UCC awards posthumous Masters to victim of 1968 Tuskar Rock air crash

On Thursday, Mr Cowhig’s family attended a special ceremony on the UCC campus where a Masters degree was awarded for his work. File picture

A victim of the Tuskar Rock air crash has been awarded a posthumous Masters degree from UCC — 56 years after it was submitted.

Michael Cowhig was travelling to a conference in England when Aer Lingus Flight 712 crashed en route from Cork to London on March 24, 1968. The crash in the sea off Tuskar Rock in Co Wexford claimed the lives of all 61 passengers and crew on board.

On Thursday, Mr Cowhig’s family attended a special ceremony on the UCC campus where a Masters degree was awarded for his work.

Mr Cowhig and two of his colleagues, John F. Nyhan and Thomas P. Dwane, who worked at the Agricultural Research Institute at Moorepark, Fermoy — now Teagasc — were attending this conference in Reading to share their research into Milking Machine practice.

Shortly before the crash, Mr Cowhig, a Kilbrittain native, had submitted a thesis for a Masters to UCC. But the process of awarding that Masters ended following Mr Cowhig’s tragic death, until his family recently approached UCC to ask that his work be reviewed for consideration.

Head of UCC School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Professor Alan Kelly, subsequently reviewed Mr Cowhig’s thesis entitled ‘A study of the milking performance of eight milking machines’, and recommended that the university recognise it for the award of a Masters degree.

This was then agreed by the relevant college committees, in what is probably the longest period before an award of a posthumous degree from the university.

Commenting on the award, Professor Kelly said: “The work was of a very high scientific standard and presents an important historical record of technologies which were only newly being put in place on Irish farms.

If a thesis of this standard was submitted today, we would have no hesitation in making the award.

The Masters was presented to Mr Cowhig’s family by UCC President, Professor John O’Halloran, at a special ceremony attended by family, friends, and former colleagues of the three men.

Speaking at the event, the Cowhig family said: “We are very grateful, in particular, to retired Professor Tom Raftery, whose determined spirit persisted over many years and acted as catalyst to the award of this Masters degree.

“We have always been very proud of what our Dad achieved in his short lifetime, and we are delighted to have the opportunity to attend this Award Ceremony in the company of so many of his former colleagues and friends.”