Who better to give the lowdown on the Oscar red carpet than Don O’Neill, the Irish designer who was Oprah’s choice for the Academy Awards? Carolyn Moore reports.

Fashion designer Don O’Neill; Cork-based Irish furniture designer Joseph Walsh; and art historian and author Nicholas Fox Weber were conferred with honorary doctorates at a ceremony in the Aula Maxima at UCC yesterday.

A fashion designer whose gowns have been worn by Oprah Winfrey is to be honoured at University College Cork later this week, along with an accomplished furniture maker and a cultural historian.

The Keeping Up With The Karashain star wore a stunning black waist-cinching Don O’Neill dress from his THEIA collection.

Fashion designer Don O’Neill says he is more than twice blessed: A career to die for, love of partner, family, and friends, a fulfilling and often hectic work and social life in New York, and the chance to come home a few times a year to his native Ballyheigue, Co Kerry.