UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Wednesday, 2 December 2015 at 11 a.m.
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR ORLA FEELY on 2 December 2015, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa on MÁIRE GEOGHEGAN-QUINN
A Uachtarán, a mhuintir na hOllscoile agus a dhaoine uaisle,
Today we recognise the transformational career of an Irish woman who, through action and example, has pioneered social change and driven innovation.
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn is a native of Connemara. After graduating from Carysfort College, she worked as a teacher until she was elected to Dáil Eireann in a by-election in 1975, following the sudden death of her father Johnny.
She was still in her twenties when she was appointed Minister for the Gaeltacht, making her the first Irish woman cabinet member since the foundation of the State.
This was in the 1970s, a decade that heralded great change for the role of women in Irish life. The presence in the Cabinet of a young mother, whose second son was born while she was in office, both reflected and propelled this transformation.
Over the next two decades as a TD, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn had a number of high-level appointments. She was Chairwoman of the first Joint Parliamentary Committee on Women's Rights, and served as Minister for European Affairs, Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications and Minister for Justice.
In these roles, she made a number of major contributions:
She chaired the committee co-ordinating Ireland's EU Presidency in 1990.
She was a member of the Irish Government team which negotiated the Joint Declaration of December 1993, by the British and Irish Governments, on Peace and Reconciliation in Ireland.
Bhí sí ar na ceannródaithe a chuidigh leis an bhfeachtas do bhunú na chéad staisiún náisiúnta teilifíse Gaeilge i 1996.
Probably her most significant ministerial contribution came in 1993, when, in the face of considerable opposition, she led the decriminalisation of homosexual acts, framing the issue clearly and firmly as a necessary development of human rights.
After stepping down as a TD in 1997, she served from 2000 to 2010 as a member of the European Court of Auditors.
In 2010 Máire Geoghegan-Quinn became the first Irish woman to serve as an EU Commissioner, and was assigned the portfolio of Research, Innovation and Science. Her contributions in this role were once again transformational.
She pioneered the development and delivery of Horizon 2020, the world’s largest public research funding programme, focussing on a radical simplification of the rules in order to help researchers out of the office and into the lab.
To do this, she succeeded in securing pan-European agreement for an increase in funding to 80 billion euro for research during the EU’s greatest budget and economic crisis.
She defended and doubled funding for excellence at the European Research Council.
She mainstreamed gender goals across the programme. One very visible example of this was her leadership in giving the great Nobel laureate Marie Sklowdoswka Curie back her birth name on the eponymous research programme, an action that greatly moved her Polish colleagues.
She was deeply committed to innovation as a necessary underpinning of European economic success, and played a key role in discussions around major inward investments.
She was a strong supporter of research in the humanities and social sciences.
Drawing on her roots at the Connemara coast, she was also a passionate advocate for ocean and marine research, raising them to a new level of EU priority and leading a pioneering Atlantic ocean research alliance with the US and Canada.
She championed many more innovative research initiatives, presenting Europe’s first Bioeconomy strategy and taking forward the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership to bring new medicines to Africa for HIV, Malaria and TB.
To deliver all of this during her period as a Commissioner, she applied her great ability as a communicator, in tandem with the political skills formed during two often fractious decades in Dáil Eireann.
On a personal level, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn brings to all her interactions the same courtesy and engagement, whether with global CEOs or research students. Colleagues across Europe and around the world have become familiar with her unfailing wicked good humour
Mar chainteoir dúchais ó chroílár Ghaeltacht Chonamara deimhníonn sí go dtugtar aitheantas domhanda don Ghaeilge mar theanga agus mar ghuth pobail san iliomad óráidí poiblí a thugann sí.
She has never lost her teacher’s instincts. Her officials learned to treble check their grammar and their spelling on the most complex briefings or find it corrected in her fine handwriting.
As a disciplined taker of notes, her archive will someday provide fascinating insights into public life in Ireland and Europe.
From the coast of Connemara to the inner reaches of the Large Hadron Collider, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has left her mark. Long before the concept of the role model became commonplace, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn was a role model.
Tuigeann sí feabhas luachanna cultúrtha na hÉireann agus tá sí bródúil as an oidhreacht sin a cheiliúradh agus a chothú.
She has spearheaded major change in social policy and at the leading edge of research and innovation.
Many of the transformations that make up her legacy are already apparent; many more will unfold over the coming years as the research and innovation of Horizon 2020 deliver their full impact.
It is with the greatest of pleasure that University College Dublin acknowledges the many transformational contributions of Máire Geoghegan-Quinn by conferring upon her the Degree of Doctor of Science.
Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hanc meam filiam, quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneam esse quae admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus Scientiae; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.