- Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy (born May 4, 1989) is an amateur golfer from Holywood, Northern Ireland. His home golf club is Holywood Golf Club. McIlroy was a member of Europe's winning 2004 Junior Ryder Cup team. In 2005 he became the youngest ever winner of both the West of Ireland Championship and the Irish Close Championship. He retained the West of Ireland Championship in 2006 and followed that up with back to back wins at the Irish Close Championship.
- Robert Dunlop
Robert Dunlop (born Ballymoney, County Antrim in 1960), is a Northern Irish motorcycle racer, the younger brother of fellow road racer the late Joey Dunlop.
- Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley MP MLA (born 6 April 1926) is the current First Minister of Northern Ireland. Styled as "The Reverend", "Right Honourable" or as "Doctor", depending upon his current role and location, Paisley is a veteran politician and church leader in Northern Ireland. As the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the largest single grouping in the 2007 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, …
- Gerry Adams
Gerard Adams
- Martin McGuinness
Martin McGuinness was born in Derry and educated locally. He left school at the age of fifteen without any formal qualifications to begin work as a butcher's assistant. Following the widespread unrest in Northern Ireland in the wake of the emergence of the civil rights movement at the end of the 1960s, McGuinness became involved in the republican movement.
- George Best
George Best (22 May 1946 - 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish football player best known for his years with Manchester United. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders. In 1968, his "annus mirabilis", he won the European Cup with Manchester United, and was named the European Footballer of the Year. When fit, he was an automatic choice for the Northern Ireland team, …
- Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney 's attempts to develop poetic language in which meaning and sound are intimately related result in concentrated, sensually evocative poems characterized by assonant phrasing, richly descriptive adjectives, and witty metaphors. Heaney's poems also tend to mirror social and cultural divisions in contemporary Northern Ireland.
- David Healy
David Jonathan Healy (born August 5, 1979 in Downpatrick) is a professional footballer who has scored a record 29 goals for Northern Ireland. He plays his club football for Fulham.
- John Hume
John Hume (born 18 January 1937) is an Northern Irish politician, founding member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party and co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble. He was the second leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), a position he held from 1979 until 2001. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament and a Member of Parliament for Foyle, as well as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
- Van Morrison
Van Morrison was born in Belfast in 1945, the son of a shipyard worker who collected American blues and jazz records. Van grew up listening to the music of Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson , Lightnin' Hopkins and John Lee Hooker . As a teenager he played guitar, sax and harmonica with a series of local Irish showbands, skiffle and rock'n'roll groups before forming an r&b band called Them in 1964.
- Michael Jackson
The Right Reverend Dr. Michael Jackson (born 24 May 1956) has been the Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher since 2002. His father, the late Roy Jackson, was an archdeacon. Jackson was born in Lurgan, and educated at Ballinamallard Primary School, Portora Royal School, Enniskillen and Trinity College, Dublin, before going on to do postgraduate studies in Cambridge. He married Inez Cooke, a medical doctor who was born in County Fermanagh, and they have one daughter, …
- Malachi O'Doherty
Malachi O'Doherty (born Belfast, 1951) is a journalist, author and broadcaster in Northern Ireland. He is a regular contributor to a number of BBC programmes in Northern Ireland, providing political and social commentary for BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback and for BBC NI's Hearts and Minds programme, and reporting frequently for BBC Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence. His political journalism has been published in many Irish and British newspapers and periodicals, …
- Mark Durkan
Mark Henry Durkan (born 26 June 1960, Derry, Northern Ireland) is a nationalist politician in Northern Ireland and the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).
- Robert McCartney
Robert McCartney was the victim of a murder in Belfast, Northern Ireland, allegedly carried out by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. He was a father of two small children and was engaged to be married in June 2005 to his long-term partner, Bridgeen Hagans. He was a Catholic and lived in the predominantly nationalist Short Strand area of East Belfast and was said by some to be a supporter of Sinn Féin.
