List of Queen's University Belfast people

This is a list of Queen's University Belfast people including notable alumni and staff of Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland. As one of only two universities in Northern Ireland, the university has been attended by a large proportion of the nation's professionals.

This list does not include people whose only connection with the university consists in the award of an honorary degree.

Staff

Mike Baillie – Professor Emeritus of Palaeoecology
Sir George Bain – former President and Vice-Chancellor; Chair of the Independent Review of the Fire Service
Paul Bew, Baron Bew – Professor of Irish Politics
Ciarán Carson – poet, novelist; Professor of English and Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry
Colin Cooper – Senior Lecturer in psychology; devises IQ tests for the BBC's Test the Nation programme
Sir Bernard Crossland – former President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Edith Newman Devlin (1926–2012) former English lecturer, academic and writer
Richard English – Professor of Politics
Mick Fealty – Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Governance
Theodore Thomson Flynn, served as the Chair of Zoology
Sir Peter Gregson – former President and Vice-Chancellor
Adrian Guelke – Professor of Comparative Politics
Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare - former Professor of Computing Science
John Hewitt – the university's first writer-in-residence
Thomas Jones – former Professor of Economics
James Mallory – Professor in Prehistoric Archaeology
Michael Mann – Visiting Research Professor in Sociology
Sir John McCanny – Regius Professor of Electronics and Computer Engineering and Director of ECIT
Sir William McCrea – former Professor of Mathematics
Florence McKeown – former Professor of Morbid Anatomy^[1]
George Mitchell – former Chancellor, former United States Senator
Cornelius O'Leary – former Professor of Political Science
Kamalesh Sharma – former Chancellor, former Commonwealth Secretary-General
Raymond Warren – former Professor of Composition and Professor of Music
John H. Whyte – former Professor of Political Science

Alumni

Academia

Hutton Ayikwei Addy – Professor of Public Health, first dean of the University for Development Studies Medical School
Tan Sri Anuwar Ali – 2nd Vice-Chancellor of Open University Malaysia
Sir George Vance Allen – 1st Vice-Chancellor of the University of Malaya
Sir David Bates – physicist
Sir Colin Campbell – former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham
Tan Sri Chin Fung Kee – former Vice-Chancellor of University of Malaya and Professor of Civil Engineering
Art Cosgrove – former President of University College Dublin
Roy Crawford – Vice-Chancellor of University of Waikato, New Zealand
María Ester Grebe — ethnomusicologist
Robert John Gregg (1912-1998) - Head of Department of Linguistics at University of British Columbia
Colette Henry - social scientist and Head of Department of Business Studies at Dundalk Institute of Technology
Séamus Mac Mathúna - an Irish language and Irish literature scholar and university professor
Matthew McDiarmid (1914–1996) – literature professor and campaigning academic; editor of the canonical Scottish Text Society editions of the poets Robert Fergusson and Blind Hary
Gerry McKenna – former Vice-Chancellor and President of University of Ulster^[2]
Florence McKeown – pathologist^[1]
Joseph Mifsud – Maltese academic
David Beers Quinn – author and historian
Philipp Rosemann – philosopher and holder of the Chair of Philosophy at Maynooth University
Rita Segato – anthropologist, feminist and academic^[3]
Tan Sri Rafiah Salim – Vice-Chancellor of University of Malaya; former Assistant Secretary General for the United Nations Human Resource Management
Karen McAuliffe – Reader in Law and Birmingham Fellow, University of Birmingham, UK
Robert N Moles – academic and legal researcher
Brian Wilson (academic) - Professor of astrophysics; former and longest ever serving Vice-Chancellor of the University of Queensland

Arts and media

Stephen Nolan – broadcaster
Andrew Beatty – journalist and editor
John Boyd - playwright and radio producer
Wesley Burrowes – playwright and screenwriter
Kasia Glowicka – composer
Edwin Lawrence Godkin – American publicist
Kieran Goss – singer/songwriter
Alan Green – BBC Radio 5 Live football commentator
Rachael Hegarty – poet
Seamus Heaney – Nobel Prize-winning poet
Patrick Hicks – poet
Patrick Kielty – television presenter
Phil Kieran – club DJ
Annie Mac – radio DJ
Tony McAuley – broadcaster and musician
Eamonn McCann – journalist and civil rights activist
Ty McCormick – award-winning American foreign correspondent
Lisa McGee – award-winning writer and director
Paul Muldoon – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
Bill Neely – Journalist
Liam Neeson – actor
Donatus Nwoga – literary critic
Éamon Phoenix - social and political historian and broadcaster
Stephen Rea – actor
Rigsy – radio and club DJ; television presenter
Nick Ross – broadcaster
Zöe Salmon – television presenter
Mark Simpson – BBC Ireland correspondent
Henry Vega – composer
Helen Waddell – poet, translator and playwright
Alexander Walker – journalist, author and film critic

