics in Northern Ireland since before the partition of Ireland. On 4 March 2008 Paisley announced that he would step down as First Minister and leader of the DUP after the US-Northern Ireland Investment Conference in May 2008. Peter Robinson took over as DUP leader on 31 May 2008, and replaced Paisley as First Minister on 5 June 2008. Paisley was made a life peer in the Dissolution Honours List of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, ennobled on 18 June 2010 as Baron Bannside, of North Antrim in the County of Antrim.
Michelle Fairley
Actor
Michelle Fairley is a Northern Irish actress, best known for her role as Catelyn Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Colin Morgan
Actor
Colin Morgan is a Northern Irish actor, best known for playing the title character in the BBC TV series Merlin. Morgan attended Integrated College Dungannon, winning the 'Denis Rooney Associates Cup' for best overall student in the third year, before gaining a National Diploma in Performing Arts from the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education in 2004. He went on to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, where he graduated from in 2007. In November 2010, the Belfast Metropolitan College honoured Morgan with an Award of Distinction for his contribution to the Arts.
Dave Finlay
Wrestler
David John "Fit" Finlay, Jr is a semi-retired professional wrestler and road agent from Northern Ireland working for the WWE backstage as Finlay. He is perhaps best known for his time in World Championship Wrestling. Finlay has held over twenty championships around the world throughout his career, including the WCW World Television Championship and the WWE United States Championship.
Gerry Adams
Politician
Gerard "Gerry"Adams is an Irish republican politician, President of the Sinn Féin political party, and the Teachta Dála for Louth since the 2011 general election. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He has been the President of Sinn Féin, the second-largest political party in Northern Ireland and the largest nationalist party, since 1983. From the late-1980s onwards, Adams was an important figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, initially following contact by the then-Social Democratic and Labour Party Leader John Hume and then subsequently with the Irish and British Governments. In 2005, the Provisional Irish Republican Army indicated that its armed campaign was over and that it was exclusively committed to democratic politics. Under Adams, Sinn Féin changed its traditional policy of abstentionism towards the Oireachtas, the Parliament of the Republic of Ireland, in 1986 and later took seats in the power-sharing Northern Ireland Assembly.
Nadine Coyle
Alternative rock Artist
Nadine Elizabeth Louise Coyle is an Irish singer, songwriter, actress, and model who rose to fame in the early 2000s as a member of the girl-group Girls Aloud. The group amassed a joint fortune of £25 million by May 2009. With Girls Aloud, Coyle has been successful in achieving a string of 20 consecutive UK top ten singles, two UK number one albums, and received nominations for five BRIT Awards, winning Best Single in 2009 for "The Promise". Coyle released her debut solo album Insatiable and its title track was released on 8 November 2010 through her own label, Black Pen Records in partnership with supermarket giant Tesco. The album peaked at number twenty on the Irish Album Charts and number forty-seven on the UK Album Charts.
Ray Stevenson
Actor
George Raymond "Ray" Stevenson is a Northern Irish-born English film and television actor. He is known for playing Titus Pullo in the BBC/HBO television series Rome, and in film as Dagonet in King Arthur and as Frank Castle/The Punisher in Punisher: War Zone and The Super Hero Squad Show. Stevenson recently appeared as Volstagg in Thor, based on the Marvel Comics character and as real life Cleveland mobster Danny Greene in Kill the Irishman. In 2012 he appeared in the seventh season of Dexter as Isaak Sirko.
Eamonn Holmes
TV Personality
Eamonn Holmes is a multi award-winning Northern Irish journalist and broadcaster, best known for presenting Sky News and This Morning. Eamonn currently presents Sky News Sunrise from Monday-Thursday with Charlotte Hawkins and This Morning with his wife Ruth Langsford on Fridays and during school holidays. Holmes was a main presenter for the ITV Breakfast programme GMTV for twelve years between 1993 and 2005. He has also presented BBC One game shows such as Jet Set and SUDO-Q. Eamonn is also heavily involved in a number of charities. He is patron of charities Kids for Kids and Dogs Trust.
Darren Clarke
Golfer
Darren Christopher Clarke, OBE is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who currently plays on the European Tour and has previously played on the PGA Tour. He has won 22 tournaments worldwide on a number of golf's main tours including the European Tour, the PGA Tour, the Sunshine Tour and the Japan Golf Tour. His biggest victory came when he won the 2011 Open Championship at Royal St George's in England, his first major win after more than 20 years and 54 attempts. Clarke has also won two World Golf Championship events, most notably the 2000 WGC-Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship, when he defeated Tiger Woods in the final. Clarke was ranked in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Rankings for 43 weeks between 2000 and 2002. His highest finish on the European Tour money list is second, which he achieved in 1998, 2000 and 2003. Clarke is currently ranked as the seventh highest career money winner on the European Tour. Clarke has represented Ireland as both an amateur and as a professional, notably at the World Cup and Alfred Dunhill Cup, and was a member of five consecutive European Ryder Cup teams between 1997 to 2006.
Jamie Dornan
Actor
James "Jamie" Dornan is a Northern Irish actor, model and musician. He is known for playing Axel von Fersen in Sofia Coppola's film Marie Antoinette, Sheriff Graham Humbert in the ABC series Once Upon a Time and serial killer Paul Spector in the BBC Two crime drama series The Fall.
