NUI lowered itself with Cowen honour, says UL ex-president
A ROW has erupted among leading academics over the National University of Ireland’s decision to award former Taoiseach Brian Cowen an honorary doctorate.
The NUI has received sharp criticism since it awarded Mr Cowen an honorary doctorate on Wednesday.
And yesterday it emerged that the founding president of the University of Limerick, Dr Edward Walsh, plans to hand back his honorary doctorate rather than share the prestige with the former taoiseach, who, Dr Walsh said, helped bring Ireland ‘to its knees’. Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday yesterday, the NUI’s chancellor, Dr Maurice Manning, said he regrets Dr Walsh’s decision. Dr Manning said: ‘Obviously I regret Dr Walsh’s decision, especially since the degree conferred on Dr Walsh was in part to recognise his achievements but also a recognition of the fact that the NUI had not always been generous to him in his early days at Limerick.’ On Thursday, the day after Mr Cowen was honoured, Dr Walsh wrote to the NUI to express his ‘amazement’ at the decision and to inform the body that he plans to have the award he received in 1998 rescinded in protest.
According to the Irish Times, Dr Walsh wrote: ‘Ahern and Cowen inherited an Ireland which, in 2000, had full employment, was the fifth most competitive in the world and, after Luxembourg, had the lowest debt in Europe.
‘Through their inept stewardship, they brought Ireland to its knees and caused much hardship to its citizens. In other jurisdictions, such people would find themselves held to account by society and suffer consequences.
‘The NUI has inverted such norms and lowered its own standing to that of those it has so imprudently honoured.’
The NUI has received dozens of emails and messages, mostly critical, since the ceremony to honour Mr Cowen.
The decision to award Mr Cowen the honorary LLD degree was made by the NUI’s 38-person senate after a recommendation by the NUI’s honorary degrees committee, which is chaired by the chancellor.
It has been tradition of the NUI to award those who have held the office of the taoiseach in the past. Members also voted to award former taoiseach Enda Kenny with an honorary doctorate, and that ceremony is expected to take place later this year, according to reports.
Brian Cowen declined to comment when contacted yesterday.