Mark Shields, Irish, b.1963
Title: Double Portrait of President Mary Robinson (b.1944) and Mr Nicholas Robinson (b.1946)
Date: 1998
Medium: Oil on canvas
Credit Line: Commissioned, National Gallery of Ireland, as part of Irish Life and Permanent Portrait Series, 1998
Object Number: NGI.4659
DescriptionA politician, constitutional lawyer and President of Ireland from 1990-1997, Mary Robinson was educated in Trinity College Dublin, where she later became Reid Professor of Law (1969-75). She was involved in many constitutional cases, and as a senator (1969-1989) introduced the first bill to make contraceptives available in the Republic of Ireland. In 1976 she joined the Labour Party, from which she resigned in 1985. In 1990 she became the first woman to be elected President. When her term of office expired in 1997 she accepted a post with the United Nations as High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her husband, Nicholas, is also a lawyer and an architectural historian of renown.