Ex-minister awarded engineering honour

Irish engineer and former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Professor Jim Dooge has been with the Prince Philip Medal, the premier award of the British Royal Academy of Engineering.

Prof. Dooge is a former president of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland. He was presented with the award by Britain's Prince Philip at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace.

The retired chair of Civil Engineering at University College, Dublin, Prof. Dooge was a Professor of Civil Engineering at University College, Cork, in the 1950s and returned to UCD in 1970 to the Chair of Civil Engineering, retiring from that post in 1984.

During his political career, Prof. Dooge was first elected to the Seanad in 1961, and in 1983 was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.

He retired from public life in 1987.