David Norris (campaigner)

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Senator David Norris

David Patrick Bernard Norris (b. July 1, 1944) is an Irish civil rights campaigner, former university lecturer and longtime member of Seanad Éireann (the Irish Senate). He is the founder of the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform with current President of Ireland Mary McAleese and had Mary Robinson as one of his campaign's legal advisors. A prominent member of the Church of Ireland, he has been spoken of as possibly the next President of Ireland, having been offered a nomination in for the 1997 presidential election.

David Norris was the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in Ireland. A resident of North Great George's Street in Dublin, he is a member of the Irish Georgian Society and is an active campaigner for the preservation of Irish Georgian buildings. Senator Norris is also a well-known Joycean scholar, and plays a large part in Dublin's annual Bloomsday celebrations. Senator Norris's razor-sharp wit has made him a popular figure in modern Irish political life.

Norris was born in Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo. When his father died Norris, then a small child, went to Ireland for the first time. Norris' cousins came to meet him when he arrived in Dublin by ship. Norris has spoken of the disappointment on the faces of his cousins when they discovered that their 'African' cousin was not black.

Norris is a Louis Armstrong fan. He is a strong critic of both loyalist and republican terrorism. He has spoken of the unease he felt as a youngster about the identification of being Irish with being Catholic. Norris has been seen to observe controversial Orange marches in Northern Ireland on behalf of the Republic of Ireland.

Norris represents the graduates of Trinity College, Dublin in the Irish Senate. Norris describes himself as a human rights activist and he has campaigned against some of the actions of the US during the war on terror such as the confinement of suspects in Guantanamo Bay.

Norris took his case to the Irish Supreme Court in 1977 in an attempt to have the law against homosexual acts struck down. He failed. Norris's argument had been that this law, dating back to Ireland's membership of the United Kingdom, was repugnant to the Irish constitution. This law was repealed in 1993.