Writing Alum and Healthcare Activist Orla Tinsley ’20 Receives Honorary Doctorate From The University College of Dublin

Writing alum Orla Tinsley ’20 has received an honorary Doctorate of Literature from The University College of Dublin for their achievements in writing and healthcare. 

Tinsley began their studies at UCD in 2006 while simultaneously campaigning for better Cystic Fibrosis care in Ireland; but soon took time off to focus solely on advocacy. In this period of time, they began to cover healthcare through an internship with The Irish Times. They were awarded both a Rehab Young Person of the Year Award in 2008, a UCD President’s Award for Excellence in Extracurricular Activities, a Junior Chamber International Outstanding Young Person Award, and selected as a Tatler Magazine Woman of The Year in 2009. 

The next few years brought several more awards for Tinsley, including an Aramark award for Excellence in Healthcare, a Young Medical Journalist of the Year Award, and the Pfizer Outstanding Award for Healthcare. In 2011, they co-wrote a documentary for Ireland’s National Television and Radio Broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, about expanding St. Vincent’s hospital in Dublin. In that year, they also published a memoir titled Salty Baby (Hachette Books Ireland, 2011) which was shortlisted for the Best Newcomer prize at the Bórd Gáis Irish Book Awards.

Many of Tinsley’s journalistic endeavors have additionally been focused on Ireland’s policies surrounding transgender rights, which further earned them the title of Journalist/ Broadcaster of the Year for the National Gay and Lesbian Federation of Ireland in 2013. 

Tinsley’s health declined severely in 2017. Several months later, on the edge of death, Tinsley underwent a double-lung transplant at Columbia University Medical Center, which became the subject of another documentary—Orla Tinsley: Warrior. The film was co-produced by Tinsley and became a finalist for the New York Film Award in 2020. Warrior attracted a broad viewership and nearly 10,000 people registered as organ donors in Ireland as a result, prompting the Irish government to draft a bill on organ donor legislation. Warrior was cited as a highly influential component in ratifying these policies.

Tinsley has also received the Public Relations Institute of Ireland's highest honor for excellence in storytelling, a distinction awarded to only five other recipients in the Institute’s 60-year history. In a speech delivered on the day of the doctorate ceremony, UCD Professor Regina Uí Chollatáin shared, “Orla Tinsley is without question the living embodiment of how words really can change the world.” 

Tinsley completed their MFA in creative Nonfiction at Columbia in 2020 and worked as an instructor in the program. Now, they teach Creative Writing at the Irish Writers’ Centre. 

“Writers, artists and activists exist in this liminal space surging towards something at irregular intervals while trying to build the work from the ground up,” Tinsley says in response to Uí Chollatáin’s remarks. “Perhaps this is the truest representation of what an artist and an activist is.”