There are many famous people from Portadown, artists, TV presenters, sporting heroes and war heroes.
One of the most famous is Gloria Hunniford who has been a TV and radio star for decades and appears on many top shows such as Loose Women, This Morning and The One Show.
Also actors Richard Dormer and Jude Hill, war heroes Anne Acheson and Dr Isobel Addey Tate, sporting heroes Rory Best, Mary Peters and Ronnie McFall as well as many talented individuals.
Also actors Richard Dormer and Jude Hill, war heroes Anne Acheson and Dr Isobel Addey Tate, sporting heroes Rory Best, Mary Peters and Ronnie McFall as well as many talented individuals.
5. Jude Hill attends the Governors Ball during the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California
Actor Jude Hill was born in Gilford in 2010. He attended St John's Primary School, Gilford and took drama classes at the Shelley Lowry School in Portadown from the age of four. His feature film debut was in Kenneth Branagh's Belfast in which he starred as the lead character Buddy. The film's story is mostly told through the eyes of Buddy, a cheery 9-year-old fictional version of Branagh. Hill was nine when he was cast as the film's lead out of 300 young actors who auditioned, ten when filming took place, and eleven when the film premiered in 2021. In 2022, Hill attended Italy's David di Donatello ceremony as a special guest, picking up the Best Foreign Film award won by Belfast. He also made his television debut in Magpie Murders, a BritBox and PBS Masterpiece adaptation of the 2016 mystery novel of the same by Anthony Horowitz. He also appeared alongside Deirdre Mullins in the horror film Mandrake. Last year he also attended the Oscars and was a huge hit with many of the nominees and guests. In December 2021, Hill signed with United Talent Agency stateside. Here he is pictured at the Governors Ball during the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California. Photo: Emma McIntyre
6. Award winning poet Sinéad Morrissey was born in Portadown
Poet Sinéad Morrissey was born in Portadown in April 1972. In January 2014 she won the T. S. Eliot Prize for her fifth collection Parallax and in 2017 she won the Forward Prize for Poetry for her sixth collection On Balance. Raised in Belfast, she was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where she took BA and PhD degrees. After periods living in Japan and New Zealand she now lives in Newcastle. She was appointed writer-in-residence and then Reader in Creative Writing at Queen's University, Belfast. In 2016 she was appointed Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle. Photo: Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye
7. Motorcycle champ Phillip McCallen is one of the all time greats
Phillip McCallen, from Tandragee near Portadown is a former motorcycle racer, now turned to dealer in his retirement from road racing. McCallen is joint eighth in the list of all-time Isle of Man TT winners, with 11 race victories, including four races in one week in 1996; a tally which stood unbroken until 2010. McCallen also won 5 wins from 6 starts at the 1992 North West 200, and 5 wins in one day at the 1996 Ulster Grand Prix. Photo: STEPHEN DAVISON
8. George Flavel was one of the first multi-millionaires in Oregon
Irish American maritime pilot and entrepreneur, George Flavel was born in 1823. Some sources state he was born in Portadown, County Armagh, Ireland, while others state his birthplace as Norfolk, Virginia. He began working as a tugboat operator between Sacramento and San Francisco in 1849 and went on to amass a fortune with a business managing pilot boats on the Columbia River, making him a prominent local figure, and one of the first millionaires in Oregon. His other business interests included running a wharf in Astoria, and managing a coal business from Australia. At the time of his death in 1893, Flavel had a net worth of nearly US$2 million (equivalent to $60,318,519 in 2021). Photo: Undated photo of Flavel (c. 1870)