ATU bestows first honorary doctorate on Joe Kennedy III

ATU marked its latest landmark on Wednesday with the conferring of its first honorary doctorate upon Joe Kennedy III, the US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland.

The award was bestowed on Kennedy at a function at the ATU Donegal campus in Letterkenny “in recognition of his exceptional contributions to civil society, public service, and peace building”.

The official presentation was made by ATU President Dr Orla Flynn and Dr Billy Bennett, the vice President for Academic Affairs and Registrar.

“I am so excited and honoured to be here,” Kennedy, a grandnephew of President John F Kennedy, said. “What an incredible privilege to receive an honorary doctorate from this institution.

“The courses here span the skills and the interests, but they are all tied to communities and connected to ATU. That connection matters. The deep relations with the communities mean that you know where the gaps are in IT, construction, and the skills that the workforce of tomorrow will need.”

Letterkenny, he said, could act as “a symbol of the progress” that has been made on the island of Ireland.

Paul Hannigan, Vice President for Cross Border Engagement and Head of College ATU Donegal, said it was the intention for ATU to become “the most prominent university in the Republic of Ireland for cross border engagement.”

Noting the attendance of representatives from the North West Tertiary Education Cluster, he said: “We will work closely to work as a partnership on cross border collaboration to be a model for development elsewhere with a focus clearly on ATU being a university for cross border engagement.

“We will look at the international domain with respect to how we support the cross-border engagement with the impact of Europe and the United States.”

Dr Flynn said the occasion represented “a really special moment in the maturation and coming-of-age of ATU as a young, vibrant and ambitious Technological University.”

Dr Flynn said the hope was that ATU, given that it straddles the Atlantic ocean, would, in the years to come, act as “a beacon for immigration”.

Ms Maura McNally SC, Chair of the ATU Governing Body, said investment and opportunity would work hand-in-hand for ATU.

“100 years ago, the Irish people were going building the bridges, but now the Irish people are designing the bridges,” she said. “There is an old phrase that you give a man a fish and it will feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and he has foot for the rest of his lifetime. That is also true for the economic investment in our region.”

This marks one of two honorary doctorates being conferred by ATU this year, with the second to be awarded to former Irish President Mary Robinson at a ceremony in her home county of Mayo in December. 

Kennedy is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School and had a two-year tenure in the United States Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic as well as four terms in the US House of Representative.