Nuala O'Loan, Baroness O'Loan facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Right Honourable The Baroness O'Loan DBE MRIA
Official portrait, 2024
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 September 2009 Life peerage
Personal details
Born	Nuala Patricia O'Loan (1951-12-20) 20 December 1951 (age 73) Hertfordshire, England
Political party	Crossbench
Alma mater	King's College London

Nuala Patricia O'Loan, also known as Baroness O'Loan, is an important public figure from Northern Ireland. She was born on December 20, 1951.

From 1999 to 2007, she was the very first Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. This job meant she looked into complaints about the police. In 2009, she became a member of the House of Lords, which is part of the UK Parliament. She is also a writer for The Irish Catholic newspaper.

Early Life and Education

Nuala O'Loan grew up and went to school in Hertfordshire, England. She was one of eight children in her family. She studied law at King's College London and finished her degree in 1973.

After her studies, she became a law teacher in Northern Ireland. In 1977, she was involved in a serious incident during a bombing at Ulster Polytechnic. She is married to Declan O'Loan, who was a local politician. They have five sons. Nuala O'Loan also volunteered as a marriage counsellor. She helped young people from different religions prepare for marriage.

Working as a Law Expert

Nuala O'Loan is a trained solicitor, which is a type of lawyer. She taught law at the Ulster Polytechnic and the University of Ulster from 1974 to 1992. Later, she became a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ulster.

She also held many other important roles before becoming the Police Ombudsman. These roles included:

• Chairman of the Northern Ireland Consumer Committee for Electricity.
• Member of the Police Authority.
• Member of the Northern Health and Social Services Board.
• Legal expert for the European Commission's Consumers Consultative Council.
• Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's Human Rights Enquiry.

For seven years, she was an independent custody visitor. This meant she could visit police stations at any time. She could speak to people who were being held there.

Role as Police Ombudsman

In 1999, the government chose Nuala O'Loan to be the first Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. The Ombudsman's Office was created to investigate complaints against the police. This office was set up after the Belfast Agreement, which helped bring peace to Northern Ireland.

In 2001, she investigated how the police handled the 1998 Omagh bombing. This terrible attack killed 29 people. Her report suggested that the police had some information about a possible attack beforehand. The police chief at the time, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, disagreed with her report.

Nuala O'Loan was both praised and criticized for her strong work. She investigated claims of wrongdoing by officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). She also helped as a trusted go-between in cases involving Irish Republicans. This was important because many Republicans did not yet trust the PSNI.

A UK House of Commons Committee praised her work in 2005. They suggested she should have even more powers. Surveys in 2006 showed that both Protestants and Catholics supported the Police Ombudsman's office equally. Most people believed the office treated everyone fairly.

In 2007, Al Hutchinson took over from Nuala O'Loan as the Police Ombudsman.

Awards and Recognition

Nuala O'Loan has received many awards for her work.

• In 2003, she received an award for her work in police accountability from a US organization.
• In 2008, she was named Person of the Year at Ireland's Annual People of the Year Awards.
• On July 3, 2008, the University of Ulster gave her an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. This was to recognize her work as Police Ombudsman.
• She also received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from the Higher Education and Technical Awards Council, Ireland (2008), the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (2008), and Queen's University Belfast (2010).
• In 2012, she became a member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA).

Important Investigations

On January 22, 2007, she released the results of "Operation Ballast." This investigation looked into how the police and a group called the Ulster Volunteer Force worked together in some cases. It focused on the murder of Raymond McCord Jr. in 1997.

The investigation looked at crimes committed by police informants. These included the killings of:

• Raymond McCord, Junior
• Peter McTasney
• Sharon McKenna
• Sean McParland
• Gary Convie
• Eamon Fox
• Gerard Brady
• John Harbinson

Becoming a Dame and a Baroness

Nuala O'Loan was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in December 2007. This is a very high honor.

On September 11, 2009, she was made a life peer. This means she became a member of the House of Lords for life. She is known as Baroness O'Loan. She officially joined the House of Lords on October 27, 2009. There, she sits with the crossbenchers, who are not part of any political party.

Other Key Roles

In February 2008, the Irish Government appointed Nuala O'Loan as a special envoy to East Timor. This meant she represented Ireland in that country.

In December 2010, she was chosen to be the Chairman of the Governing Authority for the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

In July 2014, Baroness O'Loan was asked to lead an inquiry into the 1987 murder of a private investigator named Daniel Morgan.

See also

• List of Northern Ireland Members of the House of Lords

External links

• Ombudsman website
• Report on Police Ombudsman by House of Commons Committee 2005
• BBC News report on Commons Committee accessed 29 June 2006
• Interview on the BBC Radio 4 from 2002
• BBC News on Operation Ballast investigation
• Public statement on Operation Ballast from the Police Ombudsman's website
• Official website of Baroness Nuala O'Loan: https://www.nualaoloan.com/