He was first elected to the Dáil (Parliament) in 1977 for the constituency of Dublin-Finglas and he represented Dublin Central from 1981 until 2011.

Bertie was Minister for Labour from March 1987 to November 1991 and was appointed Minister for Finance on three separate occasions, from November 1991 to December 1994.  He was first elected Taoiseach in June 1997 and was re-elected in June 2002 and again in May 2007.

He retired as Taoiseach in May 2008 having enjoyed the unique distinction in modern Irish politics, of being the first person in over sixty years to have been elected to that office on three successive occasions.

Bertie is a member of Peace Building and Reconciliation Groups worldwide. 

He was made an Honorary Professor by Queen’s University Belfast in April 2019.

From 1987 to 1998, he was the Leader of Northern Ireland's Alliance Party and one of the negotiators of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement that ended the centuries-long violent political conflict in Ireland.  He then became the first Speaker of the new Northern Ireland Assembly, serving until 2004 when he was appointed one of the four members of the Independent Monitoring Commission, charged by the British and Irish Governments with overseeing security normalization in Ireland.  The IMC completed its work in 2011, but in 2015 - after the ‘Fresh Start Agreement’ – he was appointed by the First and Deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland to a three-person panel charged with reporting on a strategy for disbanding paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland.  This report was completed and published in June 2016.

Since 1996 Lord Alderdice has been an active Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament, and was Convenor/Chair of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 2010 to 2014 during the Conservative/Liberal Coalition.  In 2020-2021 he was a Deputy to the Lord Speaker, and also a member of the COVID-19 Select Committee of the House.  He is currently a member of the House of Lords Select Committee on International Relations and Defence and in 2025 he was appointed the UK Trade Envoy to Azerbaijan and Central Asia.

Always a committed liberal internationalist, he was from 2005 to 2009 the President of Liberal International, the global family of some 100 liberal political parties.  In 2015 he was awarded the Liberal International Prize for Freedom - the only former President of LI to have received this prestigious award - and also in 2015 he was elected Presidente d’Honneur of Liberal International – a life-time honorific position reserved for some former Presidents.  In 2025 he was elected President of the National Liberal Club in London.

Having retired from clinical psychiatry some years ago he has continued to work on conflict issues with various academic positions at the University of Oxford and is also a Professor of Practice both at the Global Humanity for Peace Institute of the University of Wales Trinity St David.  He has been recognized with many international prizes, honorary doctorates, and fellowships for his academic and practical contributions including most recently the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and in 2024 Honorary Fellowship of the British Psychoanalytical Society.  Lord Alderdice is the Founding Chairman of The Concord Foundation, whose engagement in impartial conflict resolution, anywhere in the world, focuses on intractable violent political conflict between groups with disturbed historic relationships using the three lenses of Politics, Psychology and Faith.

Much of his work in 2022/2023 has been in eastern Ukraine.  He is a visiting scholar at University College, London (UCL) and 2020-2023 was Senior Advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

He served for eight years as an advisory board member of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, and was a visiting scholar at John Jay College, City University of New York 2022-2023, and at Fordham University Law School, New York 2019–2020.

He regularly testifies at the U.S. Congress and other parliaments on human rights issues.  He writes for and is interviewed by a range of international media.

He previously led Amnesty International’s work on partnering with national NGOs in the global South and worked as Head of Media for Amnesty in London and in Dublin, and as director of communications for Public Citizen in Washington, D.C.

His work for Amnesty included being on research teams sent to conflicts in Lebanon 2006 and Gaza 2009, and on the ambassador of Conscience Award project for Nelson Mandela in 2005; he interned for Senator Edward Kennedy in the mid-80s as a legislative researcher, contributing to what ultimately became the 1986 Anti-Apartheid Act.

He lived and worked as an English teacher in a black township in South Africa from 1981–1982 in defiance of apartheid's racial segregation laws.  Other human rights work included helping establish Baltic Pride marches 2007–2010.

His work focuses on the practicalities of enabling and protecting the work of HRDs working in difficult and dangerous contexts.

