The nature columnist of The Irish Times, Michael Viney and children's charity founder, Ms Christina Noble OBE, were among six recipients of honorary degrees from Trinity College Dublin yesterday.
In an all-Latin ceremony presided over by the university chancellor and former president Mrs Mary Robinson, accolades were also given to pioneers in the fields of nursing, music, science and economics.
Mr Viney, who joined The Irish Times in 1961, received an honorary literary degree for his "outstanding contribution to natural history and conservation issues".
Having retreated to Mayo more than 25 years ago, it was his first time to visit Dublin socially for more than 10 years.
Ms Noble, who already holds honorary degrees from UCD and the Higher Education and Training Awards Council, received an honorary law degree in recognition of her work with impoverished children in Mongolia and Vietnam, through the Christina Noble Children's Foundation.
The tribute paid to her by the university was a recognition of all those who worked for the foundation and of the lives of the children themselves, she said.
Honorary degrees were also conferred on Ms Evelyn Glennie, the world renowned solo percussionist; Mr Michael Ahmed Zewail, the 1999 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry for his pioneering developments in the field of femtoscience; Ms Judith Chavasse, pioneering director of nursing studies at UCD; and Prof John Sutton, a leading authority in industrial organisation at the London School of Economics.