Stephen Rea
Actor
Stephen Rea is a film and stage actor who was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Rea has appeared in high profile films such as V for Vendetta, Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire and Breakfast on Pluto. Rea was nominated for an Academy Award for his lead performance as Fergus in the 1992 film The Crying Game.
Paul McNamee
Tennis Tournament Champion
Paul McNamee is a retired Australian tennis player and prominent sports administrator.
Jonny Evans
Soccer
Jonathan Grant "Jonny" Evans is a Northern Irish footballer who plays as a defender for Manchester United and Northern Ireland. Evans was born in Belfast and started his career at Greenisland FC, where he was spotted by Manchester United scouts. He progressed through Manchester United's football Academy to play in several foreign tours in the summer of 2006. He then went on loan to Royal Antwerp and had two spells with Sunderland. He made his Manchester United first team debut in the 2007–08 League Cup, becoming a regular first-team squad member the following season.
John Watson
Racing driver
John Marshall Watson, MBE is a British former racing driver from Northern Ireland. He competed in Formula One, winning five Grands Prix and also in the World Sportscar Championship. He currently works for Sky Sports.
Garth Ennis
Novelist
Garth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise. He has collaborated with artists such as Steve Dillon and Glenn Fabry on Preacher, John McCrea on Hitman, and Carlos Ezquerra on both Preacher and Hitman.
Roma Downey
Actor
Roma Downey is an Irish actress and Emmy nominated producer from Northern Ireland. She played kind-hearted angel Monica on the American TV series Touched by an Angel. Downey received two Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her role on the show. She is currently the executive producer of the television miniseries The Bible on the History channel. She also plays the role of Mother Mary in the series. The Bible shattered sales records in its first week of home video release, selling 525,000 units to become the top-selling TV miniseries of all time. According to the Belfast Telegraph, in 2013 she had a net worth of £220 million, making her one of the richest people in the Republic and Northern Ireland.
David Holmes
Musical Artist
David Holmes is a Northern Irish DJ, musician and composer.
Gary Lightbody
Alternative rock Artist
Gary Lightbody is a Northern Irish musician and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the alternative rock band Snow Patrol.
Kyle Lafferty
Soccer
Kyle Lafferty is a Northern Irish association footballer who currently plays as a striker for Palermo. He made his first international appearance for Northern Ireland in 2006 and has received 35 caps, scoring 9 goals. Lafferty began his professional career with English side Burnley, where he made 89 appearances. He signed for Rangers in 2008 for £3.25m. Lafferty won three Scottish Premier League titles, the Scottish Cup once and the Scottish League Cup twice with the club. Despite professing to be a lifelong fan of the club when the original Rangers Football Club liquidated Lafferty chose not to transfer over to the new club who bought the assets and started in Scotland's bottom league, Division 3. At the start of the 2012/13 season he chose to sign for FC Sion. In 2013, he signed for Serie B club Palermo on a 3 year contract.
James McClean
Soccer
James McClean is an Irish footballer who plays as a winger for Wigan Athletic and the Republic of Ireland national football team. McClean played with Trojans, Institute and his hometown club, Derry City, and Sunderland before moving to Wigan in August 2013. McClean was born in Derry, Northern Ireland and played for the Northern Ireland national under-21 football team. However, McClean declined a call-up to the top level squad because he wanted to play for the Republic of Ireland. In February 2012, McClean received international clearance from FIFA which made him eligible to play for the Republic of Ireland. In May 2012, he was called into Giovanni Trapattoni's squad for UEFA Euro 2012, going on to appear as a substitute against Spain.
Martin Donnelly
Racing driver
Hugh Peter Martin Donnelly, is a former motor racing driver from Northern Ireland. After competing in Formula 3 and Formula 3000 where he won 3 races and was a championship contender, Donnelly raced in Formula One in 1989 and 1990, until a serious crash during qualifying at the Jerez circuit ended his Formula One career.
Christine Bleakley
Presenter
Christine Bleakley is a Northern Irish broadcaster, best known for her current television work with ITV. Bleakley's television career began as a runner and then trained to become a floor manager whilst studying for her A-Levels, but rose to fame when she began reading the news and on the Belfast Citybeat radio station, where she worked alongside Stephen Nolan. In 2006, Christine became the co-host on the BBC Two television series Let Me Entertain You, alongside Brian Conley. The show lasted for two series and ended on 22 June 2007, after which she became the co-presenter of the BBC One magazine-style show The One Show in 2007, alongside Adrian Chiles until their final show in 2010, when the presenting duo transferred to ITV. Following their departure, Bleakey alongside Adrian Chiles joined the ITV Breakfast show Daybreak, which was a new programme at the time, replacing the long-running GMTV, they presented their final show on 5 December 2011 and were replaced by Dan Lobb and Kate Garraway on an interim basis. On 18 November 2011, it was announced that Bleakley was to co-host Dancing On Ice alongside Phillip Schofield as a replacement for Holly Willoughby, who had recently joined BBC One to co-present The Voice UK. The show is due to end after the 2014 series.
