User:Sfista/sandbox/Rita Kelly Mullan

Rita Kelly Mullan

Rita Kelly Mullan was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on October 8, 1940 to a family of staunch Irish Republicans. She spent her early years as a nurse at the Royal Victoria Hospital and as a government outreach nurse. After emigrating to the U.S. in 1976, Rita worked as a nurse in Little Rock, AR and a nursing consultant in Washington, DC. After leaving nursing, Rita started a nonprofit organization for human rights in Northern Ireland, the Irish National Caucus. The organization lobbied the U.S. government to recognize the Irish issue and succeeded in spotlighting the issue in the U.S. She received the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, was named one of the Top 100 Peacemakers by Irish America Magazine, and testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress on the issue of human rights in Northern Ireland. Rita became an American citizen in 1996 and retired shortly thereafter.