The Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu will address NUI, Galway’s Literary and Debating Society on Sunday February 15 at 5pm.
Archbishop Tutu will deliver a lecture on aid, justice, and charity in Áras na Mac Léinn.
Originally from the Transvaal region of South Africa, Desmond Tutu was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church in 1961, became Bishop of Lesotho in 1976, and by 1986 was his country's highest Anglican official as Archbishop of Cape Town.
In 1984, Archbishop Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-apartheid work in South Africa. As part of the struggle against apartheid, he championed economic sanctions throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
When the apartheid regime fell in the 1990s, he was appointed as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Nelson Mandela's new government. Speaking about Archbishop Tutu, Nelson Mandela has described Archbishop Tutu as “sometimes strident, often tender, never afraid and seldom without humour, Desmond Tutu's voice will always be the voice of the voiceless”.
Archbishop Tutu will receive the Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal, the society’s highest accolade.
Admission to the talk is €5. Proceeds from ticket sales will go to a charity of the Archbishop’s choosing. Tickets can be purchased from Monday from the Socs Box on campus (091 - 492852 ), as well as from Zhivago Records, Shop Street.