Nell McCafferty among those to get honorary degree from UCC

Honorary degrees will be conferred by University College Cork next Wednesday on well-known people from the worlds of business, the arts, and entertainment.

Journalist, playwright, and civil rights campaigner Nell McCafferty is to be presented with a Degree of Doctor of Literature, as is Dee Forbes, director general of RTÉ.

Ms Forbes, who was appointed last April, previously served at Turner Broadcasting, part of Time Warner, where she ran Turner’s business in Britain and Ireland.

It consisted of seven entertainment channels including Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and TCM.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in history and politics from University College Dublin.

Ms McCafferty has written for The Irish Press, The Irish Times, Sunday Tribune, Hot Press, and The Village Voice and has penned her memoir Nell, which recounts her life as campaigner for women’s rights; her part in the civil rights movement; and her long-term love and relationship with Nuala O’Faolain.

The third person to be conferred is Kieran Calnan, a former CEO, of South Western Services (SWS). The company, based in West Cork, provides business processing outsour- cing services to a long and varied list of blue chip clients.

He oversaw the diversification of SWS from a single service provider (agricultural services) to a multi-service company that included renewables, business process outsourcing, forestry, and business services.

Mr Calnan will be conferred an Honorary Doctor of Economic Science.

Regis McKenna, dubbed “the Silicon Valley Svengali” by Newsweek, will be conferred with the same honorary degree.

He and his firm were instrumental in the launch of some of the most innovative products of the computer age, including the first microprocessor (Intel Corporation) and Apple’s first personal computer.