Orla Tinsley

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Thursday, 7 September 2023 at 2.30 pm

TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR REGINA UÍ CHOLLATÁIN, Principal and Dean UCD College of Arts and Humanities on 7 September 2023, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa on ORLA PATRICIA TINSLEY

President, Graduates, Colleagues, Honoured Guests
A Uachtaráin, Céimithe, Comhghleacaithe, agus aíonna onóracha

Orla Tinsley has challenged government thinking and policy, traversed continents, literally crossing the ocean in the pursuit of courageous journalism while pursuing their love of writing and teaching. UCD Arts and Humanities are renowned for producing leaders and critical thinkers who impact on society. As a global ambassador for UCD, Orla Tinsley is the epitome of the soul and depth of the creation of leaders in the broadest and most inspiring understanding of education.

An award-winning journalist and writer, Orla Tinsley has excelled, not only in writing and reporting the story, but creating it. This story changed and influenced Government policy and healthcare, literally extending life spans for certain health conditions. Orla’s writings also focused on the rights of transgender people to attain gender recognition in Ireland, resulting in their award of Journalist/ Broadcaster of the Year, for the National Gay and Lesbian Federation of Ireland in 2013.

In September 2005, at 18 years of age, Orla Tinsley’s first writings in The Irish Times focussed on Cystic Fibrosis care in Ireland, challenging government policy and supports. In 2006 Thomand Coogan invited Orla to join the Adult Education Programme in UCD. Balancing study for a BA degree, with their campaigning for healthcare and dealing with loss and death of friends, necessitated a pause in their studies to focus on campaigning. The pause in studies, which was replaced with their unstinting and tireless campaigning, was acknowledged within UCD and beyond, with the Rehab Young Person of the Year award in 2008, and the UCD President’s Award for Excellence in Extracurricular Activities in 2009. Today we acknowledge this work and the resulting achievements in the fullest sense on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Literature on Orla Tinsley.

The Irish Government’s halting of the allocated funding for the Cystic Fibrosis Unit in 2009, coincided with Orla Tinsley’s leaving UCD to take up an internship in The Irish Times. It is a testament to their work in the public domain that they were also a recipient of the Tatler Magazine Woman of the Year, and the Junior Chamber International Outstanding Young Person awards in 2009. Their columns in The Irish Times related stories of many people, not least the energy of people with Cystic Fibrosis and their families in Ireland. Orla’s relentless campaigning was the cornerstone in the opening of the first Healthcare Centre in St Vincent’s University Hospital Dublin in July 2012. This unit also has two floors of isolation rooms for people with cancer, and for those with infectious diseases who need isolation. Similar units have now opened in Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Limerick.

In 2010 their work was repeatedly acknowledged with national and international awards such as the Pfizer Outstanding Award for Healthcare, the Young Medical Journalist of the Year Award, and the Aramark award for Excellence in Healthcare. They were shortlisted for the National Newspapers of Ireland Young Journalist of the Year in 2011 and awarded the CMG Healthcare Person of the Year in 2013. Their campaigns included other media outputs, not least, the award nominated documentary ‘Life Interrupted’ for RTÉ’s Prime Time. In exploring other ways of telling the story. Orla’s best-selling memoir, Salty Baby : A Memoir, was shortlisted for the Best Newcomer at the Bórd Gáis Irish Book Awards in 2011. Their awareness campaign for a life-saving drug as it advanced through approval stages with the FDA and European Medicines Agency, was instrumental in making the drug available to patients in Ireland and in raising awareness on making ‘orphan drugs’ for rare conditions accessible.

Moving into Chapter Two of Orla’s life combines their quest for awareness of health care with the realisation of their lifelong ambition to be a writer and teacher. This began with a scholarship to Columbia University in New York in 2014, concluding with their appointment as Creative Writing Instructor in Columbia University 2019-2021, and Creative Writing Instructor in Livingston Elementary School, New Jersey in 2020.

The story did not end there, however, as yet again, Orla became the main character in the story when they received a double lung transplant in December 2017. This is the subject of the Orla Tinsley: Warrior documentary, which Orla co-produced. Within ten days of the programme being aired, almost 10,000 people registered as organ donors in Ireland. Shortly afterwards, the Irish government published a draft bill on organ donor legislation with the Minister for Health acknowledging Warrior as a key factor in creating awareness and influencing public action.

They returned to Columbia as a researcher and instructor in 2018. Orla Tinsley’s storytelling was acknowledged with the Public Relations Institute of Ireland's highest honour for excellence in storytelling in 2018. This has only been awarded to five other recipients in the 60-year history of the Institute, including John Hume, Mary Davis and Gay Byrne. In 2020 the Warrior documentary was nominated as a finalist in the New York Festivals TV and Film Awards.

Orla Tinsley received the Bar of Ireland Law Library Human Rights Award in 2020, and the Arts Council of Ireland Literary Bursary award. They are now a Creative Writing Instructor in the Irish Writers’ Centre, and they continue to address public audiences at national and international level, the most recent being the Carmichael Lecture in the Royal College of Surgeons in 2023.

When I met with Orla, they said that teaching and writing and their contribution to society is their main passion. In the context of the very full and inspiring Chapter Two in the life of an exceptional thirty-six-year-old journalist, author, teacher and health activist, I would like to finish with some words from them which were written on October 9th 2019:

Here is something I learned while dying: accumulation of things cannot truly fulfil anything. And you can’t take it with you. An empty room with love and passion is far better than a full room and an empty heart. Stuff is, ultimately, worthless. Connection is all that matters.

Orla Tinsley is without question, the living embodiment of how words really can change the world. We look forward to Chapter Three.

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 Litteris; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.