Liverpool announces its 2015 Honorary Graduates

President Higgins

The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, is one of four esteemed figures to receive honorary degrees from the University of Liverpool this month.

He will be honoured alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby; Presiding Judge of the North Eastern Circuit, The Honourable Mr Justice Globe; and Príncipe de Asturias Professor of Contemporary Spanish History at the London School of Economics, Paul Preston.

President Higgins was inaugurated as ninth President of Ireland in 2011. A passionate political voice, he has served at almost every level of public life in Ireland, including as Ireland’s first Minister for the Arts. Throughout his life, he has campaigned for human rights and for the promotion of peace and democracy. In 1992, he was the first recipient of the Seán MacBride Peace Prize, in recognition of his work for peace and justice in many parts of the world.

Justin Welby

Spiritual leader

Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is a spiritual leader to 77 million Anglicans worldwide. He left a career in the oil industry in 1989 to obtain a degree in Theology at the University of Durham, and went on to attain the Cranmer Diploma in Ministerial Studies in 1992. He became the Dean of Liverpool in 2007 and was elected Bishop of Durham in 2011, before taking up the position of the Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013.

The Honourable Mr Justice Globe is currently Presiding Judge of the North Eastern Circuit. For the previous eight years he was Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, the highest legal role in Merseyside. It was here, together with Merseyside’s chief crown prosecutor, that he devised an early guilty plea scheme – subsequently adopted nationally – in a bid to reduce waiting times, paperwork and costs, while also bringing quicker justice for victims. He was appointed to the High Court and knighted in 2011.

History of Spain

Príncipe de Asturias Professor of Contemporary Spanish History at the London School of Economics, Paul Preston, has dedicated his professional life to writing the history of 20th century Spain in both its domestic and international dimensions. He has taught at the Universities of Rome, Madrid, Valencia, Reading, and London, and lectured widely in Europe and America. He became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1994 and was appointed CBE in 2000.

The honorary degrees will be conferred during a week of ceremonies at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall from Monday, 20 July, in which more than 4,000 students will graduate.

President Michael Higgins

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