Queen's University has awarded an honorary law doctorate to Mr Brendan O'Regan, the founder and president of Co-operation North, which was renamed Co-operation Ireland last year. Co-operation Ireland is a strictly non-denominational, non-party political organisation aimed at overcoming violence and unemployment through economic, cultural and social co-operation between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
Describing him as an "innovator and idealist", Mr Martin O'Brien, a member of the university's senate, said Mr O'Regan had "strained every sinew in his body to do something that would make a difference".
Mr O'Regan is from Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, where he was born in 1917. He received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland in 1978 and a CBE from Queen Elizabeth in 1993.
Dr Ray Davey, the founder of the Corrymeela Community, was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Queen's University. The Corrymeela Community was awarded the Kohl International Peace Prize in 1989, the Niwano Peace Prize in 1997 and Dr Davey received an OBE for his work two years ago.