Legal, military and civil service

Hulusi Akar – 29th Chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces
Air Commodore David Case – British Armed Forces' most senior black officer
Colonel Tim Collins – former Colonel in the British Army, known for his inspirational speech during the Iraq War in 2003
Sir Ronnie Flanagan – Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary; former Chief Constable of Police Service of Northern Ireland and Royal Ulster Constabulary
Sir Robert Hart, 1st Baronet – Inspector General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs
Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton – former British Law Lord and Chair of the Hutton Inquiry
Brian Kerr, Baron Kerr of Tonaghmore – former Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland; Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom; the youngest and the only Justice who is not graduated from Oxbridge
Joseph Henry Longford – British consul in Japan and academic
John MacDermott, Baron MacDermott – Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
Edward Macnaghten, Baron Macnaghten – former British Law Lord and politician
Eoin MacNeill – Founder of the Gaelic League
Monica McWilliams – Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission; co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition; former Professor of Women's Studies and Social Policy at the University of Ulster
Sir Andrew Porter, 1st Baronet – former Master of the Rolls and Attorney General for Ireland
Sir James Russell – Chief Justice of Hong Kong
Sir Barry Shaw – first Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland
Paul Tweed – media lawyer
Air Vice Marshal Sir William Tyrrell – Irish Rugby international; member of first official British Isles Rugby team in 1910, decorated military officer; surgeon to King George VI of the United Kingdom
Sir Hiram Shaw Wilkinson – Chief Justice of the British Supreme Court for China and Corea

Politicians

John Alderdice, Baron Alderdice – former Leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland; former Presiding Officer of the Northern Ireland Assembly; consultant psychotherapist
Jim Allister – leader of Northern Ireland's Traditional Unionist Voice Party
Clare Bailey – Green Party leader and MLA for Belfast South
Dominic Bradley – Social Democratic and Labour Party MLA for Newry and Armagh
Diane Dodds – Democratic Unionist Party MLA for West Belfast
Nigel Dodds – Barrister and Democratic Unionist Party MP for North Belfast
Mark Durkan – Former Social Democratic and Labour Party MP for Foyle; former Leader of the SDLP; Former Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland
Reg Empey – former Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
Toiréasa Ferris – Sinn Féin politician; first female Mayor of Kerry; first Sinn Féin Chairperson of Kerry County Council
Arlene Foster, Baroness Foster of Aghadrumsee – Former Democratic Unionist Party MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone; Former First Minister of Northern Ireland
Simon Hamilton – Democratic Unionist Party MLA for Strangford
Tun Lim Keng Yaik – former Energy Minister of Malaysia
Naomi Long – Leader of the Alliance Party; Minister of Justice and former Lord Mayor of Belfast
Brian Mawhinney – former MP and Chairman of the Conservative Party (UK)
Mary McAleese – former President of Ireland
Nelson McCausland – Former Democratic Unionist Party MLA for North Belfast;
Brian McConnell, Baron McConnell – former Ulster Unionist MP
Michelle McIlveen – Democratic Unionist Party MLA for Strangford
Sheelagh Murnaghan – former Ulster Liberal Party MP
Gearóid Ó Cuinneagáin – Irish fascist and leader of Ailtirí na hAiséirghe
Ian Paisley Jnr – North Antrim MLA for Democratic Unionist Party
Janil Puthucheary – Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information Singapore, PAP MP for Punggol Coast
Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib – former Speaker of the Malaysian Parliament
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah – former Minister of Finance of Malaysia
John P Savage – Premier of Nova Scotia
Eóin Tennyson – Alliance Party MLA for Upper Bann
David Trimble – former First Minister of Northern Ireland and Nobel Peace Prize winner
Peter Weir, Baron Weir of Ballyholme – Democratic Unionist Party MLA for North Down
Jim Wells – Democratic Unionist Party MLA for South Down
Sammy Wilson – Democratic Unionist Party MP for East Antrim

Religion

Anthony Farquhar – Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor; Assistant Chaplain of the University 1970–1975
Cahal Daly – Archbishop Emeritus of The Archdiocese of Armagh – former lecturer; Reader in Scholastic Philosophy, 1946–1967
James McEvoy – emeritus chair of scholastic philosophy (1943–2010)
Donal McKeown – Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor
Morris S. Seale – theologian
Patrick Walsh – Bishop Emeritus of Down and Connor; Catholic Chaplain of the University 1963–1970

