Four leading figures in the world of medicine, arts and public service were honoured by the National University of Ireland during a ceremony to confer honorary doctorates at University College Cork today (Friday, June 3rd 2011).
A Sheansailear, a mhuintir na hOllscoile agaus a dhaoine uaisle,
Is cúis mórtais agus fíoráthais dom Adrian K Dixon a chur i láthair dár ngradam, Céim Dochtúireachta sa Leighis, de chuid Ollscoil na hÉireannn. Is deacair duine níos fearr ná Adrian a shamhlú agus e ina chara dílis do chuige na Mumhan agus do Choláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh.
It is an honour and an immense pleasure to present Adrian K Dixon for the award of an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine, of the National University of Ireland. It is difficult to imagine a more worthy candidate than Adrian, an academic physician of international repute, a Professor at Cambridge University, a Master of a College of Cambridge University, and a true friend of University College Cork and Munster.
Adrian K Dixon was born in Cambridge in 1948, but his family’s links to Ireland and this region can be traced back, long before his birth. All of Adrian’s four grandparents and both parents were Irish-born and bred. Adrian Dixon’s grandfather, Prof HH Dixon, FRS, was Professor of Botany in Dublin and, with John Joly, discovered how sap made its way to the top of trees. He worked on various other scientific experiments including early colour photography. He lived in Kerry when he retired, which is where Adrian spent all of his childhood holidays. During these vacations in Kerry, Adrian crossed the Cork-Kerry border regularly to play in the Irish Junior Closed Tennis Championships at Rushbrooke, Co Cork and played tennis for Donnybrook while working in Dublin. At the age of 17 years, Adrian got his first taste of “Bench to Bedside” clinical research when he spent a period in the Department of Experimental Medicine at St Luke’s Hospital in Rathgar before commencing his medical studies in Cambridge. Later on, both Adrian’s parents were to spend much of their retirement in Kerry and Adrian continues to spend his vacations in Glenbeigh, near Dooks beach on the Ring of Kerry.
Adrian Dixon’s commenced studying medicine in King's College, Cambridge in 1967, gaining a BA degree in 1969 and he graduated with MB BCh in 1972 after clinical studies at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. He then pursued general medicine at Nottingham and obtained Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 1974. The young Dr. Dixon then decided that his future career was to be as a radiologist and he commenced training in radiology, obtaining his Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiologists in 1978. After spells in Paediatric Radiology (Great Ormond Street) and Computed Tomography (St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London) he was appointed Lecturer in Radiology in the University of Cambridge in 1979. His interests from an early stage have centred on developing Body Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. He gained his MD from the University of Cambridge with a thesis on Computed Tomography of the lumbar spine in 1988. He was elected a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1986 where he was Director of Medical Studies until 1994. He was appointed Professor of Radiology in Cambridge University in 1986. He was Editor of Clinical Radiology from 1998-2002 and Chairman of the Royal College of Radiologists' Guidelines Working Party from 1993-1998. He was elected Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians in 1991, and Fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons in 2003 and to Honorary Fellowship of the American College of Radiology in 2009. He was also elected a founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998, one of the few radiologists to be so recognized. He was Warden of the Faculty of Clinical Radiology of the Royal College of Radiologists from 2002-2006 and Magnetic Resonance Clinical Guardian to the Department of Health of Her Majesty’s Government in 2004-7.
Professor Dixon enjoys a worldwide reputation as an academic radiologist. He has published extensively in Computed Tomography, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and various aspects of effectiveness and outcomes research within Radiology. Recently, he has used imaging to characterize body fat distribution in a variety of disease processes such as diabetes, obesity and the metabolic syndrome. He has written and co-edited various books on CT, Anatomy and Diagnostic Radiology. He has travelled extensively to lecture and teach, and has also been awarded Honorary Fellowship/Membership of Radiological Societies in Australia/New Zealand, France, Hungary, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA. Through Professor Dixon’s clinical appointment at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, he has helped train numerous Irish radiologists, one of whom Dr. Thomas Greaney, a consultant radiologist at Tralee General Hospital, is in attendance at the ceremony today. All of these graduates speak of an inspirational teacher and role model who teaches from first principles and of a radiologist whose opinion is widely sought by clinical and radiological peers. His work ethic and dedication to his clinical duties are legendary, a fact that is always highlighted when speaking to those who have been lucky enough to count Adrian as a colleague. He has been fortunate to have been supported throughout his career by his wife Anne, who has been Adrian’s partner in many projects.
