The
GLOBAL MIND Live, Learn, Connect INSIDE:
Business Connections
Designs on the World
Mission China
The magazine for UCD Business Alumni
How UCD architects are shaping the international landscape
Forging links with the superpower
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CONTENTS
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37
EVENTS FOUNDATION DAY DINNER:
Musician Bill Whelan is honoured by the University (page 77); GOLDEN JUBILEE: the class of 1961 50 years on (page 78); Celebration of UCD ENGINEERING (page 79); A celebration of 45 years of the MBA (page 80); The Annual NEWMAN FELLOWSHIP Dinner (page 81); The UCD CHORAL SCHOLARS at Newman University Church (page 82); The RUBY JUBILEE: The class of 1972 gather (page 83); The MICHAEL
at the Student Centre UCD (page 88); ALUMNI EVENTS in HONG KONG
The Family Dynamic Clans with a Plan PAGE 62
FORGING LINKS WITH THE EASTERN SUPERPOWER PAGE 66
BUSINESS CONNECTIONS 52 THE KNIGHT’S TALE Niall FitzGerald’s business achievements
58 JUST PRESS ENTER
Technology entrepreneur Colm Lyon leads the way
62 FAMILY DYNAMIC
91
It’s about trust and commitment: family businesses work
66 MISSION CHINA
All eyes on the East
CAMPUS NEWS 37 PERFECTLY
and SINGAPORE (page 89); BLOOMSDAY: UCD Awards Ulysses Medal and Honorary Doctorates (page 90); Alumni Relations hosts CHARACTERS IN CONVERSATION
with Jim Sheridan and Brenda Fricker (page 91); The JOHN M KELLY Memorial
UCD EDITORIAL BOARD ÁINE GIBBONS, EILIS O’BRIEN, SINÉAD DOLAN, TARA COLLINS, BILLY MURPHY, VINCENT WALL, DAMIEN MC LOUGHLIN, JP DONNELLY UCD ALUMNI RELATIONS SINÉAD DOLAN, TARA COLLINS CONTRIBUTORS CONOR BRADY, DOUGLAS DALBY , RORY EGAN, ELEANOR FITZSIMONS, BELINDA MC KEON, CLAIRE O’CONNELL, SANDRA O’CONNELL
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PAGE 52
MEET COLM LYON, TECH ENTREPRENEUR
MISSION CHINA
BUSINESS SCHOOL
SPORT & FITNESS CENTRE
NIALL FITZGERALD’S BLISTERING CAREER
JUST PRESS ENTER PAGE 58
SMURFIT GRADUATE
honours oustanding alumni (page 84); Alumni Relations presents the very first LIFE STORIES event at Ardmore House, Belfield, with alumnus John Teeling (page 85); ARCHITECTURE CENTENARY events programme launched by alumnus Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn TD (page 86); WHITE COAT CEREMONY: 250 medical students celebrate becoming doctors (page 87); Opening of the new
IN THIS ISSUE
THE KNIGHT’S TALE
UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Lecture; The Sutherland School of Law is signed into being (page 92); The Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School hosts annual CHRISTMAS DRINKS and Budget Briefing (page 93); Events in NEW YORK CITY (pages 94 & 95).
PITCHED Leinster Rugby’s new territory
40 COME AND TEST
THE WATERS Try the new 50-metre pool at UCD
70 SPORTS SHORTS
News from track, field and water
75 WALK THE WALK
Blaze a trail at Belfield’s annual Woodland Walk
UCD Connections is published by Gloss Publications Ltd, The Courtyard, 40 Main Street, Blackrock, Co Dublin, 01 275 5130. Distributed by The Irish Times. To order a copy, go to www.ucdconnections.ie Printed by Boylans. Colour origination by Typeform. Copyright 2012 Gloss Publications Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. This magazine can be recycled either in your Green Bin kerbside collection or at a local recycling point. In the compilation of this publication, every care is taken to ensure accuracy. Any errors or omissions should be brought to the attention of the UCD Development & Alumni Relations Office. However, UCD does not accept any liability to any person for loss or damage arising from anything contained in this publication or for any error or omission in it, even if such loss and damage is caused by the negligence of UCD or its servants and agents.
