Anne Anderson
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Friday, 8 September 2023 at 5.30pm
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JOS DORNSCHNEIDER-ELKINK, Head, School of Politics and International Relations on 8 September 2023, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa on ANNE ANDERSON
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Ambassador Anderson was 17 when she came to UCD. She graduated three years later with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Politics. She was among a minority of women – at the time only a third of Arts students were female.
In Irish politics, women were even less visible. When Anne Anderson joined the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1972, Ireland had never had a female President or Taoiseach, only one single female ambassador, and there were just three women in the Dáil.
Ireland has come a long way since then, even though we are still waiting for the first female Taoiseach. Ambassador Anderson has been a pioneer in Irish politics, occupying some of the highest offices in the diplomatic service, and paving the way for other women to follow.
During her impressive 45-year career, Ambassador Anderson was Ireland’s first female Permanent Representative to the United Nations and to the European Union; the first female Ambassador to France and Monaco; and the first woman to represent Ireland as Ambassador to the United States.
Who is this person, who managed to become such a successful diplomat?
Ambassador Anderson comes from a modest background. Her parents were determined that their children should have the opportunity to go to university. She got a grant to study and continued living at home to save money.When she graduated, it was her father who encouraged her to apply to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Anne remembers he used to show her job ads, most of which she rejected, because she feared she would die of suffocation. But when he brought home an ad for Third Secretary at the DFA one day, she thought it sounded interesting, even though she did not know any diplomats and had no clear understanding of what the job was all about. To her own surprise, the DFA invited her to successive rounds of interviews. After six months in this highly competitive selection process, she was offered the job.
Anne Anderson was only 20 years old when she joined the Department of Foreign Affairs. Shortly after, Ireland joined the European Union. With little experience and representing a small, relatively poor, new member state, there was a lot of pressure to do well. She remembers how Irish diplomats did not want to be outshined by Britain, which joined the EU at the same time. At a time when women were still a minority in the foreign service, with the requirement to retire from the service on marriage only very recently lifted, she felt especially under pressure to perform.
The best way to succeed in this environment, she says, was to work hard. Being as prepared as you can, knowing the case file, knowing your interlocuters, knowing where there is scope for compromise and where there is not – before you start any meeting.
Anne persevered, motivated by her strong sense of activism and idealism. From the very start of her career, when she graduated from UCD, she knew that public service was her goal. It is here at UCD where she developed that commitment – through lectures from her professors, who asked her to reflect on bias in RTÉ news coverage, confidence-boosting exercises in which she simulated interviews with political elites, or the overall protest climate, which came to UCD during the global civil rights movement at the end of the 1960s.
Her values and principles developed at UCD continue today, while the country she represented has changed dramatically. In many ways you represent a different country, she recalls, Ireland in the 1970s is not Ireland in the 21st century. The country she eventually represented was really the country her cohort in UCD was aspiring to: more modern, freer, liberated.
Ambassador Anderson shared the table with many famous politicians we study in UCD’s School of Politics and International Relations: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Nicholas Sarkozy, among others. While there always has to be scope for the occasional lightness or laughter, she says, there is an overwhelming sense of seriousness about the careers of these world leaders. Ambassador Anderson approached her own job with the same sense of seriousness and responsibility. One night in Brussels, during Ireland’s EU Presidency, she came home froma work dinner. A few hours later there was a kitchen fire. She jumped out of the window and when helpers wanted to bring her to the hospital, she refused as she had a morning meeting to chair. Thanks to her thorough preparations, the meeting went very well – as usual.
It is my honour to welcome Anne Anderson back to UCD today and to recommend her for the Honorary Doctorate in Science.
Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hanc meam filium, quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneam esse quae admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus in Scientiae; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.