Burke and Hare murders
Man
The Burke and Hare murders were a series of murders committed in Edinburgh, Scotland over a period of about ten months in 1828. The killings were attributed to Irish immigrants William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses of their 16 victims to Doctor Robert Knox as dissection material for his well-attended anatomy lectures. Burke and Hare's accomplices were Burke's mistress, Helen McDougal, and Hare's wife, Margaret Laird. From their method of killing their victims came the word "burking", meaning to smother and compress the chest of a murder victim, and a derived meaning, to suppress something quietly.
Conleth Hill
Actor
Conleth Hill is a Northern Irish film, stage and television actor.
Martin McGuinness
Politician
James Martin Pacelli McGuinness is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has been the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland since 2007. He was also Sinn Féin's unsuccessful candidate for President of Ireland in the 2011 election. A former Provisional Irish Republican Army leader, McGuinness was the MP for Mid Ulster from 1997 until his resignation on 2 January 2013. Like all Sinn Féin MPs, McGuinness practised abstentionism in relation to the Westminster Parliament. Following the St Andrews Agreement and the Assembly election in 2007, he became deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland on 8 May 2007, with the Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley becoming First Minister. On 5 June 2008 he was re-appointed as deputy First Minister to serve alongside Peter Robinson, who succeeded Paisley as First Minister. McGuinness previously served as Minister of Education in the Northern Ireland Executive between 1999 and 2002.
Paul Brady
Folk Artist
Paul Joseph Brady is an Irish singer-songwriter, whose work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age. During his career he has passed through several major bands and on to a successful solo phase. Initially popular for playing traditional Irish music in a duo with Andy Irvine and later with Tommy Peoples and Matt Molloy, he later turned to a more rock inspired electric style with poignant political lyrics. Among his most popular songs are "Crazy Dreams", "Nothing but the Same Old Story", "The Island", "Night Hunting", "Steel Claw", and "Paradise is Here".
James Hewitt
Military officer
James Hewitt is an English former household cavalry officer in the British Army. He had an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales for five years, receiving extensive media coverage after revealing details of the affair.
Damian McGinty
Crossover Artist
Damian Joseph McGinty, Jr. is an Irish actor and singer from Derry, Northern Ireland. McGinty has been performing for over a decade, and was a member of the group Celtic Thunder for four years starting when he was fourteen. On 21 August 2011 McGinty won the Oxygen reality show The Glee Project, earning him a seven-episode guest-starring role on the hit Fox television show Glee which was later extended to 17 episodes.
Alex Higgins
Athlete
Alexander Gordon "Alex" Higgins, also known by his nickname of Hurricane Higgins, was a Northern Irish professional snooker player who was twice World Champion and twice runner-up. Higgins earned the nickname The Hurricane because of his speed of play. Higgins was also a former World Doubles champion with Jimmy White and won the World Cup three times with the All Ireland team. He also came to be known as the People's Champion because of his popularity. Higgins is often credited to have brought the game of snooker to a wider audience and contributing to its peak in popularity in the 1980s. Higgins had a reputation as an unpredictable and difficult character. He was a heavy smoker, struggled with drinking and gambling, and admitted to using cocaine and marijuana. Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998, Higgins was found dead in his Belfast home on 24 July 2010.
Mary McAleese
Politician
Mary Patricia McAleese served as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. She was the second female president and was first elected in 1997 succeeding Mary Robinson, making McAleese the world's first woman to succeed another as president. She was re-elected unopposed for a second term in office in 2004. 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. 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 1994, she became the first female Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University. She worked as a barrister and also worked as a journalist with RTÉ. McAleese used her time in office to address issues concerning justice, social equality, social inclusion, anti-sectarianism and reconciliation. She described the theme of her Presidency 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 she even incurred criticism from some of the Irish Catholic hierarchy by taking communion in a Church of Ireland cathedral in Dublin. Despite being a practising Roman Catholic, she holds liberal views regarding homosexuality and women priests. 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.
Briana Corrigan
Singer
Briana Corrigan is a Northern Irish singer. She was the first female singer for The Beautiful South, from 1988 to 1994. She was born in Northern Ireland, her family moving from Belfast to Portstewart, County Londonderry when she was eleven, but her love for the theatre made her move to Newcastle upon Tyne in England at the age of eighteen, to take an acting course. There she began singing with The Anthill Runaways. Go! Discs Records, who were considering signing the band, gave her an offer to travel to Hull and sing with Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway of The Beautiful South. Soon after she was asked to go to Milan with the band to help record their debut album, Welcome to the Beautiful South. She appeared alongside Dave Hemingway on the band's only UK Singles Chart number 1 single, "A Little Time". After appearing on three albums, Corrigan left the band in 1992 to pursue a solo career. A decision that was prompted partly by a desire to record and promote her own material, and partly by ethical disagreements with some of Heaton's lyrics, particularly songs such as "36D", which criticized British glamour models and the industry that employed them. Hemingway later remarked, "We all agree that we should have targeted the media as sexist instead of blaming the girls for taking off their tops".
Joey Dunlop
Motorcycle Racer
William Joseph Dunlop, OBE, was a world champion motorcyclist from Ballymoney in Northern Ireland. In 2005 he was voted the fifth greatest motorcycling icon ever by Motorcycle News. His achievements include three hat-tricks at the Isle of Man TT meeting, where he won a record 26 races in total. During his career he won the Ulster Grand Prix 24 times. In 1986 he won a fifth consecutive TT Formula One world title. He was awarded the MBE in 1986 for his services to the sport, and in 1996 he was awarded the OBE for his humanitarian work for children in Romanian orphanages, to which he had delivered clothing and food.
