Honorary degrees conferred at Trinity

Posted on: 01 December 2023

Four exceptional individuals were conferred today with honorary degrees of the University of Dublin at Trinity College Dublin. 

Journalist Susan McKay, musician Fergus Sheil, Judge Mary Irvine and scientist Michael Coey received Trinity’s highest honour from Chancellor Dr Mary McAleese at a ceremony conducted in Latin in the historic Public Theatre. 

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 More on the awardees:  

Michael Coey (Doctor of Science) 

Michael Coey has had a career of over 40 years at Trinity. His field of research is magnetism and magnetic materials. Michael is a visionary experimental scientist with a unique gift for conceptualizing and evaluating the key issues in magnetism quantitatively, allowing him to discover new magnetic materials and make significant contributions to the future of magnetic technology. He is not only Ireland's leading physical scientist, but also a world-leader in this subject. His diverse contributions to magnetic minerals, amorphous magnetism, rare earth permanent magnets, spin electronics and unexpected effects of magnetic fields, especially on water, have been internationally recognized, especially in France and China. He pioneered a new form of international scientific cooperation in the ten-year Concerted European Action on Magnets, which associated 80 academic and industrial centres interested all aspects of the properties, processing, and applications of rare-earth iron permanent magnets. He ranks with the best 0.01% of all scientists in the world for impact and citations. 

In a lengthy career, he has published five books and 800 scientific papers with numerous collaborators from his international TCD (Trinity College Dublin) research group and abroad, benefiting from sustained support from the European Commission and Science Foundation Ireland. His reputation has been established by over 40 years’ work at TCD where he promoted the founding of the CRANN nanoscience centre and the Science Gallery. He is the only one of six Irish fellows of the Royal Society who is also an overseas member of the US National Academy of Science. His curiosity and enthusiasm for science remains undiminished. 

Public Orator Anna Chahoud described Michael as “a cherished friend, an immensely distinguished member of our academic community, but also one of the most famous and formidable scientists in the world.” 

She added: “He is, quite simply, an astounding scientific mystery solver and a technological genius, driven by undiminishing curiosity and enthusiasm for science.” 

Susan McKay (Doctor of Letters) 

Susan McKay is a Northern Irish journalist, broadcaster, and writer whose contribution to the public life of Ireland, both North and South is quite simply remarkable. What is particularly notable is the way she has combined her writing and her public participation in areas of huge social importance - in relation to (a) the position of women and especially of victims of sexual and other abuse and (b) a heightened understanding of Northern Ireland and particularly the position and perspective of Northern Irish Protestants. 

She grew up in Derry and got an entrance scholarship to Trinity College. After completing her undergraduate degree, she returned to QUB (Queen s University Belfast) to study for a PhD but left this to co-found and take on the role of the director of Belfast Rape Crisis Centre (1982). Her extraordinary work in this organisation and at this critical time cannot be overstated. Moreover, her deep concern for and efforts on behalf of victims of sexual abuse is reflected in her first book Sophia’s Story (1998), a moving and powerful biography of a survivor of sexual abuse. 

She has worked consistently as a most highly respected journalist. Her writing in relation to both Northern Ireland and to feminism, has been recognised as having integrity and authority and has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Guardian the London Review of Books and The Irish Times. Awards include National Media Print Journalist of the Year (2000), Feature Writer of the Year (2001) and Amnesty, Irish Print Journalist of the year (2002), Best Short Documentary, Galway Film Fleadh (2014), Irish Woman of the Year (2011). Moreover, her landmark book Northern Protestants - On Shifting Ground was shortlisted for Irish book of the year 2021, and for the Michel Déon award. Her book “Bear in Mind These Dead” chronicled the Northern conflict through the stories of those bereaved by it, and she has worked extensively with the WAVE Trauma Centre, documenting the stories of victims and survivors. Her documentaries include The Daughter's Story, about the daughters of the murdered Miami Showband singer Fran O’Toole and Inez, A Challenging Woman about Human Rights leader Inez McCormack. She was the CEO of the National Women's Council of Ireland (2009-2012) but resigned in protest at a 40% cut in government funding for the organisation. In July 2022, she was appointed by the Irish Press Council as the new Irish Press Ombudsman, the first woman to hold this post. 

