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\nActor Olwen Fou\u00e9r\u00e9 also turned down an honorary doctorate from the University of Galway over links it has with an Israeli institution<\/p>\n
A third person has turned down an honorary doctorate that was due to be conferred by the University of Galway, at a ceremony tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Professor Kerby Miller told an event on campus this afternoon that he would not accept the award, in light of the university’s ongoing links with an Israeli institution, which is linked to the country\u2019s army.<\/p>\n
Prof Miller was due to be recognised for his role in helping to create the university\u2019s archive of emigrant letters, sent from around the world, over more than 300 years.<\/p>\n
The historian donated his collection in 2021, kickstarting the Imirce digital archive.<\/p>\n
Established Professor of Modern Irish History, Breand\u00e1n Mac Suibhne, who worked with Prof Miller to establish the project, said it spoke volumes that a scholar of such high repute, “who had brought such great honour and attention to our university, cannot in conscience accept an honorary degree from it”.<\/p>\n
Prof Mac Suibhne said the university needed to take note of the significance of the decision.<\/p>\n
\nActor Olwen Fou\u00e9r\u00e9 also turned down an honorary doctorate from the University of Galway over links it has with an Israeli institution<\/p>\n
Earlier, actor Olwen Fou\u00e9r\u00e9 also turned down an honorary doctorate from the university, in protest of the links it has with an Israeli institution.<\/p>\n
Film-maker Margo Harkin also withdrew from tomorrow’s ceremony, at which a number of others will be recognised for their contributions to the arts and public life.<\/p>\n
Both women said they have taken the “difficult” decision over their opposition to the university\u2019s research links with Israel\u2019s Technion Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n
The acclaimed actor and director was due to receive a Doctor of Arts for her “international career spanning theatre, film and television”.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Ms Fou\u00e9r\u00e9 said she was “overjoyed to be offered an honorary doctorate” but had decided to refuse the award, because of her opposition to the links the university has with the Haifa based institution.<\/p>\n
In September, the university said contractual obligations meant it could not back out of the ASTERISK research project, which is looking at ways to produce hydrogen from seawater. It is co-funded by the EU.<\/p>\n
The Technion Institute is one of a number of third-level institutions involved.<\/p>\n
The agreement has been criticised by human rights campaigners, given Israeli actions in Gaza and Technion\u2019s role in developing what it terms “defence and security technologies”.<\/p>\n
Ms Fou\u00e9r\u00e9 said: “The research partnership with the Technion Institute of Technology is extremely problematic.”<\/p>\n
She was also critical that demands from University of Galway staff, researchers, students to end the contract had been met with “avoidance, delay and legal obfuscation”.<\/p>\n
Aosd\u00e1na member and activist Margaretta D\u2019Arcy, who died earlier this week, and film-maker Lelia Doolan recently returned honorary doctorates to the university in protest over the research links.<\/p>\n
Other recipients of the honorary doctorates this week include artist Brian Bourke, novelist and translator Anna Heussaff, harpist Kathleen Loughnane, former advocacy manager and deputy general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge Peadar Mac Fhlannchadha, historian Professor Kerby A Miller, business leader P\u00e1draig \u00d3 C\u00e9idigh and poet and singer Miche\u00e1l \u00d3 Cuaig.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A third person has turned down an honorary doctorate that was due to be conferred by the University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-161413","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}