David Trimble
Politician
William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, PC, is a British politician who was the first First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002, and the Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party from 1995 to 2005. He was also the Member of Parliament for Upper Bann from 1990 to 2005 and the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Upper Bann from 1998 to 2007. In 2006, he was made a life peer in the House of Lords and a year later left the UUP to join the Conservative Party. Lord Trimble began his career as a Professor of Law at The Queen's University of Belfast in the 1970s, during which time he began to get involved with the paramilitary-linked Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party. He was elected to the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention in 1975, and joined the UUP in 1978 after the VPUP disbanded. Remaining at Queen's University, he continued his academic career until being elected as the MP for Upper Bann in 1990. Just five years later, he was unexpectedly elected as the Leader of the UUP. He played a key role in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with John Hume that year for his efforts. He was later elected to become the first First Minister of Northern Ireland, although his tenure was turbulent and frequently interrupted by disagreements over the extent of Provisional Irish Republican Army decommissioning.
Alister McGrath
Professor
Alister Edgar McGrath is a British Irish theologian, priest, intellectual historian and Christian apologist, currently Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education at Kings College London and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture. He was previously Professor of Historical Theology at the University of Oxford, and was principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, until 2005. He has also taught at Cambridge University and is a Teaching Fellow at Regent College. McGrath holds two doctorates from the University of Oxford, a DPhil in Molecular Biophysics and a Doctor of Divinity in Theology. He is an Anglican and is ordained within the Church of England. McGrath is noted for his work in historical theology, systematic theology, and the relationship between science and religion, as well as his writings on apologetics. He is also known for his opposition to New Atheism and antireligionism and his advocacy of critical realism. Among his best-known books are The Twilight of Atheism, The Dawkins Delusion, Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life, and A Scientific Theology. He is also the author of a number of popular textbooks on theology.
David Feherty
Golfer
David Feherty is a former professional golfer on the European Tour and PGA Tour. He now works as a writer and broadcaster with CBS Sports and Golf Channel. Feherty was born in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. He turned professional in 1976 and spent most of his playing career in Europe, where he won five times and finished in the top ten twice in the European Tour's Order of Merit, placing tenth in 1989 and eighth in 1990. He spent 1994 and 1995 playing mainly on the PGA Tour in the U.S., and the best result on the tour was a second place finish at the 1994 New England Classic. His combined career earnings exceeded $3 million. Feherty represented Ireland in international competition and captained the victorious 1990 Alfred Dunhill Cup team. Feherty played for Europe on the 1991 Ryder Cup team. In 1997, Feherty retired from the tours and joined CBS Sports as an on-course reporter and golf analyst. Feherty is a contributor to Golf Magazine and has his own column in the back of the magazine called Sidespin. He is also the New York Times and Booksense best-selling author of four books, A Nasty Bit of Rough, Somewhere in Ireland a Village Is Missing an Idiot, An Idiot for All Seasons, and David Feherty's Totally Subjective History of the Ryder Cup. On 21 June 2011, Feherty premiered his own weekly primetime talk show called Feherty on the Golf Channel.
Roy Carroll
Soccer
Roy Eric Carroll is a Northern Irish footballer who is currently playing for Greek Superleague club Olympiacos. He is a goalkeeper and is best known for his spells at Wigan Athletic, Manchester United, where he won a Premier League winners medal and the 2004 FA Cup and Olympiacos where he won the Greek Superleague and the 2012 Greek Cup. He has also represented Northern Ireland 27 times at full international level, gaining his first cap in 1997, aged 19. Carroll has also had a one-game managerial career, leading Barnet to a 2–1 victory in the 2011 Herts Senior Cup final against Stevenage. Therefore, Carroll holds the unusual honour of having won a trophy in his only game as a manager.
Linda Martin
Pop Artist
Linda Martin is an Irish singer and television presenter. She is best known in Europe as the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1992, with the song "Why Me?", and in Ireland as a member of the 1970s/1980s band, Chips.
Peter Robinson
Politician
Peter David Robinson is a British politician who has been the First Minister of Northern Ireland and Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party since 2008. He has been actively involved in Northern Irish politics since 1970 when he became a founding member of the DUP along with Ian Paisley. Robinson served as Paisley’s Parliamentary Assistant at Westminster prior to assuming the role of the General Secretary of the DUP in 1975, a position which he held until 1979 and which afforded him the opportunity to exert unprecedented influence within the fledgling unionist party. In 1977, Robinson was elected as a councillor for the Castlereagh Borough Council in Dundonald, and in 1979, he became the youngest-serving Member of Parliament when he was narrowly elected for Belfast East. He held this seat until being narrowly defeated in 2010, making him the longest-serving MP for any constituency in Belfast since the 1800 Act of Union. In 1980, Robinson was elected as the Deputy Leader of the DUP. Following the re-establishment of devolved government in Northern Ireland as a result of the Good Friday Agreement, Robinson was elected in 1998 as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Belfast East. Robinson subsequently served as Minister for Regional Development and Minister for Finance and Personnel in the Northern Ireland Executive. Robinson was elected unopposed to succeed Ian Paisley as the Leader of the DUP on 15 April 2008, and was subsequently confirmed as First Minister of Northern Ireland on 5 June 2008.
