Leading figures from film, sport and activism receive honorary degree at UCC

11 Dec 2024

On December 11, Jeremy Irons, Adi Roche, Lord David Putnam and Dominic Casey all received honorary degrees at a special ceremony in UCC’s Aula Maxima.

Jeremy Irons is one of the few actors ever to have achieved the ‘Triple Crown of Acting’ in the US, winning an Academy Award for film, an Emmy Award for television and a Tony Award for theatre, He has also won two Golden Globes. Jeremy Iron’s career in activism and charity work is almost as extensive as his acting, he is former Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations and an outspoken campaigner on a number of issues. His Irish ancestry traces back to County Cork and he regularly supports the work of Skibbereen Heritage Centre located close to his Irish home in west Cork.

Adi Roche has an outstanding international reputation as a humanitarian, and as change-maker, committing her life to the advancement of the cause of peace and humanitarian causes internationally and has done so with an energy and positivity that invigorate and catalyse people to act collectively as a force for action and change. Adi Roche is the founder and CEO of Chernobyl Children International which under her leadership has delivered medical and humanitarian aid to the people of Belarus, Ukraine, and Western Russia in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.

Lord David Putnam has spent 30 years as an independent producer of award-winning films including The Mission, The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone and Local Hero. Together these films have won 10 Oscars, 13 Golden Globes, 31 Baftas, 9 Emmys, 4 David di Donatellos and the Palme D’Or at Cannes. He is also an educator and an environmentalist. His company Atticus Education delivers interactive seminars on film, media and screen to students at universities all over the world. He retired from the House of Lords in 2021 were he had most recently been a member of on the UK’S Select Committee for the Environment and Climate Change, charged with exploring cross-Government action COP15 and progress on COP26.

Dominic Casey is Ireland’s lightweight national rowing coach, and has been instrumental in shaping Irish rowing into a powerhouse on the global stage. As the long-serving coach of Skibbereen Rowing Club and Ireland's high-performance lightweight rowing team, Casey has mentored athletes to achieve extraordinary success, including multiple World Championship titles and Olympic medals. Dominic Casey’s most notable achievements include coaching the legendary duo Paul and Gary O'Donovan to Ireland’s first-ever Olympic rowing medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, leading Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan to gold at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Games, and coaching Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen, to 8^th place and 5^th place finishes in the Tokyo 202- and Paris 2024 Olympics, while Margaret Cremen, a Sports Studies Student at UCC, won a silver at the European Rowing Championships in 2024.

Jeremy, Adi, Dominic and David have all made outstanding contributions in their respective fields. We are delighted to honour them this evening in a special ceremony. Our awardees are exemplars of what it means to lead with purpose, compassion, and vision, inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.

- UCC President Professor John O’Halloran