Mary McAleese - Early Career

Early Career

In 1975, she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology in Trinity College, succeeding Mary Robinson.

During the same decade she was legal advisor to and a founding member of the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform. She left this position in 1979 to join RTÉ as a journalist and presenter during one period as a reporter and presenter for their Today Tonight programme. However, in RTÉ she and Alex White (then TV producer and now Labour Party TD) were attacked and criticised by a group led by Eoghan Harris associated with the Workers' Party over what they perceived as her bias towards Republican groups in the North. McAleese was critical of the Provisional IRA but believed it was important to hear their side of the story; she opposed the Harris faction's support for Section 31 which she believed was an attack on free speech. In 1981, she returned to the Reid Professorship, but continued to work part-time for RTÉ for a further four years. In 1987, she returned to Queen's University to become Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. She stood, unsuccessfully, as a Fianna Fáil candidate in the Dublin South–East constituency at the 1987 general election, receiving 2,243 votes (5.9%).

McAleese was a member of the Catholic Church Episcopal Delegation to the New Ireland Forum in 1984, and a member of the Catholic Church delegation to the Northern Ireland Commission on Contentious Parades in 1996. She was also a delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Trade and Investment in Ireland and to the subsequent Pittsburgh Conference in 1996. She became the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast. Prior to becoming president in 1997, McAleese had also held the following positions: Director of Channel 4 Television, Director, Northern Ireland Electricity, Director, Royal Group of Hospitals Trust and Founding member of the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas.