Today, President Michael D. Higgins will be presented with an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester.

President Higgins will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Letters honoris causa (excellence in the arts) for his contributions to literature and public life by the Chancellor of the University of Manchester, Nazir Afzal. Higgins briefly attended University of Manchester in 1968.

Following the presentation today, he will deliver the inaugural lecture tomorrow in a new series which will run at the university over the next five years, called the John Kennedy lecture series. The title of the first lecture is ‘Of the consciousness our times need in responding to interacting crises and the role of Universities as spaces of discourse in facilitating it.’

It is the first in a series of awards which the President will receive this year. In June, he will be presented with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Agricola Medal, followed by an address on global food security.