BRITAIN: Dr Allen McClay, founder of pharmaceuticals group Galen, receives a knighthood in the British New Year Honours list published today. He heads a list of 48 from Northern Ireland which includes names from education, medicine, sport, the voluntary and public sectors and the PSNI.
Sir Allen, as he will be called, is given his honour for services to business and charity. A prominent name on the Sunday Times "Rich List", he founded Galen in 1968, retiring in 2001. He also funds university research and set up the McClay Trust to promote the teaching of medicine, chemistry and pharmacy at Queen's University Belfast.
In London BBC broadcaster Terry Wogan's honorary knighthood, usually awarded to non-British subjects, is also "made substantive" by Queen Elizabeth, entitling him to use the title "Sir".
Also honoured in Northern Ireland are Leslie Ross, managing director of inward investment agency Invest Northern Ireland. Mr Ross has been a significant figure in attracting multimillion-pound investment projects from overseas in the past 23 years. Most recently he led negotiations to secure a major role for Belfast in Canadian planemaker Bombardier's new generation of aircraft.
Rotha Johnston, one of the North's most prominent businesswomen, receives a CBE for services to industry. She has worked in the public and private business sectors with interests in the food industry on both sides of the Border. She is also a director of the UK wing of AIB and encourages female entrepreneurship.
William McKee, chief executive of the Royal hospitals in Belfast, is honoured for his role in securing health services for more than 500,000 patients a year. The Royal Trust employs some 6,700 and has an annual budget of £250 million (€367 million).
Lady Christine Eames, a member of the Human Rights Commission and charity worker, is also honoured. She was world wide president of the Mothers' Union for five years until 2000 and supports the pastoral work of her husband, the Church of Ireland Primate.
Dr Wilfred Mulryne, principal of Methodist College, Belfast, receives an OBE for services to education. The school, one of the North's longest-established grammar schools, is noted for its overseas links including School Aid Romania and Lingua and Comenius programmes in the rest of Europe.
The Very Rev Ken Newell, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, receives an OBE for services to community relations in Northern Ireland. His ministry and lecturing have taken him from Canada to Indonesia before he returned to Belfast's Fitzroy Presbyterian church in 1976.
He helped found links with Clonard Monastery in west Belfast and is a recipient of a Pax Christi International Peace Award. His peace work involved consultations with Serbian, Muslim and Croat church leaders in Belgrade. Mr Newell was elected moderator in 2004.
Patrick Yu is also honoured with an OBE for services to community relations. He is executive director of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities and belongs to several public bodies promoting Chinese welfare and racial equality.
Actress Olivia Nash, familiar to TV viewers for her role as Ma in the BBC sitcom Give My Head Peace, receives an MBE for her work in drama and for charity.
The honours list also includes long-serving councillors Wilfred McFadden and Tommy Nicholl of the DUP and the Alliance party's Susan O'Brien.
Eight members of the PSNI are cited, as is George Doherty, a tugmaster in Derry who helped berth some 1,600 ships, and Hugh Paul, lifeboat manager in Newcastle, Co Down.
Some 27 per cent of the honours nominations were made by members of the public, with the remainder put forward by state officials. The public nomination system was introduced by former British prime minister John Major in 1993. The present government wants up to 50 per cent of all honours eventually to be chosen in this manner.