By Greg McKevitt BBC News

Will Ferrell was accepting the university's James Joyce Award

Ferrell said he shared much in common with the author, as they both lived much of their lives outside Ireland.

Previous winners of the honour given by its literary and historical society include academic Noam Chomsky and UN weapons inspector Hans Blix.

The Hollywood star, whose films include Anchorman and Elf, claimed: "Hans and I hang out all the time."

"It's really not that weird for me. He said, 'I've got a feeling you're going to get the same award I got' and he was right'," he told RTE.