Baroness Nuala O’Loan DBE, MRIA and the Honourable Desmond Guinness were awarded honorary lifetime membership of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) at a special ceremony in Dublin yesterday.
Honorary life membership is awarded by the RDS to “persons of distinction for their contribution to Ireland, over and above their normal employment”, in the areas of agriculture, arts, industry and science .
Previous notable recipients include Dr Martin McAleese and two Nobel Prize winners Prof Ernest Walton and Seamus Heaney.
Baroness O’Loan was the first Police Ombudsman, between 1999 and 2007. She was in post when sweeping police reforms were enacted and the former RUC was replaced with the PSNI in late 2001. She was tasked with investigating and reporting on the RUC’s handling of the 1998 Omagh bombing in 2001. In 2009 she was appointed to the House of Lords and in 2010 the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, appointed her chairwoman of its governing authority.
The Honourable Desmond Guinness is a renowned art historian and writer.
In 1958 he founded the Irish Georgian Society with his first wife Mariga to promote awareness of the protection of Ireland’s architectural heritage and decorative arts.
Its achievements include saving threatened buildings such as Castletown in Kildare, Damer House in Tipperary and Mountjoy Square.
The ceremony was attended by RDS president Matthew Dempsey, vice-president Bernie Brennan and chief executive Michael Duffy.
Speaking about the late Gerry Conlon who was wrongly convicted of the 1974 Guilford bombings, Baroness O’Loan said: “One of the things that has preoccupied me throughout my life is that we have to prevent miscarriages of justice.”
Mr Conlon had called for the exoneration of the six people wrongly jailed for the 1974 IRA Birmingham bombings upon his release from prison 25 years ago.
‘Appalling vista’ In 1980 Lord Denning infamously rejected an appeal by the Birmingham Six by refusing to contemplate the “appalling vista” that police could be guilty of perjury, threats and violence in achieving confessions from the six.
“The thing we have to remember above all, is that nobody is impervious to getting it wrong . . . There can be no appalling vistas, there can be no denial and I think that’s a lesson that Ireland is learning too as I look at what’s happening here with policing ,” she said.
She also welcomed the Government’s decision to advertise the role of Garda commissioner internationally.
“I think it’s an excellent idea as it gives you the best possible field and lets the best possible candidate emerge,” she said.
