Belfast view of the young Barack

Professor Bell attended law classes with Barack Obama

American presidential hopeful Barack Obama always seemed marked for great things, a former law school colleague has revealed.

Belfast woman Christine Bell, Professor of International Law at the University of Ulster, sat beside Obama during lessons at Harvard Law School.

She said the future US senator was "very striking," even as a young man.

"He was compelling, he was engaged, very intelligent but also a kind of an ordinary person," Prof Bell said.

"American classes are taught in what they call the Socratic method, the professor asks questions and the students answer.

"Barack would have been one of the students who most answered."

Barack Obama was very striking, even in his student days

She said Obama stood out, even amongst the most intelligent of Harvard students.

"Students aren't known for calmness and coolness and particularly in those law school classes they can be very competitive, trying to outdo each other with their answers," she said.

"He wasn't really like that at all, he was just engaged with the issue, thoughtful, calm, collected and very much the person that we see today.

"He had a presence, and that isn't really normal in the classroom."

Prof Bell said she felt that, even in those early days, her classmate would make his mark on the world.

"It's easy to say 'well, you're inventing that now,' but he was a person, I thought, I'll see you again some day because he had, what I would say, was authority, even then," she said.