Brian Moore
Novelist
Brian Moore was a novelist and screenwriter from Northern Ireland who emigrated to Canada and later lived in the United States. He was acclaimed for the descriptions in his novels of life in Northern Ireland after the Second World War, in particular his explorations of the inter-communal divisions of The Troubles. He was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1975 and the inaugural Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1987, and he was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. Moore also wrote screenplays and several of his books were made into films.
Jonathan Rea
Man
Jonathan Rea is a motorcycle racer, currently competing in the Superbike World Championship for Castrol Honda. He was runner-up in the Supersport World Championship for the Ten Kate Honda team in 2008, and runner-up in the British Superbike Championship in 2007 for the HM Plant Honda team. He was named Irish Motorcyclist of the Year in 2007, 2008 and 2011.
Kris Meeke
Man
Kris Meeke is a professional rally driver. He was the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge champion. His current co-driver is Paul Nagle. He originally began his career as a Computer Aided Designer with M-Sport, at the headquarters of the Ford World Rally Team, before moving on to competing in the Peugeot Super 106 Cup in 2001. For 2011, Meeke is competing in the World Rally Championship driving a MINI for Prodrive. His first event was be the Rally d'Italia Sardegna which was held between 5–8 May. Meeke scored his first WRC points and won the Power Stage at the 2011 Rally Catalunya.
Saint Malachy
Religious Leader
Saint Malachy was an Irish saint and Archbishop of Armagh, to whom were attributed several miracles and an alleged vision of 112 Popes later attributed to the apocalyptic list of Prophecy of the Popes. He was the first native born Irish saint to be canonized.
John Bodkin Adams
Physician
John Bodkin Adams was a British general practitioner, convicted fraudster and suspected serial killer. Between 1946 and 1956, more than 160 of his patients died in suspicious circumstances. Of these, 132 left him money or items in their wills. He was tried and acquitted for the murder of one patient in 1957. Another count of murder was withdrawn by the prosecution in what was later described as "an abuse of process" by the presiding judge Patrick Devlin, causing questions to be asked in parliament about the prosecution's handling of events. The trial featured in headlines around the world and was described at the time as "one of the greatest murder trials of all time" and "murder trial of the century". It was also described at the time as "unique" because, in the words of the judge, "the act of murder" had "to be proved by expert evidence." The trial had several important legal ramifications. It established the doctrine of double effect, whereby a doctor giving treatment with the aim of relieving pain may, as an unintentional result, shorten life. Secondly, because of the publicity surrounding Adams's committal hearing, the law was changed to allow defendants to ask for such hearings to be held in private. Finally, though a defendant had never been required to give evidence in his own defence, the judge underlined in his summing-up that no prejudice should be attached by the jury to Adams not doing so.
Norman Whiteside
Soccer Midfielder
Norman Whiteside is a former Northern Ireland international footballer who played in two World Cups. He played both as a midfielder and as a striker. Whiteside began his career at Manchester United, signing professional forms in 1982 at the age of 17 and quickly becoming a key member of the side. He scored 68 goals in 278 league and cup appearances for the club over the next seven years, picking up two FA Cup winners medals in 1983 and 1985, as well as playing in the 1982 FA Youth Cup final, the 1983 League Cup final, and the FA Charity Shield in 1983. He remained with United until July 1989, when he was sold to Everton for £600,000. However, he retired from playing two years later, aged only 26, due to a knee injury. He holds records as the youngest player to take part in a World Cup, the youngest player to score in a League Cup and FA Cup final, and the youngest player to score a senior goal for Manchester United. Winning 38 caps for Northern Ireland, he played at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, and also helped his country to win the last ever British Home Championship in 1984. After retiring as a player he became a podiatrist, and still works at the corporate hospitality department at Old Trafford.
Paula Malcomson
Actor
Paula Malcomson is a Northern Irish actress born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Malcomson is sometimes credited as Paula Williams. She starred as Trixie in the HBO series Deadwood and Colleen in ABC's Lost. She played the role of Amanda Graystone in the Battlestar Galactica spin-off series Caprica, on the Sci Fi Channel, as well as the role of Maureen Ashby on the FX Series Sons of Anarchy. Malcomson guest starred in a March 2011 episode of Fringe. She played Mrs. Everdeen in the film adaptation of The Hunger Games, her first major starring movie role. She plays Abby Donovan, the wife of the title character, in the Showtime series Ray Donovan.
Thomas Andrews
Businessperson
Thomas Andrews, Jr. was an Irish businessman and shipbuilder; managing director and head of the drafting department for the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland. Andrews was the naval architect in charge of the plans for the ocean liner RMS Titanic. He was travelling on board the Titanic during its maiden voyage when it hit an iceberg on 14 April 1912 and perished in the disaster.
