The chairman of the North's Fair Employment Commission (FEC), Mr Bob Cooper, has been awarded a knighthood in Queen Elizabeth's birthday Honours List. Seventy other people from the North were also honoured for their services to the community, including the poet and playwright, Damien Gorman, who was awarded an MBE.
Mr Cooper has been chairman of the FEC for 22 years. The body was set up to fight religious discrimination in the workplace. A founding member of the Alliance Party, he was minister for manpower services in the shortlived 1974 Sunningdale Executive.
He expressed shock at his knighthood. "I am still a bit dazed by it but I think it is a sign that people take the whole issue of equality very seriously and that is important," he said.
An Ulster Unionist Assembly candidate in North Down, Mr John Gorman, was also awarded a knighthood. Mr Gorman (75), a Catholic who won the Military Cross for his efforts in Normandy during the second World War, said he was delighted at the news. He was chairman of the Northern Ireland Forum, set up two years ago to operate as a debating chamber alongside the multi-party talks.
It folded in April when the negotiations concluded with the Belfast Agreement. Mr Gorman is a former head of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and the local branch of the Institute of Directors. He did not enter politics until he was 73, when he stood as a UUP candidate for the Forum. After a turbulent start, he was finally elected permanently to the post.
Celebrating his knighthood yesterday, he said: "I am very happy about it. I am particularly pleased on behalf of the staff of the Forum. Without them it would have been a very difficult job."
He said he was ready to take the Speaker's chair in the Assembly if asked. "That is for the future, I have to be elected first. But if the members want it, I am ready to serve if required," he said.
The third knighthood was awarded to the chairman of the Belfast aerospace company, Shorts, Mr Roy McNulty. The company is the North's largest industrial employer. It was taken over by the Canadian aircraft company, Bombardier, when it was privatised six years ago.
Mr McNulty has been with Shorts for 20 years and is a member of the Industrial Development Board and chairman of Northern Ireland Growth Challenge. He was honoured for services to economic development. "I am delighted to have been recognised in this way."
"I am delighted also with the recognition which this honour represents for all the people who helped create a new future for Shorts within Bombardier." A CB was awarded to Mr David Bell, the chief executive of the Valuation and Lands Agency. CBEs went to Dr Kevin McCoy, the chief inspector of the Social Services Inspectorate, and Mr Sidney McDowell, for services to industrial relations and housing.
Among the four people awarded OBEs was the RUC assistant Chief Constable, Mr Tom Craig, who has 32 years' service in the force. Five other members of the RUC also won awards.