UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Tuesday, 30 August 2011 at 4.30 p.m.
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR JANE KOUSTAS, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin on 30 August 2011, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa on NOËL KINSELLA
President, Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen
It is an honour and a pleasure to introduce the Honourable Noël Kinsella, Speaker of the Senate of Canada. As a Canadian, it is with considerable pride that I participate in conferring this degree to a most worthy recipient in recognition of his lifelong commitment to human rights, to education and to civic duty. It is indeed appropriate that the University College Dublin grant this degree to one of its own graduates who, like so many Canadians, takes pride in his Irish ancestry and who contributes significantly to the betterment of both nations.
Senator Kinsella was born in St. John New Brunswick, one of the most Irish Canadian cities. His great, great grandfather settled there in pre famine years and married an Acadienne thus establishing a very Canadian family in which mixed origins are common and, at the time, in which religion trumped language. Speaker Kinsella, upon graduating from St. Malachy high school, had three very typically Canadian opportunities. He could play hockey, attend university through the Armed Forces Reserves program or travel to the UK for the Boy Scout World Jamboree. As he has done throughout his career, Speaker Kinsella chose the most challenging option, namely travelling abroad where, with little travel experience, few connections and I presume even less money, he discovered Ireland. He once found himself at a crossroads, quite literally. While hitchhiking, he was picked up by a driver who offered to let him off at the turnoff to Galway, his original destination, or to take him to Dublin. It was the warm welcome of the staff at UCD, the intellectual rigour of the environment, and the pleasure of living in digs that drew him and kept him at UCD in spite of the challenges such as library cards available only in Irish.
Inspired and encouraged by UCD, Speaker Kinsella continued his education at St. Thomas Aquinas University and the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome where he earned Ph.D degrees in philosophy and psychology, focusing in part on the moral rights of the mentally challenged. His career continued in his home province where he earned certification as a psychologist and joined the faculty of St. Thomas University where he established programs in psychology, sociology and human rights of which he was an early champion. Indeed, if Canada is known for promoting human rights at both the national and international level, it is very much due to the commitment of Noël Kinsella who, inspired by another New Brunswicker John Peters Humphrey who drafted the first UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, fought for human rights legislation first at the provincial level, where he chaired the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission , at the national level where he was key in the drafting of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and on the international scene. His visit to Ireland will include, for example, a meeting at the Irish Centre for Human Rights.
As an educator and a psychologist, Noël Kinsella promoted human rights through his teaching and his practice which were grounded in the theological and philosophical precepts he acquired at UCD and elsewhere. As a senior public servant, he championed minority rights in a different arena. Prior to his appointment, Speaker Kinsella was a senior public servant with the Secretary of State. He was summoned to the Red Chamber, the upper house, for the province of New Brunswick in 1990 on the recommendation of the then Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney. Since the modern Senate identifies itself as a champion of minority rights, this appointment could not have been more appropriate. The Speaker has played a key parliamentary role in the Senate serving as the Whip, Deputy Leader and finally the elected Leader of the Conservatives when they were in Opposition from 1993 through 2006. Following the election that year, he was appointed Speaker on the recommendation of Prime Minister Harper.
He is also a Knight of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, was as a member of the 112 Company, Royal Canadian Army Service Corps, an Army reserve unit based in New Brunswick, and is currently an Honorary Captain in the Canadian navy.
Speaker Kinsella has, throughout his career as a scholar, healthcare practitioner, civil servant and parliamentarian, treasured his Irish roots and connections. Noël Kinsella has honorary degrees from St. Thomas University and the Dominican College of Ottawa. He graciously told me, however, that it is a particular honour for him to receive this degree from UCD in the year of the beatification of John Henry Newman whose work he studied and admired. Like so many Irish Canadians, Speaker Kinsella has drawn on his Irish connection to build a stronger Canada whose contribution to human rights is a source of pride and inspiration.
Praehonorabilis Praeses, 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 Litteris; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.