John David Alexander Robb (24 February 1932 – 13 February 2018) was a surgeon from Ballymoney in

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

who served for seven years a member of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the

Oireachtas The Oireachtas ( ; ), sometimes referred to as Oireachtas Éireann, is the Bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The Oireachtas consists of the president of Ireland and the two houses of the Oireachtas (): a house ...

(the legislature of the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

Career

A liberal

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

in the all-Ireland tradition, Robb was educated at

Rockport School Rockport School is an independent day and boarding school for boys and girls from 2.5 years to 18 years in the British Public School tradition. It is situated in of woodland on the shore of Belfast Lough in Craigavad, near Holywood, County D ...

, Holywood, County Down, and at Merchiston Castle School,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. He then trained in medicine at Queen's University, Belfast and later specialised in surgery. Later, he became a member of the Wolfe Tone Society in the 1960s. In the early 1980s he founded the New Ireland Group, which sought to promote a new vision of Ireland which would radically differ both from the Unionist viewpoint and from the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and Gaelic vision. This was then perceived to be on offer as an alternative to Unionism. In 1982, he was nominated by the Taoiseach Charles Haughey to be a member of the 16th Seanad. He was nominated to the 17th Seanad by the Fine Gael Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, and by Haughey to the 18th Seanad. However, after the 1989 general election he was not nominated to the 19th Seanad. He died on 13 February 2018.

References

External links

New Ireland Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robb, John 1932 births 2018 deaths Protestants from Northern Ireland Surgeons from Northern Ireland Medical doctors from County Antrim Members of the 16th Seanad Members of the 17th Seanad Members of the 18th Seanad People from Ballymoney People educated at Merchiston Castle School People educated at Rockport School Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Nominated members of Seanad Éireann Independent members of Seanad Éireann