Each year, University College Cork presents an honorary Master of Arts degree to someone the college believes has made a major contribution to society in Cork or in Munster. The award is prestigious and much prized by the recipients.
Prof Peter Woodman, head of the archaeology department at UCC, at a recent conferring ceremony, nominated a Cork solicitor and patron of the arts, Mr Charlie Hennessey, for the award.
"Therefore, . . . president, in recognition of his services to the community and the fact that he has given so much of himself to enrich the lives of others, I present for the award of Honorary Master of Arts - Mr Charles Hennessey," Prof Woodman said.
As chairman of the Cork Opera House Trust, Mr Hennessey has played a pivotal role in making sure the city did not lose its cultural hub.
Despite severe financial difficulties in the 1980s, when the theatre was losing popularity, he aroused interest and got things moving again.
A local politician, he has served on the Passage West Town Commissioners and has been a vocal on matters that concern Cork Harbour.
He was instrumental in saving the Swansea/Cork ferry service.
His one attempt to enter national politics, three elections ago, secured him a respectable 2,000 votes.
On local radio some time later, he said the undertaking left him in no doubt that for the aspiring TD, knocking on doors was a chastening experience.
UCC is now a multi-million pounds industry, one of Cork's largest, although that is not the popular perception.
Nowadays, the college has a student population of almost 11,000 and an annual budget of more than £60 million.
When Mr Hennessey was a student there many decades ago, Prof Alfred O'Rahilly was president - the same one who ordered the removal of a Queen Victoria statue and who had it replaced with one of Cork's founding father, St Finbarr.
The saint's association with Cork gave rise to the UCC motto: "Where Finbarr taught, let Munster learn."
That was until, in recent years, questions were raised about the authenticity of the St Finbarr legend.
In Galway, other academics gleefully suggested the UCC motto should have been: "Where Finbarr thought he taught, let Munster learn."