Brian has been involved in the voluntary and community sector as a volunteer and paid worker for over 27 years and a community volunteer for 40 years. For 10 years he was Development worker for the Tullyally and District Development Group and for 7 years, Director of St Columb's Park House centre for Reconciliation in the city. He is currently CEO with the North-West Cultural Partnership a collaborative group for 6 cultural organisations and 23 staff who work extensively in civic engagement and Peacebuilding across the Derry/Strabane District Council area, the province, cross-border and internationally.
In 1998, he was appointed as the community development representative on the Northern Ireland Civic Forum and in 2001, for 5 years, was an independent member of the inaugural Northern Ireland Policing Board. He was appointed an independent member of the UK City of Culture Company for 2013 and as a commissioner on Foyle Port from 2015-2019. He was a Governor at Foyle College, Londonderry from 2016-2022. For 6 years he has been Chairperson of the North-West Cricket Union and a Board member of Cricket Ireland. He was a board member of Institute F.C from 2018 - 2023. In 2003 he won the Business in the Community Sieff Award for Community Enterprise awarded by HRH Prince Charles at Highgrove estate.
In January 2007, he was awarded an MBE for services to the community in Northern Ireland and is a 2012 fellow of the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. In May 2023 he was one of the community champions invited to the Coronation of King Charles 111 at Westminster Abbey.
He has a Masters degree in Town Planning from the University of Manchester and had taken time out from studying for a Phd at Ulster University looking at the Londonderry Bands Forum and their leadership role in Londonderry. In September 2024 he was appointed to the Board of the North West Regional College. He is currently Co-Chair of Department for Communities Co-design group for the Ulster-Scots Heritage and Culture strategy.
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The City of Londonderry is the second largest city in Northern Ireland and the inaugural holder of the UK City of Culture in 2013. It is one of the oldest continuously Inhabited places in Ireland and a monastery was founded there in the sixth century by St Colmcille.
Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish – Daire or Doire, meaning Oak Grove and was changed by Royal Charter to Londonderry in 1662 to reflect the establishment of the city by the London Guilds. The city is the only complete intact walled city in Ireland and contains four of the original gates built between 1613 and 1619.
It is a city rich in history including the siege of Derry in 1689-1690, and it has the first cathedral (St Columb's) that was built after the reformation.
Its port and harbour played an important part in the Battle of the Atlantic when the city become an important shelter for the British, USA and Canadian ships and the personnel who were stationed there. The formal surrender of the German U Boats took place in the city's harbour at Lisahally at the conclusion of the war. A former RAF base (Eglinton) is now the site for the City of Derry Airport. The city is also famous for its shirt factories, and at its peak there were 44 factories which employed over 8,000 people. The city has a wealth of musical talent from Dana to Phil Coulter, and the famous hymn writer Mrs Frances Cecil Alexander. The first general hospital to be built after the second World War was built in the City and is still in operation today (Altnagelvin).
The city is divided by the River Foyle and in 2011 the Peace Bridge connecting the old Ebrington Barracks (formally a naval base and military establishment) to the city's Guildhall was opened.
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News items to follow.
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Please note, this is not a definitive list of past High Sheriffs as the information has been gathered from various sources which have not all been verified at this time.
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