Currently, Professor Dixon works as Professor of Radiology in Cambridge University and as a Consultant Radiologist at Addenbrooks Hospital in Cambridge. He is also Editor-in-Chief of European Radiology and the journal has seen major improvements under his leadership including a significantly improved impact factor.
In 2008, The Fellows of the Peterhouse, the oldest college of Cambridge University, announced the election of Adrian K. Dixon as the 51st known Master of the Peterhouse, making him the second medical Master in the College’s history of over 700 years, and the first medical Master since 1500. There are interesting parallels here with UCC which appointed Dr. Michael Murphy as its second medical president in 2007, the first being Bertram Windle in 1904. As Master, Professor Dixon succeeded Lord Wilson of Tillyorn, a former Governor of Hong Kong. In a statement from the Peterhouse, Professor David Watkin, its Senior Fellow, said, “After very thorough and wide-ranging consideration, the Fellows of Peterhouse were unanimous in electing Adrian Dixon to be our next Master. We are delighted to elect one of our own, someone who has given immense devotion and service to the College and its members for over twenty years, while at the same time being recognised internationally for eminence in his field. We all look forward to his guidance and continuing friendship in building on the outstanding Mastership of Lord Wilson.”
In spite of his many work commitments, Professor Dixon, retains very strong connections with the Munster region and his beloved Glenbeigh, County Kerry, with Dooks Golf Club nearby. He still spends many vacations at his mother’s house in Glenbeigh. While on vacation, he plays golf and enjoys the natural beauty of the Ring of Kerry with his wife Anne and their children. It is difficult for Adrian, however, to completely forget his commitment to education and he has addressed Junior and Leaving Certificate students at the Intermediate School in Killorglin on a number of occasions. He has also given invited lectures at the Southern Radiological Society in Cork in 2007 on his way to Glenbeigh and has also spoken at the ceremony to mark the installation of the first CT scanner at Tralee General Hospital in Kerry. He was adviser to UCC during the establishment of, and appointment to, the Professorship of Radiology and today, maintains a keen interest in the development of the department, frequently acting as an advisor.
Adrian has many sporting interests which include golf and tennis. As well as his lifetime membership of Dooks Golf Club, he is President of the Cambridge University Golf Club.
Adrian Dixon is being honoured today by this university in recognition of his contribution to medicine and radiology internationally and in Ireland but equally for being a great friend in many ways to this region and to this university. There is no more worthy recipient of this honorary degree.
PRAEHONORABILIS CANCELLARIE, TOTAQUE
UNIVERSITAS:
Presento vobis
hunc meum filium, quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem ad idoneum esse
qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoratus in Medicina, idque tibi
fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.
_________________
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY: DR MICHAEL MURPHY, President University College Cork on 3 June 2011, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on SHA HAILIN
A
Sheansaileir agus a mhuintir uilig na hOllscoile,
Dr
Sha Hailin is a friend of UCC, Cork and Ireland. This friendship began in 2002,
when he commenced his appointment as Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the
Republic of Ireland. It has grown stronger with the passing years and the success enjoyed in Shanghai by UCC, Cork City and the organisations
represented by the Cork Chamber of Commerce has been due in no small part to Dr
Sha’s vision, wise counsel and active intervention. This afternoon, we express
our gratitude for his generous support, past and future, by honouring Dr Sha in
his personal capacity as an accomplished and outstanding leader and innovator.
Dr Sha’s career has been characterised by a profound sense of duty and his total commitment to upholding the highest traditions of public service. Those who have had the pleasure of working with Dr Sha consistently state that his energy, dedication and passion for excellence are contagious, and that he sets the personal and professional benchmark against which other senior public servants measure their performance.
Dr Sha was born in Shanghai. He graduated from Shanghai Normal University and Tongji University with a postgraduate degree in engineering and a PhD in management. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Georgia and a visiting Professor at Shanghai Jiaotong University, Tongji University, and East China Normal University.
Following a distinguished career during which Dr Sha occupied a number of leadership roles within the public sector in Shanghai, from December 2000, Dr. Sha served as the Minister-Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, with responsibility for bilateral relations, an appointment made through the first open selection held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for senior diplomats.
Dr
Sha commenced his appointment as Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China
to the Republic of Ireland in August 2002. During his tenure he had a
significant impact upon China Ireland relations. He became a close friend of
President Mary McAleese, who hosted a private dinner for him prior to his
return to China and he is remembered by many as someone who understood the
Irish culture, who learned Irish, and who had visited every county in Ireland
during his posting. Dr Sha lived by himself for the last two years of his
posting when he and his wife decided that she should return to China to look
after their elderly parents.
