The four UCC graduates who are being honoured are:-

DR BARRY KEANE - Paediatric Cardiologist at Harvard Medical School

DECLAN KIDNEY - Ireland Rugby Coach and former Munster Rugby Coach

DICK LEHANE  - Former Senior Vice President Manufacturing of EMC Worldwide

Dr TOMÁS Ó CANAINN - Renowned uilleann-piper, composer, singer and member of the famous Irish Traditional Music group Na File

The annual UCC Alumni Achievement Awards Programme honours graduates who have obtained extraordinary distinction and success in their chosen fields. The Awards aim to foster a spirit of loyalty, involvement and commitment to UCC amongst alumni.  Dr Michael Murphy, UCC President said "It gives me great pleasure to present an Alumnus Achievement Award to these graduates whose outstanding accomplishments have brought great honour to their alma mater."

UCC is a vibrant, dynamic university, internationally recognised for its teaching programme and the quality of the student experience. With a student body of some 18,860 students, including over 2,000 from 83 countries worldwide, and some 2,642 members of staff, UCC is consistently rated one of Ireland's premier research institutions and plays a driving role in the cultural, economic and social developments not only in the South West region but across Ireland.  UCC was selected as Irish University of the Year twice in recent years.
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Internationally Renowned Paediatric Cardiologist honoured with UCC Alumnus Achievement Award
Internationally Renowned Paediatric Cardiologist, Dr Finbarr (Barry) Keane is to be honoured with a UCC Alumnus Achievement Award by UCC's College of Medicine & Health for his distinguished career in medicine. The 2008 Awards Ceremony takes place this evening (Thursday, November 27th 2008) at UCC.

Barry Keane graduated from UCC in 1960 with a degree in Medicine. He completed his early training in Britain and then moved to the USA where he repeated an internship in New York followed by a medical residency in Hartford, Connecticut and then started cardiology training in the University of Vermont.  During the 1970s he established himself in a highly successful career in the paediatric service at the world's pre-eminent medical school at Harvard in Boston.  He rose through the academic ranks as Professor of Paediatrics and Director of the Cardiac Catherization Laboratory from 1990 to 1996.

Dr Keane's major research interests are in the natural history of congenital heart disease and interventional cardiac catheterization. Barry was involved in many important research studies, but none more so than the First and Second natural history studies on Congenital Heart Disease, published in 1977 and 1993, respectively. These are now the bedrock for comparative assessments of effectiveness of various therapeutic interventions.

Dr Keane has published extensively including 146 peer review papers and nine book chapters, as first and co-author with many of the most distinguished pioneers in the field of paediatric cardiology and surgery of the last century, a golden era in this field. Their innovations will have touched the lives of many people where siblings or children and grandchildren may have benefitted with the gift of a normal quality of life, and life expectancy.

Dr Keane is noted for his caring attitude towards his patients particularly in the catheterization laboratory where he excelled with his calm, thorough approach and meticulous attention to small details so often the difference between success and failure or for the patient, life and death.

Dr Keane has received many accolades for his work and was listed among ╥The Best Doctors in America, 2nd edition on more than one occasion. Most recently, Dr Keane has edited the second edition of the Alexander Nadas text book on paediatric cardiology, the standard reference text in many parts of the world.  Dr Keane has been an outstanding ambassador for the UCC Medical School in Boston and at Harvard University and has mentored a number of UCC graduates with an interest in congenital heart disease.

Reacting to his Alumnus Achievement Award, Dr Keane said: "I am honoured to receive this Award from my alma mater.  As the Ceremony falls Thanksgiving Day in the States, my family has allowed me to return to Cork to receive this Award provided I come back next day to smoke the turkey!"
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Declan Kidney to be honoured with UCC Alumnus Achievement Award
Ireland Rugby Coach, Declan Kidney is to be honoured with a UCC Alumnus Achievement Award at an Awards Ceremony which takes place this evening (Thursday, November 27th 2008) at UCC.  

