Background
Born Mary Therese Winifred Bourke in Ballina, County Mayo, in 1944, she is the daughter of two medical doctors. Her father was Dr. Aubrey Bourke of Ballina, County Mayo, while her mother was from Donegal, Dr. Tessa Bourke (née O'Donnell) of Carndonagh, Inishowen. The Hiberno-Norman Bourkes have been in Mayo since the thirteenth century. Her family had links with many diverse political strands in Ireland. One ancestor was a leading activist in the Irish National Land League of Mayo and the Irish Republican Brotherhood; an uncle, Sir Paget John Bourke, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II after a career as a judge in the Colonial Service; while another relative was a Roman Catholic nun. Some branches of the family were members of the Anglican Church of Ireland while others were Roman Catholics. More distant relatives included William Liath de Burgh, Tiobóid mac Walter Ciotach Bourke, and Charles Bourke. Robinson was therefore born into a family that was a historical mix of rebels against and servants of the Crown.
Mary Bourke attended Mount Anville Secondary School in Dublin and studied law at Trinity College, Dublin and Harvard Law School. In her twenties, she was appointed Reid Professor of Law in the college, considered to be a prestigious appointment made to accomplished lawyers. Subsequent holders of the title have included her successor as Irish president Mary McAleese, Professor John F. Larkin Q.C., Irish Human Rights Commissioner and prominent pro-choice activist Senator Ivana Bacik.
In 1970, Bourke married Nicholas Robinson. Despite the fact that her family had close links to the Church of Ireland, her marriage to a Protestant student caused a rift with her parents, who did not attend her wedding. The rift was eventually overcome in subsequent months. Together they have three children. Her son Aubrey, a photographer and film-maker who is "committed to social justice", received media attention in 2011, when he participated in Occupy Dame Street.
She has also been blasted from a cathedral pulpit.
Read more about this topic: Mary Robinson
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