Leading South African politician and trade unionist Cyril Ramaphosa, Northern Ireland peace negotiator Fr Alec Reid, RTÉ broadcaster Marian Finucane and Gaelic footballer Sean Purcell were among a group who were yesterday conferred with honorary degrees by NUI Galway.
The group were honoured for their outstanding contribution to society through social work, philanthropy, medicine and the arts.
Also conferred yesterday were journalist and author George Clare, French pioneer in neurosurgery Professor Alim-Louis Benabid and businessman Bernard McNicholas.
The honorary degrees were conferred by the chancellor of the National University of Ireland and former taoiseach, Dr Garret Fitzgerald. The president of NUI Galway, Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, said that each of the seven individuals had "given so much of their personal and professional lives to advance human rights and capture the imagination of millions worldwide".
Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been tipped as the next president of South Africa, was chief negotiator during talks with the South African government aimed at ending the apartheid regime.
Fr Alec Reid of the Clonard monastery was honoured for the "crucial role" that he has played in initiating dialogue between various parties at critical stages of the Northern Ireland conflict.
Marian Finucane is one of the State's best known broadcast journalists, and is described by NUI Galway as having had a "transforming influence" on the lives of Irish people.
She is a board member of the Irish Hospice Foundation, has raised funds to construct an Aids hospice in the Khayelitsha township of Cape Town, South Africa, and has established a charity, Friends in Ireland.
Sean Purcell, from Tuam, Co Galway, was dubbed one of the "terrible twins" with Frank Stockwell when they were in the team that won the all Ireland Gaelic football final against Cork in 1956.
George Clare, Austrian journalist and author, wrote the best-selling memoir, Last Waltz in Vienna (1981) which documents his family's experiences during Hitler's annexation of Austria.
Professor Alim-Louis Benabid, chairman of neurosurgery at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, is considered a pioneer in the field of neurosurgery.
Bernard McNicholas of Bohola, Co Mayo, succeeded his father as head of McNicholas Engineering in the 1960s in Britain.