Declan Kidney is being honoured by UCC's College of Business and Law for his motivational leadership and outstanding management skills as exemplified by his unique contribution to Munster Rugby.

Declan graduated from UCC in 1982 with a degree in Commerce and a Higher Diploma in Education in 1983. After graduation he taught mathematics and career guidance at his former school, Presentation Brothers College, Cork.  His initial coaching success was with Pres Juniors, then Pres Seniors which included Ronan O'Gara, Peter Stringer and Mick O'Driscoll.  He moved on to coach the Irish Schools' team which won the Triple Crown in 1992 and the Irish Under 19 team which won the FIRA World Cup in 1998. He also steered Dolphin into Division One of the All-Ireland League for the first time in 1997.

Declan's initial reign as Head Coach with Munster brought them to two Heineken Cup finals in 2000 and 2002 and the Celtic League final.  In that time he also coached the Ireland Under 19s to World Cup victory.  Kidney then took on a role as Assistant Coach to the Ireland national squad for two years, working with them during the 2003 Rugby World Cup.  

Following his time with Ireland, he spent a season with Leinster in 2004/2005 when they came through their Heineken Cup qualifying group unbeaten. In his first season back with Munster he coached the side to Heineken Cup victory in 2006 with that memorable final win over Biarritz at the Millennium Stadium.  He repeated the feat in 2008 through one of the toughest pools with an away quarter-final and semi-final and then an incredible win over French powerhouses Toulouse.  

Declan has won many accolades for his achievements over the years including Philips Sports Manager of the Year award in 2006.  He is regarded as a highly gifted coach with one of his greatest skills being his ability to spot potential early and select players who complement each other's strengths and weaknesses.  He is an excellent manager always coming up with fresh and innovative ideas to motivate players.

Ireland named Declan Kidney as their new Head Coach in May 2008 with the challenging task of replicating Munster's success at international level.

Reacting to his UCC Alumnus Achievement Award, Declan said: "I am delighted to accept this special Award from my alma mater.  It is very humbling and a great honour."
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Former EMC Senior Vice-President to receive UCC Alumnus Achievement Award

Dick Lehane, former Senior Worldwide Vice President of EMC is to be honoured with a UCC Alumnus Achievement Award.  The 2008 Awards Ceremony takes place this evening (Thursday, November 27th 2008) at UCC.

Dick Lehane is being honoured by UCC's College of Science, Engineering and Food Science in recognition of his successful leadership role at the helm of EMC's start-up plant in Cork and subsequently directing EMC's global manufacturing strategy from head-office in Boston in a rapidly changing high tech environment.

A native of Cork, Dick Lehane was educated at the North Monastery and received a university scholarship to UCC, graduating with a degree in Electrical Engineering in1968.  On graduation, he was recruited directly by General Electric where there was a large demand for engineers, spending the next seven years in the US in Baltimore, Maryland in project management roles.  He returned to Ireland in 1976 with his wife and family and joined household appliance manufacturer, Krups at their manufacturing facility in Limerick. Dick was subsequently recruited by mini-computer manufacturer, Wang Laboratories, as part of a small start-up team as Technical Director, and the company saw staff numbers grow to over 1,000 people within a very short period of time.

EMC recruited Dick Lehane in 1988 to establish the company's first overseas plant in Cork as part of its overall strategy to move up-market with the manufacture of storage systems using disc drives (from memory boards) and grow its European market. Typically EMC data storage products and networked storage platforms sell from around the $1m mark and the target customers are Chief Executives and Chief Information Officers. However, the changeover to storage systems proved more difficult than expected for EMC and managing customers' ever-changing needs was challenging. Dick recruited a strong management team at the new Cork plant including Colm Condon as HR Director. Despite the market difficulties, EMC founder, Dick Egan stuck with his decision to locate in Cork and the company grew quickly after the first three years.  Employment grew from 50 people in to 1,700 people as the Cork plant expanded aggressively overseas building volumes to become the world-wide supplier of EMC's full product line to all markets outside North America.