Brian Friel
Playwright
Brian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be one of the greatest living English-language dramatists, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland". Friel is best known for plays such as Philadelphia, Here I Come! and Dancing at Lughnasa but has written more than thirty plays in a six-decade spanning career that has seen him elected Saoi of Aosdána. His plays have been a regular feature on Broadway throughout this time. Philadelphia, Here I Come! was turned into a film in 1975, starring Donal McCann, directed by John Quested, screenplay by Brian Friel. In 1980 Friel co-founded Field Day Theatre Company and his play Translations was the company's first production. Neil Jordan completed a screenplay for a film version of Translations that was never produced. With Field Day Friel has collaborated with Seamus Heaney, 1995 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Heaney and Friel were friends from a young age. Dancing at Lughnasa brought Friel great acclaim internationally, winning him several Tony Awards, including Best Play, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. It was also turned into a film in 1998, starring Meryl Streep, directed by Pat O'Connor, script by County Donegal playwright Frank McGuinness. His play Lovers was adapted into an opera by Richard Wargo entitled Ballymore, which was premiered by the Skylight Opera Theatre, Milwaukee, in February 1999. The first part of Ballymore, "Winners" was given its Irish premiere at the Wexford Opera Festival in 2010. The second of the two parts, "Losers", will have its premiere at the festival in 2013.
Brian Magee
Professional Boxer
Brian Magee is the former 2 times super middleweight champion, who as an amateur competed for Ireland in the middleweight division at the 1996 Summer Olympics. As a professional he won the European, WBA, IBO and British super middleweight titles. Over the course of his career he failed to win a full world title from one of the four recognized world championship organisations.
John Lennox
Professor
John Carson Lennox is a British mathematician and philosopher of science who is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College, Oxford University. He is also Pastoral Advisor of Green Templeton College and Fellow of Wycliffe Hall. He is a leading voice explaining the relationship between science and religion.
Eugene Laverty
Man
Eugene Laverty is a professional motorcycle road racer, the brother of Michael and John. In 2008 he had competed in both the 250cc World Championship and the World Supersport series, he then went on to be runner up in the World Supersport Championship in both 2009 and the 2010 seasons. In 2011 he moved up to the World Superbike Championship with the factory Yamaha World Superbike team alongside former Moto GP rider Marco Melandri. On May 8 he won his first World Superbike race at Monza and went on to complete the double in race two. For 2012 he moved to the Aprillia Racing Team and has been racing the Aprillia RSV4 alongside Max Biaggi, ending the championship in 6th position and is competing for the 2013 championship in the same team alongside Sylvain Guintolli.
Lembit Öpik
Politician
Lembit Öpik is a British former politician. A member of the Liberal Democrats, he served as a member of parliament representing the constituency of Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 until he lost his seat at the 2010 general election. He was the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2001 to 2007. Öpik stood unsuccessfully for the position of president of the party in 2004 and 2008. He was also unsuccessful in a bid to become the Liberal Democrats' nominee for mayor of London in the 2012 mayoral election. Beyond his political work, Öpik has also been in the public eye through his appearances on several television shows, and as a result of his high-profile personal relationships with ITV weather presenter Siân Lloyd and with pop star Gabriela Irimia of the Cheeky Girls, which drew considerable media attention.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Physicist
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, DBE, FRS, FRAS is a Northern Irish astrophysicist. As a postgraduate student, she discovered the first radio pulsars while under her thesis supervisor Antony Hewish, for which Hewish shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Martin Ryle, while Bell Burnell was left out despite having observed the pulsars. Bell Burnell was President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004, president of the Institute of Physics from October 2008 until October 2010, and was interim president following the death of her successor, Marshall Stoneham, in early 2011. She was succeeded in October 2011 by Sir Peter Knight. The paper announcing the discovery of pulsars had five authors. Hewish's name was listed first, Bell's second. Hewish was awarded the Nobel Prize, along with Martin Ryle, without the inclusion of Bell as a co-recipient. Many prominent astronomers expressed outrage at this omission, including Sir Fred Hoyle. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in their press release announcing the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics, cited Ryle and Hewish for their pioneering work in radio-astrophysics, with particular mention of Ryle's work on aperture-synthesis technique, and Hewish's decisive role in the discovery of pulsars. Dr. Iosif Shklovsky, recipient of the 1972 Bruce Medal, had sought out Bell at the 1970 International Astronomical Union's General Assembly, to tell her: "Miss Bell, you have made the greatest astronomical discovery of the twentieth century."
Michael Dunlop
Motorcycle Racer
Michael Dunlop is a Northern Irish, professional motorcycle racer, brother of William and the son of the late Robert. World Champion Joey Dunlop was his uncle. He made his TT debut in 2007, where his best finish was 25th in the Superbike TT. He made the decision to ride in the 2008 races at the last minute after the death of his father at the North West 200 earlier in the year. He finished 10th in the Senior TT with a fastest lap of 124.773 mph, making him the fastest Dunlop around the TT Course. Dunlop joined his father and uncle Joey in the record books in 2009 when he won the Supersport TT race on a 600cc Yamaha. Dunlop has also won at the North West 200, recording his only victory to date at the 250 cc race in 2008. His father was killed during practice for this event. Dunlop took part in the Classic Superbike race at the Manx GP on Friday 31 August *. He took the win in the Classic Superbike race at the Manx Grand Prix 2012. This was his sixth title on the Mountain Course and his third Manx Grand Prix race win following his debut, and victory, in the 2007 Newcomers MGP race *. During the two week Manx GP 2012 Dunlop worked in the pits for a team in the 600 Junior Race.
