There are many famous people from Lurgan, Co Armagh, from the sporting world to music and the world of science and technology.
By Carmel Robinson
Published 1st Mar 2023, 15:17 GMT
Updated 1st Mar 2023, 15:26 GMT
Some of those include Jay Beatty, footballer and manager, Neil Lennon, Len Ganley, Barry Douglas, Archbishop Michael Jackson as well as William Paul Duprex who started scientific research by testing saliva of his Lurgan school friends.
Comedians Micky Bartlett and William Caulfield, as well as Lord Chief Justice Brian Kerr and Michael Deeny the 'Godfather of Irish Music' who brought the Horslips to the international stage.
5. An equestrian statue guards the grave of Field Marshall Sir John Dill in Arlington Cemetery, Washington D.C.
Sir John Greer Dill, GCB, CMG, DSO ( born in Lurgan, Co Armagh 25 December 1881 – died Washington D.C. 4 November 1944) was a senior British Army officer with service in both the First World War and the Second World War. From May 1940 to December 1941 he was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), the professional head of the British Army, and subsequently served in Washington, D.C., as Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission and then Senior British Representative on the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS). Dill's father was the local bank manager and his mother was a Greer from Woodville, Lurgan. There is an equestrian statue of Field Marshall Sir John Dill at his grave in Arlington Cemetery in Washington. Photo: Imperial War Museum
6. Former Lurgan man Paul Duprex specialises in molecular virology including the SARS virus which caused the global pandemic recently
William Paul Duprex is a British scientist and advocate for vaccines and global health. He attended King's Park Primary School, Lurgan College, and Queen's University Belfast (QUB), where he earned a BS in biochemistry and genetics in 1990 and a PhD in molecular virology in 1995. As a boy at King's Park Primary, he first discovered a love of science while observing tadpoles transform into frogs. Later, at Lurgan College, he discovered microbiology, experimenting with his classmates' saliva to determine which toothpaste was the best at killing the bacteria that colonize the mouth. He is Director of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Vaccine Research and Regional Biocontainment Laboratory. Duprex holds the Jonas Salk Chair in Vaccine Research. He is also a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of General Virology, which is published by the Microbiology Society, and a senior editor of mSphere, published by the American Society for Microbiology. He is an expert in measles and mumps viruses and studies viral spill over from animals to humans, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Contributed
7. Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell appears on the Ulster Bank's new science-themed polymer £50 bank note
An inspirational role model for countless women physicists, Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born in Lurgan and grew up in the family home called Solitude. Her father was an architect who helped design the Armagh Planetarium and during her visits there, the staff encouraged her to pursue a career in astronomy. She attended the Preparatory Department of Lurgan College from 1948 to 1956. At the time, boys could study technical subjects, but girls were expected to study subjects such as cooking. Bell Burnell was able to study science only after her parents and others challenged the school's policies. She failed the eleven-plus exam and her parents sent her to The Mount School, a Quaker girls' boarding school in York, England, where she graduated from in 1961. She worked in a number of universities including as a visiting professor to Princeton and Oxford. In 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, worth three million dollars (£2.3 million), for her discovery of radio pulsars. She donated all of the money "to fund women, under-represented ethnic minority and refugee students to become physics researchers". Many believe she should have also been awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize for Physics Photo: Nigel McDowell
8. Dancer Ryan McShane toured with Strictly Come Dancing professionals
Ryan McShane was born in Lurgan, Co Armagh and started dancing at the age of seven. He, alongside his professional partner, Ksenia Zsikhotska, were the 2016 United Kingdom and British Latin Professional Champions and British Show Dance Champions. In 2015, McShane toured with Strictly Come Dancing professional Brendan Cole's A Night to Remember tour across the UK and Ireland. He is also known as being one of the professional dancers on the Irish version of Dancing with the Stars on RTE and partnered Conor McGregor's sister Erin and Mrs. Brown's Boys star Eilish O'Carroll. Photo: contributed