Throughout his career, Dick continued to upgrade his own business skills, obtaining an MBA from NUI Galway in 1978 and an MSc in Management from IMI/Trinity in 1984.  He also participated in the Institute of Directors' Programme at UCC in 1994.    

In 1996, Dick brought his proven collegiate style of management and strong team leadership to his challenging new role as Senior Vice President for World-Wide Manufacturing with EMC in Boston. He successfully campaigned for a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Boston to meet demands as volumes grew.  He also directed the take-over of Data General, a large US corporation, successfully absorbing this operation into EMC.  Dick also oversaw the outsourcing of some manufacturing to the Asia/Pacific region as part of the relentless drive to be more cost competitive.  

During Dick's tenureship as Senior World-Wide Vice President, he continued to seek growth opportunities for the Cork plant and succeeded in getting a software development operation as well as European headquarters for VMware, an EMC acquisition. In 2004, he returned to Ireland to lead the Cork operation until his recent retirement.

Reacting to his Alumnus Achievement Award, Dick said: "To say I was surprised would be a complete understatement; the first thing that popped into my mind was Ronald Reagan's reaction when he was offered honourary doctorate by his alma mater in Eureka Illinois, that basically, this would be the second honourary degree given to him by the college. This mirrors my feeling exactly in that the UCC were already very kind to me in 1968 so this award is really the icing on the cake."
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Irish Traditional Musician honoured with UCC Alumnus Achievement Award
Renowned uilleann piper, composer and singer, Dr Tomás Ó Canainn is to be honoured with a UCC Alumni Achievement Award by UCC's College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences. The 2008 Awards Ceremony takes place this evening (Thursday, November 27th 2008) at UCC.  

Tomás Ó Canainn, a fluent Irish speaker, was born in Derry in 1930 and raised in a family steeped in Irish traditional music.  He attended Queen's University Belfast, where he graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering and later attained a PhD from Liverpool University in 1960.

In 1961 he moved with his wife Helen to a new life in Cork and a lecturing position in the Electrical Engineering Department at UCC.  He was subsequently appointed Dean of Engineering, a position he held until his retirement in 1992.  

While pursing a successful academic career in Engineering, Tomás nurtured a life-long passion for Irish traditional music, the uilleann pipes and song.  In his spare time, he studied for a degree in Music at UCC between 1968 and 1971 under Professor Fleischmann and Seán Ó Riada. He was a friend and colleague of Seán Ó Riada and when Seán died in 1971, Tomás took over the Traditional Music lectures until 1975, while continuing his Electrical Engineering lectures.

Tomás was a member of the famous traditional music group, Na Fili from 1969 to 1979 which toured extensively in Europe and America, recording six LPs.  He has been a lifelong member of Comhaltas Ceolteóirí Éireann.  He has received numerous accolades and in 1969 he became All-Ireland uilleann-pipes champion at Fleadh Cheoil na h-Éireann and was Ard Ollamh of the 2004 Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann.

Tomás has written two biographies of Seán Ó Riada and has published novels, poems, a play, several Masses and books on music. He has recorded numerous solo albums.  He toured the USA in 1981, performing and delivering lectures on Irish music, culminated with a performance for President Regan on St Patrick's Day in 1981.

He has presented various RTE radio programmes, including Mora Dhíbh during the  1970's and was a music critic for fifteen years with the Irish Examiner and the Irish Times. He taught pipes and traditional music in the Cork School of Music.  He was appointed to the Cultural Relations Committee of the Department of Foreign Affairs in the 1980s.  Since 1991 he performs and runs a music and song session in his local pub in Glanmire (O'Connell's) every Tuesday evening.  

Reacting to his Alumnus Achievement Award, Tomás said: "I felt very honoured to have been selected for this high honour.  UCC has been a very special place for me, the high standard of students and staff, firstly in Electrical Engineering and then in Music, was a continuing inspiration."

Pictured at the 2008 Alumni Achievement Awards Ceremony on November 27th 2008 were L-R:  Dick Lehane, Dr Tomás Ó Canainn, Declan Kidney and  Dr Barry Keane.

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