Watch: Tireless Traveller advocate accepts honorary doctorate

The first Traveller to receive an honorary doctorate from UCC has accepted the award on behalf of her community and Ireland’s countless activists.

Traveller rights advocate, Brigid Quilligan, manager of the Kerry Traveller Health Community Development Project who played a key role in the campaign to secure official state recognition of Traveller ethnicity, was presented with an honorary doctorate of laws for her campaigning work at local, national and international level over two decades.

Professor John O’Halloran, UCC’s vice president for teaching and learning, described her as an inspirational leader: “You have worked tirelessly for women’s rights, and in particular, for access to justice for women in the Traveller community, and for the human right to health and accommodation. Through your actions you have removed an injustice for all.”