UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
5 December 2017 at 5 pm
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AMANDA PHELAN, UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems on 5 December 2017, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa on PATRICIA RICKARD-CLARKE
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President, graduates, colleagues and friends,
A Doctoral Degree is the highest award a university can bestow on a person. Most Doctoral Degrees are conferred after an intense period of scholarly endeavour and graduation is the icing on the metaphorical cake. And today, we celebrate with some who have toiled and succeeded in this academic endeavour. Sincere congratulations.
However, as an important institution in society, a university, through an Honorary Doctorate or honoris causa, can also acknowledge outstanding efforts and notable contributions to society in areas such as philanthropy, science, music, politics, law, sports, bravery, literature, public service and so forth. Today marks such an occasion and it is significant in many respects. Firstly, it represents the first Honorary Degree, which the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems has proposed. Secondly, the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science is being conferred on someone who has not only made an important contribution to legislative reform and healthcare practice transformation in Ireland, but has also contributed as an adviser to our School’s programme of research at the UCD National Centre for the Protection of Older People. It gives me great pleasure to nominate Ms Patricia Rickard-Clarke for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Science.
Patricia was born in County Westmeath, but has spent most of her life in Dublin. She qualified as a solicitor in 1982 and worked up to the position of partner in McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors by 1985. In 1997, Patricia assumed the role of part time Law Reform Commissioner and took up the position on a full-time basis between 2001 to her retirement in 2012. While in this position, Patricia oversaw a number of important advances in Irish legislation, namely the Charitable Trusts Act, 2006, Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009, Multi-Unit Development Act 2011, Certain Rights and Obligations of Co-Habitants Act, 2010, Personal Insolvency Act, 2012 and, most recently, the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) Act, 2015.
Patricia has also provided expert service to the Institute of Banking, been a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and a member of its Special Interest Group on Capacity. Within the Law Society, since 2007, Patricia has chaired Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and is a member of its Special Interest Group on Capacity. She has also made important submissions to the Oireachtas on the topic of capacity, safeguarding and deprivation of liberty. Since 2015, Patricia has served as the independent chair of the National Inter-Sectoral Committee for Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults. She has also served on various related committees, and continues to act as an advisor on capacity and safeguarding to our School’s National Centre for the Protection of Older People, the Health Service Executive, the Central Bank, the Irish Hospice Foundation and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.
Currently, Patricia serves as the chair of Sage Advocacy and Support for Older People’s National Advisory Committee and she is also a Board member in Third Age. In these positions, I have personally witnessed her dedication and expert perspectives on many issues, but particularly her advocacy for the rights of vulnerable people.
Patricia’s endeavours have not gone unnoticed and she has received the Public Sector Lay Lawyer of the Year and Special Merit in the Law awards, the Willie Bermingham ALONE award from the Irish Gerontological Society and the Irish Women’s Lawyer Association for Women’s Lawyer of the Year.
These many achievements represent Patricia’s extraordinary accomplishments in her unflinching pursuit of justice, advocacy and the greater good of Irish society. To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Othello, I can confidently pronounce that she has ‘done the state some service’. It is with great pleasure, then, that we now present Patricia Rickard Clarke with an Honoris Causa in 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.