UCC sparks row over name of new building

Academics and students have united to criticise University College Cork for naming a new research building after Nobel laureate James Watson, who has been roundly condemned for his racist and sexist views.

They spoke out yesterday as Dr Watson, 88, the US scientist who co-discovered the structure of DNA, delivered a lecture in Cork to celebrate the naming of the Watson Building on UCC’s Brookfield medical campus.

Two elected members of UCC’s governing body, Dr Angela Flynn and Dr Piaras Mac Éinrí, said Dr Watson has been responsible for unfounded, unscientific, and inaccurate statements of a racist and misogynistic nature, and that it was not appropriate to honour him in this way.