As Ambassador to Ireland, Dr Sha played a central role in the official civic twinning of Cork City and Shanghai, which took place on 19th May 2005. With a population of 23 million, a GDP of US$256 billion in 2010, the stock exchange of Asia’s largest economy and the busiest cargo port in the world, which handled 29 million containers in 2010, Shanghai is not an obvious twinning partner for Cork; however, Dr Sha was totally committed to this initiative and was instrumental in the final decision. At the time of the official twinning Dr Sha observed:
“both
Cork and Shanghai are second cities
Both
are port cities
The
colour red is significant for both cities, and
Both
are the most beautiful cities in their respective countries”
With Dr Sha’s support, UCC, Cork City Council and Cork Chamber of Commerce have conducted a large number of educational, commercial and cultural visits to Shanghai over the past 6 years, fostering a wide range of important education and economic relations.
In November 2005, Dr Sha returned to his beloved Shanghai as the Deputy Party Secretary of the CPC Luwan District, and Mayor of Luwan District before being promoted to the post of Party Secretary of the CPC Luwan District. During this period he has worked tirelessly in supporting UCC and Cork City initiatives in Shanghai. Immediately on his return he launched the Shanghai St. Patrick’s Day celebration, an event which has become the largest and most successful event of its kind in China. He also established the Ireland Business Park in the Lu Wan District of Shanghai, in recognition of the valuable contribution made by Irish businesses in Shanghai and China. Dr Sha maintained the friendships developed during his period as Ambassador and developed many new friendships in the various senior roles that he has occupied since his return. I am delighted that so many of his Irish business friends are here today to share in the celebration.
In February of 2008, Dr. Sha was promoted to Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. Following the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province on 12th May 2008, each province in China sent volunteers to assist in the rescue and rebuilding of the devastated area. Dr Sha was appointed as commander of the Shanghai post-quake reconstruction team and served in Du Jiang Yan for one year. Unfortunately during this period his father became very ill and passed away. It is notable that when Dr Sha offered to take time out to visit his sick father, his father encouraged him to fulfil his public duty and continue serving at Du Jiang Yan.
In 2009, Dr Sha was appointed Chairman of the newly established Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce (SCOFCOM), which is responsible for overseeing foreign trade and investment, overseas business management and domestic trade management in Shanghai, for the first time consolidating management of domestic and foreign trade under a single government authority. In Dr Sha’s words, “Shanghai's goal is to enhance its status as a world-class economic and financial metropolis.”
2010 marked the successful completion of Shanghai's implementation of the 11th Five-Year Plan and was marked by worldwide recognition of the success of the World Expo held in Shanghai from May to November. Dr Sha was a key member of the team that coordinated and managed the Expo. He also contributed to the success of the Cork week at the Ireland Pavilion at the World Expo.
UCC has enjoyed and appreciates the invaluable support provided by Dr Sha during the past nine years. In December 2003, Dr Sha formally launched the UCC Chinese website, the first of its type in the Irish university sector. As Ambassador, Dr. Sha took a particular interest in the welfare and education of Chinese students in Ireland and provided enthusiastic support and encouragement for the UCC recruitment campaign in China, helping to put UCC on the map at that time. We have invested great energy in developing academic engagement with China and UCC has attracted over 300 undergraduate and graduate students from the Peoples Republic of China, by far the largest cohort of Chinese students in any Irish university.
Dr Sha supported the establishment of the Irish Centre for Chinese Studies at UCC, an initiative that came to fruition in June 2006. 150 Irish students now read degree programmes in Chinese language and culture at UCC, the most significant university programme in the country, and more than 30 students from UCC now spend a year of their undergraduate degree programmes in China, predominately at Shanghai University.
Since 2007, UCC has had the privilege of hosting a Confucius Institute. AgainDr Sha played an important role in this initiative, facilitating the development of relationships with Hanban which provides annual funding. The Confucius Institute at UCC provides teaching in 40 secondary schools around Munster raising the profile of Chinese language, culture and business.