James Burke
Author
James Burke is a British broadcaster, science historian, author, and television producer, who is known, among other things, for his documentary television series Connections, and for its more philosophically oriented companion series, The Day the Universe Changed, which is about the history of science and technology. The Washington Post called him "one of the most intriguing minds in the Western world".
Sammy McIlroy
Soccer
Samuel Baxter "Sammy" McIlroy is a former Northern Ireland international footballer who played for Manchester United, Stoke City, Manchester City, Örgryte, Bury, Admira Wacker, Preston North End. After playing, he managed several English football teams and the Northern Ireland national team, gaining most success with Macclesfield Town. He was most recently the manager of Football League Two side Morecambe.
Wayne Hennessey
Soccer
Wayne Robert Hennessey is a Welsh international footballer who plays as a goalkeeper who plays for Yeovil Town on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Dean Shiels
Soccer Midfielder
Dean Andrew Shiels is a Northern Irish footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder for Scottish League One club Rangers. Shiels has represented Northern Ireland at full international level and has previously played for Arsenal youth teams, Doncaster Rovers, Hibernian and Kilmarnock. His father is Kenny Shiels, who was his manager at Kilmarnock.
Niall of the Nine Hostages
Noble person
Niall Noígíallach, or in English, Niall of the Nine Hostages, son of Eochaid Mugmedón, was an Irish king, the ancestor of the Uí Néill family that dominated Ireland from the 6th to the 10th century. The rise of the Uí Néill dynasties and their conquests in Ulster and Leinster are not reliably recorded and have been the subject of considerable study and attempts to reconstruct them. Although presumed to be a historical person, very little can confidently be said of his life. The sources for Niall's life are genealogies of historical kings, the "Roll of Kings" section of the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Irish annals such as the Annals of the Four Masters, chronicles such as Geoffrey Keating's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, and legendary tales like "The Adventure of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon" and "The Death of Niall of the Nine Hostages". These sources date from long after Niall's time and their value as history is limited. Niall is placed in the traditional list of High Kings of Ireland. His reign is dated to the late 4th and early 5th centuries. The Annals of the Four Masters dates his accession to 378 and death to 405. The chronology of Keating's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn broadly agrees, dating his reign from 368–395, and associating his raiding activities in Britain with the kidnapping of Saint Patrick. However, the traditional roll of kings and its chronology is now recognised as artificial. The High Kingship did not become a reality until the 9th century, and Niall's legendary status has been inflated in line with the political importance of the dynasty he founded. Based on Uí Néill genealogies and the dates given for his supposed sons and grandsons, modern historians believe he is likely to have lived some 50 years later than the traditional dates, dying circa 450.
Pat Jennings
Soccer
Patrick Anthony "Pat" Jennings OBE is a Northern Ireland former football player. He played 119 games for Northern Ireland as a goalkeeper, a figure which at the time was a world record and is still a Northern Ireland record, in an international career which lasted for over 22 years. During his career Jennings played for Newry Town, Watford, and in the top division with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, winning the FA Cup with both of the north London rivals. In total, Jennings made over 1,000 top level appearances, and despite being a goalkeeper he scored in the 1967 FA Charity Shield.
John Hume
Politician
John Hume, KCSG is an Irish former politician from Derry, Northern Ireland. He was a founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble. He was the second leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, a position he held from 1979 until 2001. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament and a Member of Parliament for Foyle, as well as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Ireland and one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace process. He is also a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Award, the only recipient of the three major peace awards. In 2010 he was named "Ireland's Greatest" in a public poll by Irish national broadcaster RTÉ to find the greatest person in Ireland's history. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI made Hume a Knight Commander of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great.
Johnny Adair
Military Person
Jonathan Adair, better known as Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair is an Ulster loyalist and the former leader of the "C Company", 2nd Battalion Shankill Road, West Belfast Brigade of the "Ulster Freedom Fighters". This was a cover name used by the Ulster Defence Association, a loyalist paramilitary organisation. Adair was expelled from the organisation in 2002 following a violent internal power struggle. Since 2003, he, his family and a number of supporters have been forced to leave Northern Ireland by the mainstream UDA.
Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester
Military Commander
Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, KB, known between 1776 and 1786 as Sir Guy Carleton, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and administrator. He twice served as Governor of the Province of Quebec, from 1768 to 1778, concurrently serving as Governor General of British North America in that time, and from 1785 to 1795. He commanded British troops in the American War of Independence, first leading the defence of Quebec during the 1775 rebel invasion and the 1776 counteroffensive that drove the rebels from the province. In 1782 and 1783 he led as the commander-in-chief of all British forces in North America. In this capacity he was notable for carrying out the Crown's promise of freedom to slaves who joined the British, and he oversaw the evacuation of British forces, Loyalists and more than 3,000 freedmen from New York in 1783 to transport them to a British colony. The military and political career of his younger brother Thomas Carleton was interwoven with his own, and Thomas served under him in Canada.
Brian Kennedy
Pop Artist
Brian Edward Patrick Kennedy is an Irish singer-songwriter and author, known for his ballads, and has represented Republic of Ireland at Eurovision Song Contest 2006. He is the younger brother of musician Bap Kennedy.
