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24th Sep 2018

Tuam babies historian Catherine Corless to receive honorary NUI Galway degree

Kate Demolder

Catherine Corless NUIG

She will be awarded the degree alongside Sharon Shannon, Helen Rochford Brennan, Brendan Dunford.

Galway historian Catherine Corless will receive an honorary degree from NUI Galway, for her advocacy work on behalf of Tuam survivors, and the children who lost their lives.

Corless – whose tireless work uncovered a mass grave holding 796 babies at the former Tuam Mother and Baby home – will be conferred with the degree sometime in October. She published news of her discovery in 2014.

This won’t be the first time Corless has received accolades for her research.

She has also been awarded the Bar of Ireland Human Rights Award in recognition of ‘exceptional humanitarian service’, and a Rehab Group People of the Year Award in 2018.

Other NUIG recipients include musician Sharon Shannon and activist for rights of people with dementia Helen Rochford Brennan.

They will be conferred with their degrees, along with biodiversity campaigner Brendan Dunford, on 15 October.

“NUI Galway is fortunate to be associated with many outstanding honorary graduates throughout its history and those being honoured this year form a particularly distinguished group,” NUIG President Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, said.

“Each one has made an outstanding and distinctive contribution in their field.

“In honouring these exceptional individuals, we signal what we value in areas that matter to us and to our society – local history, disability rights, music and environmental sustainability.

“NUI Galway is very pleased to be in a position to recognise these exceptional individuals.”

Corless recently made headlines when she refused an official invite which would see her meet Pope Francis during his time in Ireland.

She went on to say that she refused the invitation due to the fact that she believed her place was at the planned protest at the suspected site of the infant mass grave in Tuam on the same day.

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