Banbridge Academy are delighted to congratulate our former Chair and current member of the Board of Governors – Mr Mark Orr on his appointment as Pro-Chancellor of the very prestigious University Trinity College Dublin.

According to the Trinity website, the office of Pro-Chancellor is ‘the highest accolade the University can bestow and is reserved for the most distinguished graduates and academic members of staff’.

Mark was awarded an Entrance Exhibition in Classics to Trinity in 1975 and graduated in Law in 1979.  He was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1980, the Bar of Ireland in 1985, became a Queen’s Counsel in NI in 1996, subsequently a King’s Counsel and a Senior Counsel in the Republic of Ireland in 2002.

He has held various public appointments including Chair of the Controlled Schools’ Support Council from 2019 and Board Member of the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund from 1999-2011.  He has been a School Governor for many years and was our Chair from 2014-2020.

He is also a former international rugby referee and continues to officiate as the longest-serving referee in Ireland.  Since 2019, he has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Irish Rugby Football and is the current IRFU Representative on the Board of Rugby Europe.

Trinity Pro Chancellor Mark Orr
Photo Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography 2025