The University is conferring an Honorary Doctorate on Dr. Sha to recognise the seminal role that he played in the establishment of relations between UCC, Cork City, Cork business and Shanghai and to express our gratitude to him for the opportunities presented as a consequence. He is generous in the time and support that he expends on visiting Cork delegations and in opening network opportunities for us. In thanking Dr. Sha Hailin, we see this event as also offering us the opportunity to recognise his enormous contribution to the social, economic and political life of Shanghai and express our desire for future growth and continuity. We consider Dr Sha to be a “lao pen yuo” (old friend!) and look forward to working with him in the years to come.
Praehonorabilis
cancellarie, totaque universitas!
Praesento
vobis hunc meum filium quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum
esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoratus in utroque Jure, tam
Civili quam Canonico, idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo totique Academiae.
___________
TEXT
OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERD BY:
PROFESSOR PATRICK
FITZPATRICK,
Head of the College of Science, Engineering
& Food Science in University College Cork on 3 June 2011, on the occasion
of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on COMMODORE
FRANK LYNCH
A Sheansaileir agus a
mhuintir uilig na hOllscoile,
To tell the story about why University College Cork is conferring an
Honorary Doctorate in Laws on Commodore Frank Lynch, it is almost impossible to
avoid nautical puns. I could tell you that in the 1970s the Navy was in the
doldrums, that Frank’s extraordinary talent bubbled to the surface, so that he
ended up taking the helm, and that in the face of some fairly stiff head-winds
he charted a new and ambitious course for the Naval Service, during which he
brought people on board, and effected a sea-change.
But, in fact, all that is precisely true: in the early `70s the Navy didn’t actually have any ships! Frank did rise through the ranks to the top position of Flag Office Commanding, from which he led an inclusive, consultative process of review of the entire Naval Service that resulted in hugely significant and lasting organisational change.
Frank is a native of Co. Galway. He joined the Navy in 1968 and after training in the Naval Service and at Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, he qualified as an Operations Officer. He completed the Command and Staff course in the Military College at the Curragh during 1984-85, graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology from Dublin City University in 1994, and was awarded an MSc in Operations Management by the same university in 2002.
By the time Frank retired in December 2010 he had completed 42 years’ service.
In 1973, he was one of the two Boarding Officers on the minesweeper Long Éireannach Fola involved in the seizure of the vessel Claudia, which attempted to land a cargo of arms and ammunition from Libya at Helvick Head near Dungarvan in Co.Waterford. He took command of LÉ Fola in 1977 at the age of 27, the youngest officer ever appointed to a sea command. He was commander of the patrol vessels LÉ Emer from 1982 to 1984 and LÉ Eithne from 1993 to 1995. Rising through the ranks he was appointed Flag Officer Commanding the Naval Service in 2002, in which position he served until retirement.
From April 1997 until May 1998, Frank served with UN Interim Forces in Lebanon as Camp Commandant at UNIFIL HQ in Naqoura.
As many here will know, there are very close connections between the Irish and Argentinean Naval Services. William Brown, a native of Foxford, Co. Mayo, went to Argentina in the early 1800s, where he established and became the first admiral of Argentina’s maritime forces. In 2006 Frank was honoured with the award of the Argentinean Order of Naval Merit in the degree of Admiral Brown Grand Cross.
Frank’s career spans a period of enormous advances in equipment and technology, epitomised perhaps by the change from rowing boats to rigid inflatables, and from Morse Code to satellite communications, and it was he, as Commodore, who oversaw the appointment of the first female commanding officer at sea, Lieutenant Commander Roberta O’Brien, who took the helm of the LÉ Aisling in 2008.
Frank worked closely with Cork Institute of Technology to bring about the establishment of the National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy which opened its doors in 2004.
His connection with UCC goes back a couple of years earlier to when he brought our Coastal and Marine Resources Centre onto the Naval Base at Haulbowline Island, a move which was made possible by Frank’s open-minded attitude, and by funding from Lew Glucksman. Lew had served with the US Navy and developed a rapport with Frank, and it was that relationship which provided the key to the establishment of the CMRC facility.
More recently, Frank has been instrumental in facilitating the development of the Maritime and Energy Research Campus and Commercial Cluster, or MERC3, which is a tripartite project between the Naval Service, the Cork Institute of Technology and UCC. This is a very exciting development that will significantly enhance our capacity for research on renewable energy sources, especially ocean energy, as well as providing a platform for industry-led research on marine logistics, maritime security, maritime ICT, marine recreation and many other associated fields.