Public Orator Anna Chahoud said: “I am honoured to introduce a woman who has lent her uncompromising voice to countless brave, hurt women, and allowed their stories to be heard. "Susan McKay is a powerful writer and journalist with a distinctive voice of her own, as is evident to anyone who reads her features in The Irish Times, The Guardian or the London Review of Books, The New Yorker or The New York Times—but just as striking is her ability to listen.” 

Fergus Sheil (Doctor of Letters) 

Fergus Sheil is among the best-known graduates of the Department of Music in Trinity College and one of the most important classical musicians working in opera in this or any part of Irish history. He was formerly the Head of Music at Opera Ireland, Chorus Master of Scottish Opera, Artistic director of the Opera Theatre Company, Founder and Artistic Director of Wide Open Opera and director of the Crash Ensemble. From a Trinity perspective, as an undergraduate he established the Trinity Orchestra in 1989, which is still operating 34 years later, having provided unparalleled opportunities to student players, conductors, and composers in this time. He is, however, best known as the founder & Artistic Director of Irish National Opera (since 2018). 

The canon of his work is breath-taking. He has conducted 51 operas (including 20 world premieres) in theatres, concert halls, site-specific locations, on CD, film, and radio broadcast. Highlights include Ireland’s first Wagner Tristan und Isolde for 50 years and first Rossini William Tell for 170 years as well as the Irish staged premieres of Strauss Elektra and Donizetti Maria Stuarda. As a conductor he has worked in 136 venues in Ireland as well as internationally in the UK, USA, South Africa, Australia and throughout Europe. As an opera producer he has overseen 80 operas (including 35 world premieres) in venues throughout Ireland as well as touring Irish productions to London (Barbican and Royal Opera House), Edinburgh International Festival, New York, Amsterdam, and Luxembourg. Several of his operatic productions have won national and international awards including Olivier Award (Bajazet), Fedora Opera Award (The Second Violinist), Fedora Digital Prize (As an nGnách), Fedora Next Stage Award (Scorched Earth Trilogy), Irish Times Irish Theatre Award – Best Opera Production (The Last Hotel, The Second Violinist, The Barber of Seville, Hansel and Gretel) and Business to Arts Best Use of Creativity in the Community (Shelter Me From The Rain). If this was not enough, he has also worked as conductor with the National Symphony 

Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, NI Opera, State Choir Latvija, BBC Singers and many other groups. He also has given incredibly generously of his time to Trinity College – including designing and delivering a new module in the Department of Music. 

Most notably, his work in relation to Irish National Opera since 2018 has radically altered the entire opera landscape in this country. There are few careers in the arts that have had such a consequential impact as that of Fergus Sheil. 

Public Orator Anna Chahoud praised Fergus for “promoting the inclusive, open, deeply human character of opera”.  

She added: “When he believes in something, he moves heaven and earth to make it happen. He is indefatigable and unstoppable, and, like Rossini’s Figaro, “indispensable, irreprehensible”. 

Mary Irvine (Doctor of Laws)  

Judge Mary Irvine’s contribution to Irish law and the Irish legal profession is outstanding. She was first called to the bar in 1978 and became a Senior Counsel in 1996. During this time, she argued many important Irish medical and constitutional law cases of this or any era. 

It is as a judge, however, that she made her most lasting contribution to Irish public life. She was appointed as a judge of the High Court in June 2007. When the Court of Appeal was established in October 2014, she was immediately appointed as a judge on that court, writing some of the most important judgments of the court between 2015 and 2019. In April 2019, she was appointed to the Supreme Court (and was, in this time, appointed by the Chief Justice to chair the Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee of the Judicial Council). Finally, in June 2020, she was appointed as the President of the High Court. This final appointment was especially significant for two reasons: first, it meant that she was the first judge in the history of the state to have held four separate judicial offices. Secondly, it meant that she was the first ever female president of the High Court. 

Both her work and her prominence mark her out, along with women like Mary Robinson and Susan Denham as one of the genuinely inspirational trailblazers for Irish women lawyers. On her retirement, in 2022, the measure of her contribution to Irish law and Irish legal practice was summed up by the Attorney General Paul Gallagher who referred to her “…immense contribution to the law, to public service and to society.” 

Public Orator Anna Chahoud said of Mary Irvine: “No-one in the history of the State had held four separate judicial offices before: so unique is our candidate’s distinction. She recently stepped down from the bench, after a long illustrious career. She has left (if I may borrow the powerful words heard on the moving occasion of her retirement) a “legacy of great jurisprudence”, having made a “magnificent contribution to the law, to public service, and to society.” 

ENDS

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