Mary Burnell Clark-Glass (born April 1944) is an academic, medical administrator and former politician in Northern Ireland. Clark-Glass became a lecturer in law at the Queens University of Belfast in 1974, and became a known as a commentator on legal and human rights issues and as a prominent

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

. In 1984, she became head of the Northern Ireland Equal Opportunities Commission, and also served as a Human Rights Commissioner on the Northern Ireland Commission for Racial Equality and as Chair of Victim Support. In 1990, she was appointed a CBE. The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland stood Clark-Glass as their candidate for the Northern Ireland constituency in the European Parliament election in 1994, hoping that she would emulate the success of Mary Robinson in the Irish presidential election in 1990. She took fourth place in the election, making her the best placed candidate not to win a seat, but took only 4.1% of the first preference votes. Following the election, Clark-Glass acted as part of the Alliance's team for the talks which led to the Good Friday Agreement. At the

Northern Ireland Forum The Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue was a body set up in 1996 as part of a process of negotiations that eventually led to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The forum was elected, with five members being elected for each Westmin ...

election of 1996, she was third on the party list in

Lagan Valley The Lagan Valley (, Ulster Scots: ''Glen Lagan'') is an area of Northern Ireland between Belfast and Lisburn. The River Lagan rises on Slieve Croob in County Down and flows generally northward discharging into Belfast Lough. For a section, the ...

and eighth on the "top-up" list, but did not come close to being elected. In 1997, Clark-Glass was appointed to the Commission for Racial Equality. She subsequently ceased political activity, and in 1999 was appointed to the

General Medical Council The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body that maintains the official register of medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public" by c ...

. She also became a member of the

Health Professions Council The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC, formerly the Health Professions Council, HPC) is a statutory regulator of over 280,000 professionals from 15 health and care professions in the United Kingdom. The Council reports its main purpose i ...

and the

General Dental Council The General Dental Council (GDC) is an organisation which regulates dental professionals in the United Kingdom. It keeps an up-to-date register of all qualified dentists and other dental care professionals such as: dental hygienists, dental ther ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark-Glass, Mary Living people Alliance Party of Northern Ireland politicians Academics of Queen's University Belfast British feminists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Women from Northern Ireland in politics 20th-century politicians from Northern Ireland 1944 births