November 2017 NUI Galway Winter Conferring Ceremonies

Charity founder and Arts Festival visionaries to be conferred with honorary degrees

WATCH: Honorary graduate, Jack McCann, speak about the power of volunteering

WATCH: Honorary graduates, John Crumlish and Paul Fahy, talk about the future of creative arts in Galway

Over 1,600 students will graduate from across the five colleges at NUI Galway at the University's winter conferring ceremonies, which take place from today, Tuesday, 21 November to Thursday, 23 November. During the conferrings, honorary degrees will be conferred on Galway International Arts Festival visionaries, John Crumlish and Paul Fahy, and on local charity founder, Jack McCann.

In recognition of his public contribution and charity work, a Doctor of Laws degree will be conferred on Jack McCann on Tuesday, 21 November.

Jack is a retired Plastic Surgeon at Galway University Hospital, 1989-2010. In 2005 he co-founded the charity, Irish Friends of Albania and he travels there twice a year with teams of medical volunteers to work in hospitals there. Since 2002 he has operated on hundreds of children and adults to improve and correct hand deformities and burn injuries.  Jack also leads free annual microsurgical training workshops in Albania, training their surgeons to provide better outcomes for their patients.  He fundraises year round, culminating in the annual Irish Friends of Albania Ball. He is a former Chair of the Irish Association of Plastic Surgeons.   He is a published author with four plays, short stories and two collections of poetry. 

In recognition of their work in transforming the Galway International Arts Festival John Crumlish as CEO and Paul Fahy as Artistic Director and Producer will both be conferred with honorary Doctor of Arts degrees on Wednesday, 22 November.    

Galway International Arts Festival has become an event that has international significance, impact and reach; it has made an exceptional contribution to the culture, economy and intellectual life of Galway and Ireland; and it is leading the development of new forms of art in Ireland and globally. Through the development of a major partnership with NUI Galway since 2012, new opportunities have been created for artists and producers to build successful and sustainable careers in the west of Ireland. 

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Biographies

Jack McCann
Jack McCann was born in Rush, Co. Dublin and grew up in Malahide.  He qualified in Medicine in UCD in 1975 and Surgery RCSI in 1980 before training in Plastic Surgery in Dublin, Cork, UK, Australia and settling in Galway in 1989 as the first Consultant Plastic Surgeon in UCHG and in the West of Ireland.

Jack has always been involved in voluntary work and community development. Whilst a student in UCD, he was founder and Chairman of the Malahide Youth Club and was on the local Red Cross team which won a number of All-Ireland competitions. In Galway, he was Chairperson of the Community Health Response Group seeking upgrading of University Hospital during the ‘nineties. He was Chairperson of the Fundraising Committee of Galway RNLI for over ten years and was voluntary medical officer to the crew for this period. He also chaired the Bushy Park Residents’ Association for 3 years. Jack is currently Chairperson of the Voluntary Management Committee of Clann Family Resource Centre in Oughterard. In 2003, Jack received Galway Rehab Person of the Year Award in recognition of his voluntary work.

In 2002 Jack was involved in bringing Albanian children to Galway for treatment of burns and hand deformities. Irish Friends of Albania was subsequently founded by Jack and his wife Moya, and registered as a charity in 2005. Since then Jack has chaired the charity and was responsible for bringing surgical teams of doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel to Albania bi-annually until 2012, operating and teaching. He has helped in Kosovo since 2010 at out-patient clinics, surgery and by speaking at teaching conferences.

The charity has supplied essential surgical and anaesthetic equipment to the University Hospital in Tirana and the charity’s surgical teams saw over 1,200 patients and operated on over 400. They brought 17 Albanian and Kosovar doctors and nurses to Ireland for training, facilitated by local hospitals. Since 2012 the emphasis has changed from operating to teaching and so the charity established and equipped a Microsurgery Training Laboratory in the hospital in Tirana which Jack visits twice yearly to give training courses; to date he has provided basic training in Microsurgery to 56 surgeons.  

The charity fundraised locally in Galway with the help of wonderful volunteers. They were further supported by local hospitals, Irish Aid and Electric Ireland over the years. The charity also organised Irish teams of volunteer tradesmen to partially renovate 5 State-run orphanages and homes in Albania.

Jack retired from hospital in 2010 but remains active in his community in Oughterard.   He has many interests including writing. He has published 3 collections of poetry and has written some plays.  Jack is married to Moya for 41 years, is a proud father of 3 adult children and 4 grandchildren who bring him great joy and happiness.

John Crumlish
John Crumlish is the CEO of Galway International Arts Festival. In his time as CEO he has overseen its development into one of Ireland’s best known cultural enterprises. In addition to presenting an annual festival with an attendance of over 200,000 and an economic impact on the local economy of €29.5 million the organisation has developed into a significant producer of new Irish theatre that tours nationally and internationally.

A native of Carndonagh, Co. Donegal, he attended Carndonagh Community School, graduated from NUI Galway with a BA in Psychology, has an MA in Adult and Continuing Education from the University of Ulster and an MBS in Business Practice from the Irish Management Institute/University College Cork.

Following a period teaching in Northern Ireland, he became closely associated with both Galway Arts Festival and Macnas in the 1990s, playing a number of different roles in their development and growth during that time.    

He served as a member of the Arts Council from 2006 until 2011, a member of the Fáilte Ireland West Forum (2010-2013); a member of the Project Board of The Gathering (2012-2013) and served as chair of the successful Galway European Capital of Culture 2020 bid committee.

He is married to Eithne Verling and they have three children, Tom, Luke and Sorcha.

He was named a Galway Person of the Year in 2013 and was made a Fellow of the Institute by the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology in 2016.

Paul Fahy
Paul Fahy is the Artistic Director of Galway International Arts Festival [GIAF] a position he has held since 2005. Prior to this he worked as a freelance arts consultant, publicist and producer from 2000-2005 working with Galway International Arts Festival; Macnas; Baboró; Rough Magic Theatre Company; The Abbey Theatre; The Arts Council of Ireland and with the Irish actor, Cillian Murphy.

He programmed and produced the Cúirt International Festival of Literature, in 1998 and 1999 and was one of the key visual arts curators for Galway Arts Centre from 1990-1999.

 He was the Consultant Programme Director with Kilkenny Arts Festival from 1999–2003 for whom he also directed and designed a major street theatre spectacle The Art of the Game.

 Since being appointed Artistic Director of GIAF the Festival has become a producing-led festival forging close creative partnerships with Irish artists and producers most notably Enda Walsh, Hughie O’Donoghue, Olwen Fouéré, John Gerrard and Landmark Productions.

 GIAF tours extensively, most recently to the Barbican, London; St. Ann’s Warehouse and Irish Arts Center, New York; Ireland’s National Theatre, the Abbey; and Dublin Theatre Festival all during 2017. The Festival has also toured regularly to the National Theatre of Great Britain, London; and to the Next Wave Festival, BAM, New York; Kennedy Center, Washington; Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Adelaide Festival, Perth Festival and Sydney Theatre Company.

 Under Fahy’s tenure GIAF has worked with leading Irish and international visual artists and has designed and built major temporary art galleries in Galway.

 Fahy has designed and created four theatre installations with Enda Walsh Room 303, A Girl’s Bedroom and Kitchen [which toured to New York as Rooms in May 2017] and Bathroom. 

 He studied art at the RTC Galway [now GMIT].