However, apart from all these initiatives, the main contribution that Frank made during his career with the Irish Naval Service, and what will no doubt be his enduring legacy, is the strategic revolution that he brought about in its organisational structure. In 1991, he was appointed by the Minister of Defence to a review group, and had a significant influence in the thrust of the resulting White Paper delivered in 2001. The new direction clearly envisaged in that document was that the Naval Service should diversify its sphere of influence. Frank led the way in establishing Service Level Agreements with a range of government agencies – the Marine Institute, An Garda Síochana, the Department of Fisheries, and the Higher Education sector. These external relationships have been very influential in the development of the Naval Service.
But Frank was equally concerned to bring about internal reform. As Flag Officer Commanding from 2002 onwards he challenged the perceived wisdom among the men and women who staffed the Naval Service. He encouraged them to think of their 20-year careers in the Navy as the first part of their lifetime careers and to plan accordingly. He was an enthusiastic advocate of ‘lifelong learning’, ‘continuing professional development’, and ‘recognition of prior learning’, almost before those phrases became common currency in the third-level institutions. He introduced modern management techniques and modern IT structures and established the Naval Service as what he himself refers to as a ‘learning organisation’. The National Maritime College now awards HETAC-accredited BA degrees in leadership, management and naval studies, BScs in Nautical Science, BEng degrees in Marine Engineering and plans to introduce Masters programmes for senior officers.
Frank’s thinking clearly evolved over the years as he became more and more immersed in the challenges of leading a large and complex organisation. He adopted and implemented Kaplan and Norton’s ‘balanced scorecard’ approach to strategic planning, and indeed went further by modifying their approach, through the lens of his own personal experience in management of people, to create what he calls a ‘personal balanced scorecard’. This is a career development tool by which individuals can set career and life goals and against which they can periodically take stock. One of his ambitions in retirement is to develop these ideas more fully into a concrete system which he hopes to bring to fruition in a published form.
Frank is married to Janette whom he met while studying in Liverpool University in 1969. They have a son Kristian, and a daughter Nikki and son-in-law Matthew, who are with us here today. In retirement, he will pursue his passion for swimming and as a swimming coach, and of course he will be working on his golf handicap. He will also be playing the guitar, which he took up only two years ago – demonstrating once again his commitment to lifelong learning! But I suspect that many of these occupations will take second place to playing the role of doting grandfather to Nikki and Matthew’s son, Sam. With great affection, we wish Frank well in all he does.
Throughout his career Commodore Frank Lynch displayed personal qualities of integrity, courage, perseverance, and most of all selflessness. His creativity and leadership brought about sweeping, systemic transformation in the Irish Naval Service, which will be his legacy into the future. For these reasons we recognise Commodore Lynch today by the award of an Honorary Doctorate in Laws.
Praehonorabilis cancellarie, totaque universitas! Praesento vobis hunc meum filium quem scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneum esse qui admittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoratus in utroque Jure, tam Civili quam Canonico, idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo totique Academiae.
_____________
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY:
PROFESSOR
CAROLINE FENNELL,
Head of
College, College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences on 17 May 2011 on
the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Literature honoris causa, on HARRIET O’DONOVAN SHEEHY
A Seach-Leas-Sheánsailéar, a
mhuintir na hOllscoile agus a dhaoine uaisle,
President, Colleagues, Distinguished Guests, Ladies
and Gentlemen:
President John F. Kennedy in his last formal public speech, at the Aerospace Medical Center in San Antonio, anecdotally recalled an incident from Frank O’Connor’s autobiographical classic, An Only Child. It was the moment when O’Connor decided that he wanted to be a writer, regardless of the fears and difficulties he would have to overcome in order to achieve this dream. O’Connor describes it thus: All that did matter was the act of faith, the hope that somehow, somewhere I would be able to prove that I was neither mad nor a good-for-nothing; because now I realized that whatever it might cost me, there was no turning back. When as kids we came to an orchard wall that seemed too high to climb, we took off our caps and tossed them over the wall, and then we had no choice but to follow them.
I had tossed my cap over the wall of life, and I knew I must follow it, wherever it had fallen.
(O’Connor, An Only Child , New York: Knopf, 1961; repr. Belfast: Blackstaff, 1993, 180.)
John F. Kennedy depicted America’s space exploration programme as the nation having “tossed its cap over the wall”. In a similar fashion, it might be said that Harriet O’Donovan Sheehy (née Rich) tossed her cap over the wall when she married Frank O’Connor, Ireland’s master of the short story, as well as one of the leading Irish public intellectuals of the twentieth century.
