resolution
Adopted by The City Council
of the City of Chicago, llinois
Presented by ALDERMEN EDWARD M. BURKE, PATRICK J. O'CONNOR
AND THOMAS TUNNEY AND MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL ON SEPTEMBER 14, 2016
WHEREAS, The Members of this Chamber are pleased and honored to welcome to Chicago Mary Robinson, the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland; former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; founder and President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative: and, most recently, newly-appointed United Nations Special Envoy on El Nino and Climate; and
WHEREAS, Mary Robinson was born in Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland. Her parents, Aubrey de Vere Bourke and Tessa Bourke, were both medical doctors. One of five siblings, she attended Ireland's Mount Anville Secondary School, and studied law at the University of Dublin (Trinity College) and at The Honorable Society of King's Inns, Ireland's oldest School of Law, before accepting a postgraduate fellowship to Harvard University; and
WHEREAS, After completing her legal studies in the United States, Mary Robinson returned to Dublin, where she served for one year as a barrister. In 1969, at age 25, she was appointed Reid Professor of Law at Trinity College. A distinguished constitutional lawyer and renowned supporter of human rights, in 1987, she was elected to the Royal Irish Academy and, from 1987 to 1990, she served as a member of the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1988, Mary Robinson and her husband Nicholas founded the Irish Centre for European Law at Trinity College. Ten years later, in 1998, Mary Robinson was elected Chancellor of Trinity College; and
WHEREAS, An astute activist and politician, who used the law to effect social change, Mary Robinson was elected in 1969 to the upper house of the Irish Parliament, where she served as a senator for 20 years. A strong proponent of civil rights, and especially for women's...
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