Rory O’Neill and Senator David Norris will be among six activists to receive honorary degrees from Trinity College Dublin.

On Friday, November 27, Rory O’Neill aka Panti Bliss and Senator David Norris will be honoured for their activism for LGBT rights in Ireland.

Last year, the name Panti Bliss became known globally following the Pantigate controversy in 2014 and the subsequent ‘Noble Call’ anti-homophobia speech she made in the Abbey Theatre which went viral. Just last week, O’Neill was also honoured by his alma mater the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT).

Senator David Norris will also be given an honorary degree for his tireless campaigning to achieve full equality for LGBT people in Ireland since the 1980s, and for being instrumental in the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993.

Also being honoured is Tomas Reichental, one of only three Holocaust survivors left in Ireland; Fr Peter McVerry, founder of the Peter McVerry trust ; Hina Jilani, a wellknown lawyer and human rights activist and Graça Machel, a leading advocate for the rights of women and children.
The degrees will be conferred in Trinity’s Public Theatre