Lord Alderdice Peer

Address:
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW

BIOGRAPHY

I was born in 1955 and was educated at Ballymena Academy. I read medicine at Queen's University, Belfast, and graduated at the age of 24. Within four years I had qualified as a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in London. Further post-graduate training in Psychotherapy followed, and in January 1988 I was appointed Ireland's first Consultant Psychotherapist. I am also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Queens University and hold an Honorary Chair in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of San Marcos, Lima. I founded the Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations, and was from 1993 until 1997 Executive Medical Director of one of Northern Ireland's largest Health Care Trusts. In September 1999, I was awarded the Medal of Excellence of the College of Physicians of Peru for my work in the field of psychoanalysis and conflict resolution.

Having joined the Alliance Party in 1978, almost immediately I was elected to the Party's Ruling Council, and in 1984 I became a member of the Executive Committee. In 1985 I became Chairman of the Policy Committee, and in 1987 I was elected Party Vice-Chairman. In the Westminster Election in June 1987, I came to wider public attention when I took 32% of the vote in the East Belfast constituency; the highest percentage vote ever by an Alliance politician at a Westminster Election. By October 1987, I was elected Alliance Party Leader, and in the June 1989 Local Government Elections I was elected to Belfast City Council. In the 1993 Local Government Elections I took the highest vote of any candidate in Northern Ireland.

A committed internationalist, since 1987 I have been a member of the ruling Council of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party, and was Treasurer from 1995 until 1999 when I was elected Vice-President of the ELDR Party (the third largest of the political parties at the European level). In 1991 I was also elected a Vice-President of Liberal International, became Chair of its Committee on Human Rights in 1999 and was elected Deputy President in 2000.

My biggest concern, however, has always been the need for Peace, Stability and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. I led the Alliance delegation to the Inter-party and Inter-governmental Talks in 1991/2. After the end of these talks I continued to press for political progress, and in late 1993 met with the British and Irish Prime Ministers and with the leaders of all the opposition parties in London and Dublin to press for a Joint British-Irish Initiative. I gave immediate welcome to the Downing Street Declaration, and after a subsequent meeting with the Taoiseach in January 1994 I indicated that my party was prepared to participate in the Irish Government's Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. My leadership of Alliance at this Forum was seen as particularly significant because Alliance was the only non-nationalist party from the North to participate in the Forum. In May 1996 I was elected to the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, and continued to work for a settlement in Northern Ireland through my leadership of the Alliance delegation at the Multi-Party Talks which finally produced the Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998. I am widely regarded as having played a key role in these negotiations and in their successful outcome. In December 1998, I was awarded the prestigious Averell Harriman Democracy Award of the National Democratic Institute of America, along with President Clinton and the leaders of the political parties in Northern Ireland who had negotiated the Belfast Agreement. I was also jointly awarded the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, along with Senator George Mitchell and the other party leaders. In February 1999, as further recognition of my political work, I was made a Vice-President of the Law Society of University College, Dublin and, in September 1999, was awarded the Peruvian Medal of Congress.

Following the campaign for, and positive result in the Referendum, I led my party into elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly and was elected on the first count to represent East Belfast. I then surprised the community by deciding to step down as Party Leader having held that post for almost 11 years. I was appointed by the Prime Minister as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly in 1998 and held that office until 2004.  In 2003 I was appointed a Member of the Independent Monitoring Commission.

In the autumn of 1996, I was elevated to the House of Lords, as Lord Alderdice of Knock and sit on the Liberal Democrat benches. From 1997 until 1998, I was President of the Liberal Democrat Health Forum and in 1998 I became a Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health. In early 1998, I was a key member of a six-month working group developing Liberal Democrat health policy.

My wife, Joan, is a Consultant Pathologist, and we have three children, Stephen, Peter and Anna.