LIMERICK Civic Trust director, Denis Leonard was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Limerick on Wednesday.
Mr Leonard, who established the first civic trust in Ireland 25 years ago (there are now 25), was one of four people honoured for their distinctive contributions to public life.
Cynthia Carroll is the chief executive of Anglo America plc, the second largest mining company in the world: Sean Donlon, former secretary-general of the Department of Foreign Affairs and chief of staff to former Taoiseach, John Bruton: Daniel Tierney, author of the 1995 Tierney Report.
Mr Leonard said: “I’m delighted and very proud to be a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the university and also very proud of Limerick Civic Trust and its members and of the magnanimous support of the people of Limerick, right across the board.
“I will be in the exalted company of the other recipients – Dan Tierney is another Limerick native who, like me, went to Crescent College.
Mind you, there’s some satisfaction in receiving this Doctorate, when for eleven years the Jesuits didn’t have a very high opinion of me academically”.
Attributing his civic love and interest in all things Limerick to his late father John, who in 1935 at the age of 21 founded the still thriving menswear shop on O’Connell Street, Mr Leonard, whose mother Joan Begley, was one of the Begley Wine and Spirit Store family (William Street) said: “Definitely, I was influenced by my father who used to name all the streets we passed through and their associations with people or events, and who would draw my attention to various monuments, old buildings etc”.
He said he was looking forward to “making a couple of big announcements” for the city.
In its citation, UL says that Mr Leonard’s special contribution to the work of Limerick Civic Trust was “to shift the emphasis of the organisation from pressure group activities devoted to raising consciousness of the local architectural environment and heritage to the direct undertaking of conservation projects.
“In this important regenerative work, Denis helped in the eliciting of donations, sponsorship and membership contributions from the private sector which could then be matched with EU and Government funding. Accountants, architects, lawyers and experts in planning restoration and conservation generously contributed their services. To date, Limerick Civic Trust has undertaken 136 projects; at present day values estimated to cost 40 million euro.|
Fellow Limerick man, Daniel Tierney who received an Honorary Doctorate of Economic Science produced the Tierney Report of 1995, which paved the way for much of the technology transfer and education/industry linkages that now inform the fabric of the Higher Education sector.
