Bertie and Cowen get honorary doctorates

[hollyisalovelyname]

I am utterly disgusted and appalled that Bertie Ahearn and Brian Cowen have received honorary doctorates from the NUI.
As an ex alumni of one of the NUI universities I am so angry.
Who decides who is worthy of these honours?
What were they thinking awarding honours to two of the Taoisigh who contributed to the awful austerity we have all endured and basically almost wrecked the country. We had to go cap in hand looking for handouts. The U.K. very kindly gave us a donation .
So many people have suffered. Yet these two, who helped cause the pain, with their fine fat pensions and their cronyism which is rife in Ireland, are awarded honorary degrees.
The plot has been lost.

I saw the picture of the two of them at the ceremony yesterday.
Bertie was attending Brian Cowen's conferring. Bertie had received his a couple of years back.
I'm mad as hell!!!

It does seem bizarre - who decides these things?! And they are on massive pensions.
I remember Cowen standing up in the Dail in 2006 and strongly stating that there would be no changes to stamp duty for FTBs (1%) at time and then it was reduced to 0% months later.

Why should they be honoured?
Honours should be reserved for those who deserve them.
They ( and their cronies) sold the country and its people down the river.
Bertie even wanted to sell off our forests.
We had to cap in hand,begging.
Our neighbour's in the UK gave us a donation.

I see Dr. Edward Walsh, founding president of the University Of Limerick plans to hand back his honorary doctorate to NUI in protest over its decision to honour Brian Cowen.
I hope more people object, but judging by the poor response to this thread on Craicnet, Indoubt it .
There weren't riots in the streets during the austerity so we just sit back and take the s*it- it's part of our genetic makeup, probably due to our sad history- shut up and put up ( and drink to forget).

I hope more people object, but judging by the poor response to this thread on Craicnet, Indoubt it

Well I don't think they should have received honorary doctorates, no, but I haven't replied to the thread til now because I don't see the point of posting just to say "yeah, shouldn't have happened". There's not much to actually discuss when there's no debate...

When I've already grumbled irl, I don't feel the need to vent again online.

Well it's certainly got the letter writers of the Irish Times animated.

The U.K. very kindly gave us a donation.

Don't be ridiculous. Of course they didn't. They loaned the Irish government money to bail out UK banks operating in Ireland which is being paid back.

Also, they got the honorary doctorates because, traditionally, all ex Taoisigh do.

Not all ex Taoisigh have received an honorary doctorate.
It should be given to those who deserve it.

They give honorary doctorates out to lots of random people in Ireland, it's a joke. Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara both have them It's supposed to give publicity to the College. It doesn't really count when they have done nothing to earn the honour othere than prance around acting more important than they are. Bertie thinks he's going to be the next Irish President so that would be something that would annoy me more.