Harriet was born Harriet Rich in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, in July 1923. She first met Frank O’Connor (whose real name is Michael O’Donovan) while he was lecturing at Harvard University in 1952. They married in December 1953 in England, and having stayed for six months in Britain, while O’Connor worked for BBC radio, they moved to New York in July 1954, where they lived for several happy and eventful years. Their only child, Hallie Óg, was born in the US in June 1958, and the following year was spent living in Dublin. The family returned to live in America in the spring of 1959 when O’Connor took up a lecturing position in Stanford University in California. Due to O’Connor’s poor health, the family made their final move back to Ireland in 1961 and they remained there until O’Connor’s premature death five years later in 1966.
Harriet O’Donovan Sheehy chose to remain on living in Ireland, and her contribution to the Arts since that time has been immense. Internationally Harriet O’Donovan Sheehy’s philanthropic activities cross the ocean from Ireland to America, and are manifest in her long-time funding of education as well as her generous financial patronage of numerous charitable causes. Descended from a family of philanthropists, Harriet continued this honourable tradition with her own financial sponsorship of her family’s ‘Rich Scholarship Fund’ in Maryland. The philosopher John Dewey once said that “education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself”; and in a shared belief in the importance of education, Harriet has quietly and magnanimously funded educational scholarships for impoverished young people for the last fifty years.
However, it is in Harriet O’Donovan Sheehy’s passionate and tireless single-handed management and conservation of the Frank O’Connor Literary Estate that we see the enormous contribution made to this country and Ireland’s literary heritage and reputation. Harriet has ensured as wide an audience in as many countries, and as many languages as possible, for Irish writing.
At 87 years of age, she currently still manages and preserves an extensive private archival collection of O’Connor’s papers, and has repeatedly and warmly opened her home to scholarly examination of this archive. Life-long friendships have resulted between O’Connor scholars the world over, as a result of their time happily spent in her welcoming home. Importantly, she herself has provided valuable literary insight and stimulation of thought in relation to O’Connor’s writings, as is evident in the countless acknowledgements and tributes to her in books from the world of Irish Studies, and Cultural & Literary Studies.
Harriet O’Donovan Sheehy is the author of several engaging articles and essays on O’Connor; and has successfully selected, edited and introduced posthumous publications of O’Connor’s writings. Moreover, she has generously given of her time to several radio and television interviews over the last forty years, the most recent of which was her December 2010 interview for UCC School of English’s six-part radio series on O’Connor, entitled ‘A Man of Many Voices’. In the course of this work, she has been a vocal advocate for Irish literature in general. A tireless champion of independent thought, she has consistently supported the promotion of literature within Ireland and, most specifically, within the Cork and Munster region, through her involvement with, and support for, the Munster Literature Centre; the Cork International Short Story Festival, and the annual Cork International Frank O’Connor Short Story Prize (the largest financial prize in the world for a short-story collection).
She has ensured the importance of a sense of place in O’Connor’s legacy, and secured the identification of O’Connor with Cork and its educational, cultural and literary organizations, through her donation of several important works of art and literature to Irish museums, including her donations to the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, the Mayfield Library in Cork and University College Cork, in particular enabling the establishment of the official UCC Frank O’Connor website in 2008, frankoconnor.ucc.ie. She has provided original resources for the development of the study and criticism of literature within UCC through her generous bequests to UCC’s Boole Library of rare manuscripts, rare books, and specialist archival material. She has thus entrusted to UCC the custodianship of this important part of Ireland’s priceless literary heritage, thereby rendering UCC a destination of choice for all serious scholars of the short story, O’Connor, and Ireland’s literary heritage. For this we are immensely grateful, as we are cognizant of the nature of that trust and the responsibilities of that role.
Up until now, Harriet has received little public acknowledgment for this generous support of education and literature, and so it gives me immense pleasure on the part of the College of Arts Celtic Studies and Social Sciences and University College Cork, in recognition of her immense and passionate contribution over the last forty-five years to Irish Studies, her benevolent support for education, her commitment to this country and her endorsement of the important place of Munster, Cork, and UCC, in Irish literature and in particular in Frank O’Connor’s heritage, it is our honour to bestow this degree.
PRAEHONORABILIS
CANCELLARIE, TOTAQUE UNIVERSITAS:
Praesento vobis hanc meam filiam, quam scio tam
moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneam esse quae admittatur, honoris causa, ad gradum Doctoratus in
Litteris, idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.
ENDS
