University College Dublin has confirmed that it altered the venue for yesterday's conferral of an honorary doctorate on the former president of Coca Cola International for his "personal comfort and security", writes John Downes.
This followed a small protest by about 12 students, who staged a "sit-in" outside the O'Reilly Hall on UCD's Belfield campus to highlight their concerns about Coca Cola's alleged poor human rights record in Central America.
Coca Cola has described these claims as "totally false". Security concerns on the campus are understood to have been heightened after a college debate the previous evening had to be abandoned following protests at the attendance of Mr Justin Barrett of the Pro-Life campaign.
A spokeswoman for the college told The Irish Times that the college was aware of student feelings about the conferring of an honorary doctorate on Mr Donald R. Keough, former president and chief operating officer of Coca Cola International.
As a result it decided to move yesterday's ceremony to its buildings at Carysfort in Dublin.
The original ceremony was arranged to honour Mr Keough for achievements in corporate life, his support for third level education, and his interest in the Northern Ireland peace process.
This includes a significant contribution to the Clinton Institute for American Studies at UCD.
But Mr Fergal Scully, president of UCD Students' Union (UCDSU), who refused to attend the ceremony, yesterday criticised the university's decision to switch the venue.
"It is an awful lot of trouble to go to to give this guy an honorary degree," he said. "I'm pretty astonished that they brought him here in the first place and expected there not to be protests given what has gone on in the past year," he said in reference to the decision last year by UCD students to ban the sale of Coca Cola products from all UCDSU shops.