Maurice Manning

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Maurice Manning (Dr.)(born June 14, 1943) in Bagnelstown,Co. Carlow, is a former Irish politician and has been President of the Irish Human Rights Commission since August 2002.Manning holds a PHD in Politics from University College Dublin. Manning, by virtue of his presidency of the Irish Human Rights Commission, also holds the Chair of the European Group of National Human Rights Institutions National Institutions Forum Website and is a member of the International Co-Ordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions. ICC Website,both of which are affiliated with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

An academic by background, Manning previously lectured in the politics department of University College Dublin. He is a member of the Senate of the National University of Ireland, of the Governing Authority of University College Dublin and was a member of the Governing Authority of the European University Institute at Florence. He was brought up in Bagenalstown, County Carlow.

He has written several books on modern Irish politics, including a political novel, "Betrayal". He is also the author of an authoritative history of the Blueshirt movement.

He was a member of the Oireachtas (the Irish parliament) for twenty-one years, serving in both the Dáil and the Seanad. He was first elected to the Seanad in 1981, having previously stood as a Fine Gael candidate at the first European Parliament elections in 1979, and as a Fine Gael Dáil candidate for the Dublin North East constituency at the 1981 Dáil election. He was elected to Dáil Éireann for Dublin North East at the February 1982 Dáil election and retained his seat until 1987, whereupon he was re-elected to the Seanad, in which he continued to serve until 2002, when he retired from active politics. He was a member of the New Ireland Forum and the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body. He served as both Leader of the Seanad and Leader of the Opposition during his time in the Seanad.