Mairead Corrigan
Award Winner
Mairead Maguire, also known as Mairead Corrigan Maguire and formerly as Mairéad Corrigan, is a peace activist from Northern Ireland. She co-founded, with Betty Williams and Ciaran McKeown, the Community of Peace People, an organisation dedicated to encouraging a peaceful resolution of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Maguire and Williams were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. Maguire has also won several other awards. In recent years, she has criticised the Israeli government's policy towards Gaza, in particular to the naval blockade. In June 2010, Maguire went on board the MV Rachel Corrie as part of a flotilla that unsuccessfully attempted to breach the blockade.
Steven Davis
Soccer Midfielder
Steven Davis is a Northern Irish footballer who plays for Southampton and the Northern Ireland national team. Davis made his full international debut in 2005 and has since been capped 64 times at senior level, scoring five goals. Davis began his career with Premier League side Aston Villa and made his first appearance for the club in 2004 against Norwich City. Davis was named "Young Player of the Year", "The Fans Player of the Year" and "Player of the Year" for the 2005–06 season after making 42 appearances during the season. Davis was sold to Fulham for £4 million in the summer of 2007. He fell out of favour after then manager Lawrie Sanchez left the club and was loaned to Scottish side Rangers in January 2008 for an initial six months. He was part of the side that reached the 2008 UEFA Cup Final and that won the 2007–08 Scottish League Cup and 2007–08 Scottish Cup. Davis moved to Rangers on a permanent in the summer of 2008 for £3 million. As of the end of the 2010–11 season, Davis has made over 160 appearances for the Glasgow club, winning three consecutive league titles in 2009, 2010 and 2011, two Scottish Cups and three League Cups. He left Rangers in 2012 after he refused to be transferred to a new company that had bought the insolvent club's assets. Davis then signed for Premier League club Southampton.
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
Politician
Josephine Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, usually known as Bernadette Devlin or Bernadette McAliskey, is an Irish socialist and republican political activist. She served as a Member of the UK Parliament from 1969 to 1974 for the Mid Ulster constituency, in which role she famously slapped the Home Secretary, Reginald Maudling, as a reaction to his comments on Bloody Sunday. She lost her seat to John Dunlop of the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party, after coming third in a four-sided contest in the general election of February 1974.
Amanda Burton
Actor
Amanda Burton is an award-winning actress, active from 1981 to 2011. During her career, Burton was best known for her television roles as Heather Black in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, Beth Glover in Peak Practice, Sam Ryan in the BBC crime drama series Silent Witness, Clare Blake in The Commander and Karen Fisher in Waterloo Road.
Valerie Hobson
Actor
Valerie Hobson was a British actress who appeared in a number of British films during the 1940s and 1950s. She was born Babette Valerie Louise Hobson in Larne, County Antrim, Ireland, UK. Her second husband was a Government Minister, John Profumo, who was the subject of a sensational sex scandal in 1963.
David Crystal
Professor
David Crystal, OBE, FBA, FLSW is a British linguist, academic and author.
Louis MacNeice
Poet
Frederick Louis MacNeice CBE was an Irish poet and playwright. He was part of the generation of "thirties poets" that included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis, nicknamed "MacSpaunday" as a group — a name invented by Roy Campbell, in his Talking Bronco. His body of work was widely appreciated by the public during his lifetime, due in part to his relaxed, but socially and emotionally aware style. Never as overtly political as some of his contemporaries, his work shows a humane opposition to totalitarianism as well as an acute awareness of his Irish roots.
Gregory Campbell
Politician
Gregory Lloyd Campbell is a Northern Ireland unionist politician, and the Democratic Unionist Party Member of Parliament for East Londonderry.
Jeremy McWilliams
Man
Jeremy McWilliams, is a motorcycle road racer. Until Scott Redding's win at the 2008 125cc British Grand Prix, he was the only rider from the British Isles to win a race or pole in an FIM MotoGP World Championship class in the 2000s. For 2007, he was to race in the MotoGP series for the Ilmor team, despite a heavy crash in testing in late 2006. He had to miss the first race of the season in Qatar, due to another crash, near the end of the Losail International Circuit. After this round the team suspended its racing operations and has not returned. He is involved in development work for motorcycle and tyre manufacturers and also in coaching young riders through his Masterclass race schools. In 2012, McWilliams participated in the North West 200 races, where he scored a second place in the Super-Twin event. Riding for the KMR Kawasaki Racing Team, McWilliams finished second behind his fellow Irishman Ryan Farquhar.
Ian Whyte
Actor
Ian Whyte is a Welsh actor, stuntman and former professional basketball player. He lives in North Shields, Tyne and Wear. Born in Bangor, North Wales, he is best known for portraying Predators in both Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. He stands at the height of 7 ft 1 in. Whyte portrayed one of the "Engineer" aliens seen in Ridley Scott's 2012 science fiction film, Prometheus. He has portrayed various characters requiring an actor of above-average stature in the HBO series Game of Thrones, including white walkers in season 1 and season 2 and a giant in the opening episode of season 3. For these roles he was unrecognisable under make-up and computer effects. In season 2, he also had a speaking role as Ser Gregor Clegane.