Michael Farrell (activist)

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Michael Farrell (born 1944) is an Irish civil rights activist, writer and former leader of People's Democracy, from its inception through to the 1969 Burntollet Bridge incident and into the 1970s.^[1][2][3]

Farrell was educated at Queen's University Belfast, earning a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English, and the University of Strathclyde, where he earned a Master of Science (MSc) in Politics.^[4][5] He was a Labour Trotskyist, becoming involved in the Northern Ireland civil rights movement in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s, and was a founding member of the university-based People’s Democracy, which was established on 9 October 1968, after Royal Ulster Constabulary police had broken up a civil rights march in Derry on 5 October. He stood as their candidate for Bannside in the Northern Ireland general election of 1969 where he finished third behind Terence O'Neill (the Northern Ireland Prime Minister) and Ian Paisley.^[6] He was on the executive of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and was interned without trial for six weeks from 9 August 1971. Imprisoned for breach of the peace in 1973, Farrell and another PD member, Tony Canavan, went on hunger strike in demand of political status. The strike lasted for thirty-four days before they were released.

In the 1980s he campaigned for the release of victims of miscarriage of justice cases in England and in the Republic of Ireland, including the Birmingham Six.^[7] He also campaigned against political censorship under Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act in Ireland.

After moving to Dublin, he studied at Dublin Institute of Technology to receive a Diploma of Legal Studies and became a solicitor through the Law Society of Ireland.^[4] Farrell was co-chairperson of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties from 1995 to 2001.^[8] He was appointed a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission in 2001 and reappointed in October 2006, serving until 2011. In 2005 he was appointed to the Steering Committee of the National Action Plan Against Racism. He previously was a senior solicitor for Free Legal Advice Centres between 2005 and 2015,^[5] and has brought cases to the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee.^[4][5]

In 2011 he was appointed to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance and was re-appointed for a second term in 2016.^[9]

In January 2012 he was appointed to the Irish Council of State by President Michael D. Higgins.^[10][11]

In 2022 University College Dublin recognised Farrell's immense contribution to Irish public life, and specifically to human rights in the context the introduction of Ireland’s gender recognition laws with an honorary doctorate.^[7]