- Robert McCartney
Robert Law McCartney QC (born 24 April 1936) often known as Bob, is a Northern Ireland Barrister, unionist politician, and leader of the UK Unionist Party, and was previously the only UKUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly. He was initially a member of the Ulster Unionist Party but split from them in 1987 when he refused to withdraw from the general election of that year and instead stood against another Unionist politician.
- C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis, commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. Lewis is known for his work on medieval literature, Christian apologetics, literary criticism and fiction. He is best known today for his series "The Chronicles of Narnia". Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of "The Lord of the Rings".
- Martin O'Neill
Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, OBE, (born March 1 1952 in Kilrea, Northern Ireland) is a former Northern Ireland national football team captain who has previously managed Wycombe Wanderers, Norwich City, Leicester City and Celtic and is currently manager of Aston Villa.
- Jeffrey Donaldson
Jeffrey Mark Donaldson (born 7 December 1962) is a Northern Irish politician and Member of Parliament for Lagan Valley. He is best known for his opposition to Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble during the Northern Ireland peace process, especially from 1998 to 2003. Jeffrey Donaldson was born in Kilkeel, County Down. He joined the Ulster Unionist Party as a young man and later worked for the MP Enoch Powell.
- Henry McDonald
Henry McDonald is one a number of writers with a left wing background who have written supportively of the invasion of Iraq. In a censorious political climate in Belfast, writers like Henry McDonald tend to be overlooked. He is not part of the literary scene, which tilts more towards the celebration of local poetry, and as a sort of lone gun in the world of ideas he tends not to feature in literary festivals.
- Lawrie Sanchez
During his three years at the Northern Ireland helm, Sanchez has transformed the fortunes of the national side. He has guided Northern Ireland to the top of their European Championship qualifying group, helped by superb home wins over Spain and Sweden. He also steered the side to a shock victory over England in the last World Cup qualifying campaign.
- Nigel Dodds
Nigel Alexander Dodds, OBE (born Derry, August 20, 1958) is a barrister and Northern Ireland unionist politician. He is a Member of the British Parliament for Belfast North, and a member of the Democratic Unionist Party. He has been Lord Mayor of Belfast twice, and from 1993 has been General Secretary of the DUP. Dodds became North Belfast's MP in the 2001 UK general elections. He is also a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and is Minister for Enterprise, …
- David Ervine
David Ervine (July 21, 1953 - January 8, 2007) was a Northern Irish politician and the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP).
- Pat Finucane
Patrick ("Pat") Finucane (born 1949) was a Belfast solicitor killed by loyalist paramilitaries on February 12 1989.
- Mary McAleese
Mary McAleese , President of Ireland
- Billy Wright
Billy Wright was a Northern Irish paramilitary, a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and leader of the extremist Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). He was killed by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) group in 1997.
- James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt (born January 15, 1965) is a Northern Irish actor who is best known for his roles in ITV's "Cold Feet" and the BBC's "Murphy's Law" as well as many television advertisements. He has also appeared in theatre and faced tabloid revelations about his private life. He is sometimes credited by his nickname, Jimmy.
- Paul Muldoon
Paul Muldoon is a poet from County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Muldoon's poetry is known for difficulty, allusion, casual use of extremely obscure or archaic words, understated wit, punning, and deft technique in meter and slant rhyme. Muldoon has lived in the United States since 1987; he teaches at Princeton University and is an Honorary Professor in the School of English at the University of St Andrews.
- Hugh Orde
Hugh Stephen Orde joined the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in 1977 and initially served in Central London. On promotion to Sergeant he moved to Brixton followed by further promotion to Inspector. He then took up various posts in South and South East London. As Chief Inspector he was appointed as Staff Officer to Deputy Assistant Commissioner (South West London) and then took command of the Territorial Support Group as a Superintendent.
- Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson , born in Ireland, studied to be a teacher before turning to acting. He received an Academy Award nomination for his work in Schindlers List , a Golden Globe nomination for Michael Collins , and a Tony Award nomination for Anna Christie . He has starred in numerous films including Star Wars: Episode 1The Phantom Menace; Nell; and Husbands and Wives .
- Neil Lennon
Neil Francis Lennon (born June 25, 1971 in Lurgan, County Armagh) is a professional footballer from Northern Ireland. He is the former captain of Celtic F.C., after leaving the club at the end of the 2006-07 campaign. On the 12th of June 2007 he signed a 1 year deal with the option of a second with Nottingham Forest F.C.
- Michael Longley
Michael Longley (born 27 July, 1939 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish poet.. Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and subsequently read Classics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he edited "Icarus". He holds honorary doctorates from Queen's University Belfast (1995) and Trinity College, Dublin (1999).
- Gerry Anderson
Gerald Michael Anderson, known professionally as Gerry Anderson (born 1944) is a Sony Award-winning radio and television broadcaster from Derry, who works for BBC Northern Ireland, and a member of the Radio Academy Hall of fame.
- Sammy Wilson
Sammy Wilson (born April 4, 1953, Belfast) is a politician in Northern Ireland and both Member of Parliament and a Member of the Legislative Assembly for East Antrim. Wilson was born in Belfast in April 1953 and is now one of Northern Ireland's best known politicians. Educated at Methodist College Belfast, he went on to graduate in Economics and Politics from Queen's University, Belfast and then from Stranmillis Teaching College.
- Gerry Kelly
Gerard "Gerry" Kelly is an Irish republican politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army member (volunteer) who played a leading role in the negotiations that led to the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998. He is currently member of Sinn Féin's Ard Chomhairle (National Executive) and an MLA for North Belfast.
- Gerry Kelly
Gerry Kelly is a long serving broadcaster with UTV in Northern Ireland. He currently presents the chat show "Gerry Meets" as well as his own show on U105. Initially a primary school teacher and lecturer at St. Mary's Training College, Kelly began in TV initially as a part-time sports reporter. In 1979 he was picked to host UTV's nightly one-hour news/magazine programme alongside Gloria Hunniford.
- Alan Green
Alan Green (born Belfast, Northern Ireland 25 June 1952) is a BBC Radio Five Live sports broadcaster/commentator. He commentates mainly on football, but also covers golf and rowing. Green attended Methodist College Belfast. He then joined Queen's University, Belfast and worked on local newspapers before joining the BBC as a news trainee in 1975. His first match commentary on the radio was a 1982 World Cup qualifier between England and Northern Ireland, …
- Duke Special
Duke Special, real name Peter Wilson, is an alternative rock musician based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A piano-based singer-songwriter with a romantic style and a warm, distinctly-accented voice, he has a distinctive look, with his long dreadlocks, eyeliner and outfits he describes as "hobo chic". His live performances have a theatrical style inspired by Vaudeville and music hall, and often incorporate 78s played on an old-fashioned gramophone, …
- Nigel Worthington
Nigel Worthington (born November 4, 1961 in Ballymena, County Antrim) is a Northern Irish former footballer and manager of the national team. As a player, he was a left full back and occasional left midfielder, playing the majority of his club football for Sheffield Wednesday. As an international player, he is Northern Ireland's 9th most capped player with 66 appearances.
- Mick Fealty
Mick Fealty is a journalist and the founding editor of the Northern Ireland-based blog Slugger O'Toole. He was formerly a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Governance at Queen's University Belfast. Fealty was born in Belfast and now lives in Dorset, England.
- Brian Friel
Brian Friel (born 9 January 1929) is a playwright and director from Northern Ireland. Born in Omagh, County Tyrone, he received his college education at St. Columb's College in Derry and, briefly, the seminary at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, as well as in Belfast. He taught at various schools in and around County Londonderry from 1950 to 1960.