YMCA of the USA Appoints First Woman Leader in Its 170-Year History philanthropy.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from philanthropy.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ireland’s first female president answers questions about her life and work.
Mary Robinson made history as Ireland’s first female president, in office from 1990 – 1997. She has since devoted her life to human rights on a global scale, serving as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 – 2002, and founding, among other projects, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative and the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. She is also a co-founder and past chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, and a member of the Elders, an independent group of international leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela.
Robinson was born Mary Bourke in Ballina, Co. Mayo in 1944, the daughter of two physicians and the only girl among five children. She studied law at Trinity College, Dublin; King’s Inns, Dublin and Harvard Law School. Her legal career, throughout which she was a member of the Trinity Law Faculty, was marked by a vision for achieving soci