Trinity tribute to Durcan's 40 years as 'minstrel of modern-day Ireland'

POET PAUL Durcan has been awarded an honorary degree at Trinity College Dublin in recognition of his 40-year role as “the inspired minstrel of modern-day Ireland”.

A leading Egyptian scholar, Ismail Serageldin, was also honoured by the college yesterday, along with Irish Timeseditor Geraldine Kennedy and Michael Griffith, the founding chairman of the charity Fighting Blindness.

Durcan, who recently published a collection spanning 40 years of his work, was honoured with a Doctor in Letters for his role as one of Ireland’s most eminent and original poets, according to a spokeswoman for the college.

“The oral and aural nature of verse lives in the name of Paul Durcan, the inspired minstrel of modern-day Ireland,” TCD public orator Prof Anna Chahoud told the ceremony, speaking in Latin.

Prof Chahoud said Durcan was first and foremost a voice and the public readings of his poems were unforgettable.

She paid tribute to his humour, “or should I say unrestrained laughter in the face of a hypocritical world”.

Dr Serageldin is director of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, which commemorates the ancient library in Alexandria. He is a leading authority on the role of education and science and technology in promoting developing societies.

Prof Chahoud described him as “a humanist, a scientist, an educator, a leader: a truly Alexandrian scholar”. “His vision promotes education and free flow of information, on which alone democracy and equality rest, and science and technology thrive; it views the present as our chance, renewed every day, to protect the past and to leave future generations more than we found ourselves.”

The editor of The Irish Timeswas honoured with a Doctor in Letters to mark her distinguished career in journalism and the 150th anniversary of the paper. According to Prof Chahoud, her "powerful gift" was to analyse facts for the benefit of the community and shape them into comprehensible form. Passion and practice had refined to perfection.

She did not shy away from direct engagement in politics, the orator continued, and never lost sight of the fundamental pursuit of freedom of speech.

Mr Griffith, who worked for 40 years in AIB, founded Fighting Blindness after he was diagnosed with a form of blindness, retinitis pigmentosa, 30 years ago.

According to the oration, Mr Griffith had through his work prompted the study of genetic factors behind blindness in TCD and the brilliant discoveries that led to the establishment of a chair of medical genetics.

The chancellor of Trinity College, Dr Mary Robinson, presided over the ceremony along with the college provost, Dr John Hegarty.