Irish Sports
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I cannot countenance this inane practice -another example of the general dumbing down and celebritisation of academia which I have witnessed with distress over several decades.
But of the latest batch in UCC today -I'm utterly bemused over Mary O'Connor . What has she done ? ....oh , she played Camogie and Gaelic Football and won various medals with various teams. World shattering stuff indeed.
But wait ,there's more. Mary has said that her greatest achievement was when she was part of the team that won the Clontarf Rugby Club Tag Rugby league in 2012 -i.e. The Calf Taggers.
She was voted MVP and stated 'This is the pinnacle of my career'. I presume this is what swung the issue in her favour when candidates were being assessed plus she probably had to be this year's token woman.
This whole exercise is a pathetic farce.Sport has its own means of acknowledging sporting excellence and should be allowed to get on with it without academe needlessly intruding. They are two totally different domains.
But of the latest batch in UCC today -I'm utterly bemused over Mary O'Connor . What has she done ? ....oh , she played Camogie and Gaelic Football and won various medals with various teams. World shattering stuff indeed.
But wait ,there's more. Mary has said that her greatest achievement was when she was part of the team that won the Clontarf Rugby Club Tag Rugby league in 2012 -i.e. The Calf Taggers.
She was voted MVP and stated 'This is the pinnacle of my career'. I presume this is what swung the issue in her favour when candidates were being assessed plus she probably had to be this year's token woman.
This whole exercise is a pathetic farce.Sport has its own means of acknowledging sporting excellence and should be allowed to get on with it without academe needlessly intruding. They are two totally different domains.
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I disagree with honorary doctorates for anybody
If someone wants a doctorate then they should have to study for it |
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Fair play to her standing up there beside Ronan O'Gara(2nd degree from UCC), Denis Irwin, Brian Cody and Aidan O'Brien.
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I can imagine the others whispering - Mary who ? What did she do ?
Most people in Ireland would never have heard of her. Pure lunacy. |
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People in UCC
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People in UCC
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People in UCC and Cork would know her..........12 All Ireland medals....7 camogie and 5 for football.
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Db1974 is right,let them get their degrees the right way.
The most nauseating sight last year was the photograph of Brigid Laffan conferring an honoury degree on Brendan Halligan for his nefarious part in conning the Irish peopl over the second Lisbon treaty.The political elite plundered this country and rewarded the university elite with huge salaries,they have being paying each other back ever since.Ronan OGara was another one of the sportsmen wheeled out to drum up support fot the second Lisbon treaty,he is now reaping the dividend,this is effectively a slush fund worthy of Bertie Ahern. |
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I don't know what Aidan O'Brien was doing there?, they should have made a special hat and gown for Galileo, considering that most of O'Briens hollow achievments can be put down to this one horse.
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We finally agree on something Silvergreaser and well put.
These honoury degrees devalue academia and are now being used as some kind of bribery system. |
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Are you a fellow Oxbridge man, Vubiant?
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I probably should not be let on this thread as I left school after the primary.
I would extend the ban to all not just sports stars. |
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'Fraid not OZ...
My formal higher education ( *such as it is! ) was forged and fashioned in Ireland and the US. * This is inserted because ,as we know , it is virtually de rigeur to be self-deprecatory about having had an extended exposure to higher education.  |
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Biggest farce is Michael Smurfit's insistence on being referred to as 'Dr.' even though his only degree is an honorary one.
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what about lord ballyedmond honorary doctor of science from the university of ulster,nominated to the seanad by none other than bertie ahern,also a life peer of the ulster unionist party and recently defected to the conservative party with a welcome donation of 50,000......my neighbour has done well.....for a dundalk born south down man.....
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ozy would be familiar with the gentleman i have mentioned above....
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Why? Is he a Mason?
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no his links with the british conservatives....Lord Ballyedmond Edward Haughey of Norbrook ltd
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Dr. Trappatoni ?
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Vubiant -do you spend half your life trolling.
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How dare you use that tone with an upper crust gentleman like Vubiant.
After morning coffee at the yacht club and reading his paper with his spectacles resting on the tip of his nose........he will crush you. |
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Sir vubiant has no problem with conservative party peers and bertie appointed senators getting honorary degrees it is the ordinary working class gaa sportspeople he despises getting such accolades....he has waited until now to air such a grievance when hundreds and indeed thousands of self styled west brits have been gifted the accolade for years....
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Universities are in constant need of private funding be it donations from wealthy industrialists or their alumni. Building links with local industry can also provide a source of competitiveness.
So, if honourary degrees must be given out, there is a pragmatic argument that they should be used to stimulate or reward the above. I fail to see any pragmatic reasons for conferring honourary degrees on sportsmen, non-descript or otherwise. |
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richters, Vubiant hasn't given any opinion on the awarding of honorary degrees to non "sportspeople" on this thread. I agree with his opening post.
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reb why hasnt he give an opinion of the awarding of degrees to non sports people....why single out a cork camogie player.thats the point im making...
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richters, read the topic heading and the first paragraph of his post again. That's his general view formed over a number of years. In the remainder of his post he gives the current and very good example of the female GAA/Rugby player to emphasise that view.
Perhaps he will give his opinion of the awarding of degrees to non-sportspeople in another post. |
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reb im sure hes typing out a very articulate reply as we speak....
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Just curious but what do people think the 5 people conferred on Friday can contribute financially to UCC in the future?
APOB is the only one of them that might have a few quid but I'd wager he just works for a wage in Coolmore. So what is the point (if there is no money in it) of conferring these 5. O Gara already has a degree (I was in College with him) so I imagine an imaginary PHD in Arts is no great shakes for him. I can see the Dr. Smurfit angle if he finances a new building but hard to see Brian Cody or the Camogie player coming up trumps for a new faculty building |
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Perhaps Brian Cody could donate a trunk full of old Kilkenny match programmes ...might be worth a few bob eventually.
Trading ( erstwhile) prestigious academic awards for financial benefit can pay off in the most surprising ways. |
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AOB's nominations are worth a fortune alone so he is comfortably worth several million. That being said he isn't going to be funding any buildings there.
I'd imagine the whole thing was yet more posturing from good auld Mick Murphy. |
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Mind you -since we're ploughing this particular furrow of honours for dosh - the University of Limerick are surely missing a trick by not courting the favours of a renowned son of the county...I give you a certain Mr. J P McManus.
A sheaf of degree scrolls should be good for at least a million or two. Then the McManus Research Laboratory could extract a few million more. Maybe he could be made Visiting Professor in Fiscal Manipulation ( sorry , I mean Management ) and tell aspiring graduates how to , y'know , look after their money so that the State doesn't get its grubby paws on too much of it. If he doesn't want to let out too many secrets about this -well then Professor of Philanthropy could fit the billnicely. I suppose a statue straddling the Shannon would be a bridge too far. |
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Get with the times.........they have milked the man for years.
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Oh ,ok ...any details available on the endowments ?
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The business campus and the sports department would be the main sections to benefit.
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Happy to be brought up to date on the doings of the great man .
I must try to find out more from some of my agents in the field about the mechanics of this. Business and sports you say ...hmm... yes , I suppose one can see how that might have been thought appropriate. |