Dooley holds a PhD in the history of civil rights from the University of East Anglia, an MPhil in Government and Politics from the Open University.

Publications include:

"Robert Kennedy: The Final Years" (Edinburgh University Press 1995, St Martin's Press, New York 1996), a political biography of Bobby Kennedy.

"Black and Green: The Fight for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland & Black America" (Pluto Press, 1998, reissued 2019) tracing historic links between the civil rights movements in Northern Ireland and the US.

"Choosing the Green?"(Beyond the Pale 2004) analysing the part played by the Irish diaspora in the Irish conflict.

He was in Hong Kong for the 2019 protest movement and the subsequent imposition of the new National Security Law by China in 2020.

He served as Deputy British Ambassador in Dublin 2005-09 covering the St Andrews Agreement. He is now a regular speaker and media expert commentator on Myanmar, Hong Kong and wider foreign policy issues.  

He was awarded an CMG in 2020 and an OBE in 2013. He was made an Honorary Fellow of St Hugh's College Oxford in 2020. 

Active on women’s issues, anti-poverty initiatives and community development since 1975, Avila’s practice also extends internationally as co-founder of the Foundations for Peace Network - a peer-to-peer support group for locally-based philanthropy in divided societies.  She was previously Director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland (1994-2014).  These roles enabled her to research, and focus on, the contribution of philanthropy to peacebuilding.

Avila’s research focuses on community-based conflict transformation and the role of civil society in peacebuilding.  She also has a deep commitment to community engagement and hopes to support increased networking between grassroots activism and academia.

Avila has a specific interest in women’s participation: she was a founder member of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition and a member of its negotiating team for the Good Friday Agreement (1998).  She has particular interest in the contribution and role of women in peace, security and development, reflecting on experience drawn from Northern Ireland to share with activists in many societies facing challenges of violence and polarization.  Avila is invited regularly to speak internationally on women’s involvement in decision-making. 

Avila holds both a PhD (Institute of Governance) from QUB and an Honorary Doctorate from Queen’s University. 

A committed activist on issues of conflict transformation and social justice, Avila is interested in enhancing networking between community-based initiatives and academia through identifying opportunities for further research and shared learning. 

She also brings an expertise on post-conflict re-integration and reconstruction issues, particularly as affecting often marginalised and excluded communities and groups. 

In 1992 he became head of Political Affairs in the NIO, and subsequently its Political Director in Belfast, an appointment coupled with the role of Joint Secretary of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.

In 2004 he was appointed a Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB) by HM The Queen; and is a former Chairman of the Board of Governors of Victoria College Belfast.

Since retiring from the NIO he has given advice and assistance to the governments of Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Lebanon, Colombia, Cameroon and the Basque Country, among others, on the intricacies of peace processes and political development, including direct engagement with members of paramilitary groups. He is currently a director of the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building.

He was appointed a CBE – Commander of the Order of the British Empire – in the 2019 Birthday Honours.

Michael was made an Honorary Professor by Queens University Belfast in April 2019.

He has been principal EU adviser to Enda Kenny and Simon Coveney and has worked extensively with Irish, Northern Irish, British and European politicians and officials. He was part of the Irish team which negotiated the Good Friday Agreement. He is also a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.

Since his retirement, he has published articles on subjects including Margaret Thatcher, the state of the EU, Brexit, a united Ireland, and the history of Irish foreign policy.

Peter was awarded a CBE in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours for his outstanding leadership and contribution to peacebuilding in Northern Ireland.

He served for 15 years to 2023 as CEO of the peace-building Charity, Co-operation Ireland.  The all-Island organisation works at both a strategic and grass roots level to address the legacy of the past and promote reconciliation.  In 2011, Co-operation Ireland enabled the first state visit of Queen Elizabeth to the Republic of Ireland and the reciprocal visit of the President of Ireland to the United Kingdom.  In 2012, the organisation helped facilitate the historic handshake between the Queen and then deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness.

From 1976 to 2008 Peter was a police officer in Northern Ireland, where he had responsibility for murder and organised crime investigations.