2005 Press Releases
HONORARY CONFERRINGS 2005 - University College Cork, 3 June
Six leading figures in the world of education, literature, public
service, creativity and the arts will be honoured by the National
University of Ireland during a ceremony to confer honorary doctorates
at University College Cork on Friday, June 3rd next. The
traditional ceremony honours individuals who have distinguished
themselves nationally or internationally, through their scholarship,
creativity, public service or contribution to social, cultural or
economic life.
Michael F Kelleher
Secretary and Bursar, University College Cork
For almost 40 years, Cork-born Michael Kelleher has been at the
forefront of administration in UCC and has been a key figure in the
development of the university during this period. He has played a
seminal role in the expansion of the modern university and has helped
to copperfasten its reputation as one of the finest third-level
institutions in the State. A founder member of the University Chief
Financial Officers Group which operates under the aegis of the
Conference of Heads of Irish Universities, he has served as the Irish
representative on the Directing Board of the Institutional
Management in Higher Education Programme of the OECD. He is a member of
the Finance Committee and Governing Body of the University and has long
service as a founder Director and Chairman of the Cork Association for
the Deaf.
David Marcus
Writer and Publisher
For almost 50 years, Cork-born David Marcus has been a central
figure in the world of Irish Literature. Virtually every modern
writer of note has been influenced by him, and he is responsible for
discovering the writings of Eugene McCabe, Dermot Healy, Frank
McGuinness and most recently Jamie O'Neill. He left for London in
1954 after the publication of his first novel "To Next Year in
Jerusalem" returning to Ireland in 1967 when he started the "New Irish
Writing" page in the Irish Press in 1968, and shortly afterwards was
appointed Literary Editor by Tim Pat Coogan. Whilst there he also
co-founded Poolbeg Press with Phillip McDermott. He retired from
the Irish Press and Poolbeg Press to complete his novel "A Land Not
Theirs". He has also edited numerous short story anthologies for
both Irish and British publishers. He was awarded a special
Rooney Award for his service to Irish Literature in 2001.
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
Poet
Born in Lancashire of Irish-speaking parents and brought up in the
Dingle Gaeltacht and Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ms Ní Dhomhnaill graduated
from UCC in 1972 with a BA in Irish and English and a Higher Diploma in
Education in 1973. Ms Ní Dhomhnaill's writings focus on the rich
traditions and heritage of Ireland and draw upon themes of ancient
Irish folklore and mythology combined with contemporary themes of
femininity, sexuality and culture.
She has published extensively
and her works include poetry collections, children's plays,
screenplays, anthologies, articles, reviews and essays. She has
won numerous awards for her poetry. She has extensive teaching, reading
and lecturing experience in Ireland, England, Turkey, USA and Canada
and is a regular broadcaster on Irish radio and television.
Hughie O'Donoghue
Painter
Over the past two decades, Hughie O'Donoghue's work has assumed
epic proportions in terms of scale, treatment and subject matter.
Although primarily a painter, O'Donoghue is also a superb draughtsman
and printmaker. Internationally renowned, he is currently one of
Ireland's most individual and ambitious practitioners and one who has a
profound respect for the discipline of painting. First and foremost a
philosophical painter, O'Donoghue acknowledges the primacy of art
history and the development of the medium through generations of
practitioners. Born in Manchester, Hughie O'Donoghue is an MA graduate
in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College, University of London. He has
exhibited work all over the world including a major exhibition of
paintings at the Imperial War Museum in 2003. He has paintings in
numerous prestigious collections including the Ashmolean Museum of Art,
Oxford, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Irish Museum of Modern
Art, the Ulster Museum and the British Museum. A monograph on the
artist, Painting, Memory, Myth was recently published by Merril.
Professor Micheál Ó Súilleabháin
Director of the Irish World Music Centre, University of Limerick
Composer, academic and performer, UCC graduate Micheál Ó
Súilleabháin, established the Irish World Music Centre in the
University of Limerick (UL) in 1994. He took up the position as
the first holder of a new Chair of Music at UL in the same year having
lectured at UCC's Music Department since 1975. During his tenure
at UCC, he worked with young traditional and classical musicians from
Ireland, the UK and North America. In that time, he established
the Music Department as the first such educational body to work towards
the integration of traditional and classical musicians, within a shared
curriculum. At UL, the centre hosts research programmes at Masters and
Doctoral levels, a specialised research library, over a thousand
visiting musicians, dancers, academics, newly commissioned music and
dance and a suite of nine taught one-year full-time Masters and
post-graduate programmes. He has produced a number of CD's and
performed all over the world.
Professor Xie Shengwu
President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Born in 1943 in Shanghai, Xie Shengwu is a professor of physics and
President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). From 1991 to
1997, Professor Xie assumed the position of Vice President and Dean of
the Graduate School of SJTU. He was appointed President in 1997,
with a re-appointment in 2004. He has had a long involvement in the
research of laser applications, nonlinear optics in crystals, with
publications of over 30 major papers and an academic book -
Introduction of Laser and has headed many research projects which
resulted in a number of major research achievements. In recognizing his
contributions to education, Professor Xie Shengwu has been conferred
with numerous honorary degrees.
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