Nuala O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan

Nuala Patricia O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan DBE (born December 20, 1951 in Hertfordshire ) is a British lawyer and politician . She was the first police ombudsman in Northern Ireland .

Life

O'Loan attended elementary school in her home region of Hertfordshire; studied law at King's College London and was from 1974 to 1992 law lecturer at the "Ulster Polytechnic" of the University of Ulster . From 1992 until her appointment as Ombudsman, she was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ulster. There she held the Jean Monnet Chair for European Law .

In 1977, she survived an IRA bombing of the Ulster Polytechnic in Jordanstown while pregnant and lost her child as a result. She is married to the SDLP politician Declan O'Loan , who is a member of the Northern Irish Parliament . They have five sons. One of her sons, Damien, was attacked in north Belfast in June 2006 and had to be hospitalized. The motive for this act is not known.

In the summer of 2006, their youngest son, Kieran, then 18 years old, was involved in an altercation with police in his hometown of Belfast. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) announced they would warn him, but later withdrew that decision without giving any reason. In October 2006, in a coffee shop in the capital, Belfast, there was a public argument between O'Loan and the Northern Irish MP Ian Paisley Jr. O'Loan spoke to Paisley about alleged comments he had made about the behavior of their children. In turn, Paisley questioned O'Loan's political independence because she was married to a councilor of the Republican Social Democratic and Labor Party.

In August 2008, O'Loan sparked controversy when she claimed in an interview on BBC Radio 4 's Woman's Hour that Protestants in Northern Ireland were being trained not to trust Catholics.

O'Loan is also a volunteer marriage counselor. It prepares young people of different denominations for marriage .

Political career

In 1999, O'Loan was appointed the UK Government's First Police Ombudsman. This office was created by the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 . This reform came into force two weeks before the Belfast Agreement . The existence of the office and its execution have been the subject of controversial debates since then. O'Loan held this position until 2007.

In August 2001, she was tasked with investigating the police's actions in the 1998 Omagh bombing . 29 people (and two unborn children) were killed in this act of terrorism. O'Loan's report, published in December 2001, found that the Royal Ulster Constabulary had prior knowledge of an impending attack in the area and questioned the leadership of then Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan . Former UUP MP Ken Maginnis said in connection with her dealings with the investigation into the Omagh bombing, she walked like a suicide bomber between the interests of the police and the interests of society. Former Northern Ireland Minister Peter Mandelson said she had "shown some lack of experience and possibly gullibility" regarding the affair.

O'Loan received both praise and criticism for her crackdown on investigations into alleged abuse by police officers for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). She has also been a proven mediator in controversial cases involving possible criminal activity by Irish Republicans. This mediating role arose because many Republicans did not recognize the PSNI as a legitimate and unbiased police force and therefore refused to cooperate in investigations.

A House of Commons committee issued a report on the work of the Ombudsman in 2005, expressly recognizing O'Loan's work. At the same time, it was recommended that the office of the Ombudsman be given greater powers. However, the same committee found that the Ombudsman's office was not viewed as impartial by the PSNI and asked for these concerns to be addressed.

In December 2006, an independent survey by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) found that Protestants and Catholics alike support the Ombudsman. More than 4 in 5 respondents of both denominations also believed that police officers and complainants were treated fairly. In addition, a survey by the police ombudsman’s office found that 85 percent of police officers felt they were treated fairly by the ombudsman’s office. On June 26, 2007, the former RCMP Assistant Commissioner Al Hutchinson was announced as O'Loan's successor. On October 22, 2007, O'Loan released the results of Operation Ballast , an investigation into collusion by the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Ulster Volunteer Force into the 1997 murder of Raymond McCord, Jr.. Hutchinson took office on May 5 , 2007 . November 2007. A farewell reception to which all political parties had been invited was held on her resignation from the office of Ombudsman. However, representatives from the Ulster Unionist Party , the Democratic Unionist Party and from Sinn Féin were not present.

On February 19, 2008, O'Loan was appointed by the Irish government as special envoy for East Timor (Timor-Leste). Secretary of State Dermot Ahern announced the appointment of O'Loan during a two-day visit to the country.

Other offices

She also held the following offices:

• Chairman of the Northern Ireland Consumer Council for Electricity and Energy ( Chairman of the Northern Ireland Consumer Committee for Electricity )
• Member of the Police Department ( Police Authority )
• Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Police for relations with the local authority ( Police Authority's Community Relation Committee )
• Member of the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland , an independent consumer organization, and its committee on transport and energy
• Legal expert of the Consumers' Consultative Committee of the European Commission ( European Commission's Consumers Consultative Council )

For seven years she was a member of the Independent Custody Visiting Association , an independent organization that monitors policing of the treatment of detainees.

Awards

In 2003 she received an award for her contribution to the accountability of police forces at the annual conference of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE), a US organization that aims to improve the oversight of police operations.

On July 3, 2008, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law (LLD) from the University of Ulster in recognition of her work as a police officer and for her contribution to social development in Northern Ireland.

She was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) on the New Year's Honors List 2008 on December 29, 2007 . She has been a member of the Royal Irish Academy since 2012 .

Membership in the House of Lords

In July 2009 it was announced that O'Loan would be appointed to the House of Lords . On September 11, 2009, she was named a Life Peer as Baroness O'Loan , of Kirkinriola in the County of Antrim .

Web links

• Nuala O'Loan Official website of the House of Lords
• Nuala O'Loan interview with BBC Radio 4 from 2002
• Ombudsman's powers 'should widen' BBC News
• NI police colluded with killers BBC News (Operation Ballast Investigation)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Members: Nuala O'Loan. Royal Irish Academy, accessed May 11, 2019 .