Cork adventurer ‘humbled’ by honorary doctorate

One of Ireland’s trail-blazing adventurers said she was humbled to receive an honorary doctorate for her “incredible displays of tenacity and courage”.

Dr Clare O’Leary, the first Irish woman to summit Mount Everest, said the fact the student body at National University of Galway (NUIG) was involved in her nomination was particularly special.

“It really is a great honour and humbling to think that some of them were in junior infants when I scaled Everest,” she said.

In her citation, NUIG student union president Megan Reilly described Dr O’Leary as “an inspiration to women, to mountaineers, adventurers, and those everywhere who are ambitious in their goals”.

The Bandon-born consultant gastroenterologist and physician at South Tipperary General Hospital became the first Irish woman to summit Mount Everest, on her second attempt, in 2004.

A year later, she became the first Irish woman to scale the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, and the next year, she became the first Irish woman to summit Ama Dablam in the Himalayas.

She became the first Irish woman to ski across Greenland in 2007, the first Irish woman to ski the full length of the South Pole in 2008, and in 2013, to ski across Lake Baikal, the world’s largest and deepest frozen lake.

In 2012, she was named as one of Ireland’s Top 25 Most Powerful Women and awarded the Trailblazer Award by the Women’s Executive Network.

In 2013, Bandon honoured Dr O’Leary by opening a walkway in her name. She recently cycled the Pamir Highway from Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan and completed the Lunana Snowman trek in Bhutan just a few weeks ago.

A senior lecturer in medical education in UCC, she is also an ambassador with the children’s unit at Cork University Hospital.

Dr O’Leary, who is considering her next adventure, said: “It’s part of what I do. I have never not had something on my mind.”

On Monday, NUIG honoured Bernie O’Connor, the Galway GAA legend, with an honorary doctor of laws and today, the university will confer fiddler Martin Hayes, with an honorary doctorate of music.