From 1987 to 1998, Lord Alderdice was Leader of Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party and one of the negotiators of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. He was then the first Speaker of the new Northern Ireland Assembly until 2004 when he was appointed one of four international commissioners charged with overseeing security normalization in Ireland. Since 1996 he has been an active Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords and was Chair of the Liberal Democrat Group in the House of Lords from 2010 to 2014 during the Conservative/Liberal Coalition. From 2005 to 2009 he was President (now Presidente D’Honneur) of Liberal International, the global family of more than 100 liberal political parties.
He retired some years ago from NHS work as a consultant psychiatrist but continues to work on conflict issues as an Honorary Fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford, Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and Professor of Practice at the University of Wales Trinity St David. He has been recognized with many international prizes, honorary degrees, and fellowships for his academic and practical contributions including most recently the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Lord Alderdice is the Founding Chairman of The Concord Foundation.