Science

John Bodkin Adams – physician and suspected serial killer
Dame Ingrid Allen – neuropathologist and multiple sclerosis researcher
John S. Bell – physicist and developer of Bell's Theorem, regarded by some in the quantum physics community as one of the most important theorems of the 20th century
John Edward Campbell – mathematician, academic and co-developer of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula
Thomas Henry Flewett – virologist who suggested the name Rotavirus to the virus which is most common cause of diarrhoeal disease
Erwin Gabathuler - particle physicist
Terence Ingold – mycologist and botanist
Henrik Kacser – biochemist and geneticist
H Douglas Keith – polymer research scientist
Lavinia Loughridge – physician and nephrologist
Domhnall MacAuley – physician, medical academic, and medical journal editor
Daniel McCaughan OBE, FREng – physicist, engineer and industrialist
Mollie McGeown – physician, nephrologist and health service pioneer^[4]
Frank Murray (1912-1993) - Physician; interned in Japanese POW camps in Singapore and Japan^[5]
Frank Pantridge – inventor of the portable defibrillator
Peter Rice – structural engineer
Leslie Skene – psychiatrist^[6]
Margarita Dawson Stelfox (née Mitchell) - botanist^[7]
Isobel Addey Tate – World war I doctor
Alfred R. J. P. Ubbelohde FRS – Professor of Chemistry
George P. L. Walker – geologist and vulcanologist
William Parkinson Wilson – mathematician and founder of astronomical observatory
Richard Henry Yapp - botanist

Sport

David Cullen – 2007 winner of the Arthur Ashe for Courage Award at the 2007 ESPY Awards ceremony
Thomas MacDonald (1908–1998) – cricketer
Martin O'Neill – former footballer and former Leicester City, Celtic and Aston Villa manager who studied law at Queen's before being scouted by Nottingham Forest
Trevor Ringland – former Ireland and British Lions rugby player, 2007 winner of the Arthur Ashe for Courage Award at the 2007 ESPY Awards ceremony
Air Vice Marshal Sir William Tyrrell – Irish Rugby international, member of first official British Isles Rugby team in 1910, decorated military officer, and surgeon to King George VI of the United Kingdom

Other

Kafeel Ahmed – suspected terrorist in the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack
Eamon Collins – former Provisional IRA member who later wrote a tell all book about life in the IRA
Adam McGibbon - environmentalist and writer
Michael McGoldrick – murder victim during The Troubles
Laurence McKeown – former Provisional IRA member who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike

References

^ ^a ^b Froggatt, Richard. "Florence McKeown (1918 - 2008)". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
^ "Prof Gerry McKenna, DL, MRIA Authorised Biography | Debrett's People of Today". www.debretts.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016.
^ "History and patriarchal violence". The UCL Centre for Gender and Global Health. Retrieved 9 September 2018.
^ Down, K-Point Internet Solutions – Warrenpoint, Newry, County. "The Dictionary of Ulster Biography". www.newulsterbiography.co.uk. Retrieved 16 March 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Murray, Carl. "Frank Murray: Belfast Doctor". Frank Murray: Belfast Doctor. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
^ "The Queen's Park Men Who Served And Survived As At October 2016 – Appendix 2" (PDF). p. 14. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
^ "Margarita Dawson Stelfox, 1886-1971". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 17 (9): 296–297. 1973. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25537622.

[DUB_2212-1] Froggatt, Richard. "Florence McKeown (1918 - 2008)". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 26 September 2023.

[2] "Prof Gerry McKenna, DL, MRIA Authorised Biography | Debrett's People of Today". www.debretts.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016.

[3] "History and patriarchal violence". The UCL Centre for Gender and Global Health. Retrieved 9 September 2018.

[4] Down, K-Point Internet Solutions – Warrenpoint, Newry, County. "The Dictionary of Ulster Biography". www.newulsterbiography.co.uk. Retrieved 16 March 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[5] Murray, Carl. "Frank Murray: Belfast Doctor". Frank Murray: Belfast Doctor. Retrieved 29 March 2023.

[McCrossan-6] "The Queen's Park Men Who Served And Survived As At October 2016 – Appendix 2" (PDF). p. 14. Retrieved 24 October 2016.

[INJ1973-7] "Margarita Dawson Stelfox, 1886-1971". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 17 (9): 296–297. 1973. ISSN 0021-1311. JSTOR 25537622.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]