Former Trinity Chancellor Mary Robinson will take up a new role in College as an adjunct professor of climate justice.
The Irish Independent reports that Robinson, a former President of Ireland who stepped down as Chancellor in June, has been appointed to the position in the School of Natural Sciences – which houses departments of botany, geography, geology and zoology.
Trinity did not respond to a request for comment from the Irish Independent.
Robinson, who recently courted controversy after comments she made about Dubai princess Sheikha Latifa, has been an outspoken critic of Ireland’s climate action efforts.
The Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice facilitates action to achieve sustainable development, particularly for those in poor, marginalised areas that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Speaking to reporters at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ biennial conference earlier this month, Robinson said that there is not enough “specific action” in the government’s Climate Action Plan.
“I think now it’s up to people keep the pressure on”, she said.
Speaking at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in February, she encouraged people to “get angry” at the government’s inaction.
On the proposed introduction of carbon taxes, Robinson said it was “really important that the tax be seen to be fair”. She said that those on low incomes are the most reliant on fossil fuels.
Imposing a tax that does make allowances for lower earners – such as the increase in diesel tax which sparked outrage in France last year – was “the right thing to do but done in the wrong way”, she said.
In February, Robinson launched Trinity’s Green Week. Speaking at the launch, she said: “The great thing about what’s happening in this university is students are being very active. I loved the campaign on divestment. I supported it.”
In May, a portrait of Robinson was commissioned for the Dining Hall.
In December, Robinson was criticised by human rights advocates all over the world for calling Sheikha Latifa, the daughter of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a “troubled young woman”.
Before being photographed with Robinson, Latifa had not been seen in public since a video circulated on the internet in which she described her intention to flee Dubai and accused her father of keeping her in solitary confinement.
Robinson said she had been invited to Dubai by Princess Haya, one of Sheikh Mohammed’s six wives, to help with what Haya called a “private family matter”.
In recent weeks, however, Haya has made headlines after reportedly fleeing Dubai and seeking asylum in Europe. Human rights campaigners have called on her to speak out about the conditions in Dubai, where her estranged husband has been ruler since 2006.
Trinity last week announced the establishment in the College of a new Centre for Middle Eastern Studies funded by a “generous gift” from an educational charity established by Sheikh Mohammed’s brother, the deputy ruler of Dubai.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is four years older than Sheikh Mohammed, created the Al Maktoum Foundation in Dublin in 1997.
In a press statement, Provost Patrick Prendergast said: “This generous gift from the Al Maktoum Foundation comes at a vital moment in the history of Trinity College’s relationship with the Middle East, its peoples and its cultures.”
Continuing a long-established tradition of Middle Eastern studies in the history of Trinity College”, he said, “this generous gift comes at a time when society in Ireland must seize the opportunity to enhance the role which all can play in a pluralistic society”.