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CONNECTIONS ... AND RE-CONNECTIONS As the annual alumni magazine for University College Dublin, UCD Connections is about two aspects of the University: life on campus and our alumni. With over 140,000 alumni all over the world, the UCD network is an incredible tour de force, a resource on which to draw, an invaluable support for career development, for social interaction and for lifelong learning. In the pages that follow we proudly highlight the achievements of some of that vast pool of talent, at home and abroad. Having a truly global mindset means looking outwards and remaining open to the opportunities afforded by travelling and learning abroad. That experience is all the sweeter when success abroad translates to success at home in Ireland. Witness the stellar progress of Irish business in China (and the University’s ambitious student exchange programme there), and the impact of Irish firms on the global food industry. Every year, fresh success stories emerge from UCD. Your alma mater is proud of your achievements and we encourage you to share your success with us. The ongoing physical evolution of the Belfield campus continues. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the turning of the sod on the first building at Belfield
– the Science Block. We can look back at that momentous occasion with great pride as we also look forward to the opening of the new Science Centre on the same site next year, thanks to the completion of the Campaign for Science, the most successful fundraising campaign in our history to date.
That experience is all the sweeter when success abroad translates to success at home in Ireland. Another highlight of that evolution is the opening of the new Student Centre. Alumni, for whom the sports facilities of undergraduate days were not quite so spectacular, will be pleased to learn they can avail of the new Student Centre too. Talking of spectacular buildings, the centenary of the School of Architecture seems the right time at which to celebrate the built environment and the contribution Irish architects are making to the global landscape. Sport has dominated the airwaves for much of the year (UCD produced six
4 | UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Olympians, among other achievements). It is a key feature of campus life. This year, Leinster Rugby’s move to Belfield and the achievements of the Ad Astra Academy Elite Athletes were exciting to watch. On a sad note, we fondly remember peerless Maeve Binchy, a national treasure and friend of UCD. She will be greatly missed. UCD’s lively alumni events programme continues, with Life Stories, Characters in Conversation, Woodland Walks, and more. This might be your Ruby or Golden Jubilee year? Check the website for event listings: www.ucd.ie/alumni and do keep in touch through email: alumni@ucd.ie, or our social media pages – search for “UCD Alumni” on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. UCD Connections is being distributed with The Irish Times as a cost-effective means of reaching alumni and a large audience. We are happy to post a copy to any graduate who requests one but please ensure we have your up-to-date details. And because UCD’s mindset is a truly global one, we will also mail the magazine to alumni abroad. ÁINE GIBBONS, VICE-PRESIDENT FOR DEVELOPMENT AND ALUMNI RELATIONS
AG CEANGAL ... AGUS AG ATHCHEANGAL Díríonn iris alumni bhliantúil an Choláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath, UCD Connections ar dhá ghné den Ollscoil: an saol ar an gcampas agus ar ár alumni. Le breis agus 140,000 alumni againn ar fud na cruinne, is líonra fíor láidir é líonra UCD, acmhainn iontach ar féidir tacaíocht fíorluachmhar a bhaint asti maidir le forbairt ghairme, lánpháirtiú sóisialta agus foghlaim feadh saoil. Sna leathanaigh atá le teacht, leagaimid béim go mórtasach ar na héachtaí a bhain cuid de na daoine tréitheacha sin amach, sa bhaile agus thar lear. Agus muid ag iarradh ceangal a choinneáil leis an domhan mór, féachaimid chun cinn agus bímid i gcónaí oscailte do na deiseanna a chuireann taisteal agus foghlaim thar lear ar fáil dúinn. Cuirtear go mór leis an taithí sin nuair a thugtar na heachtaí a dhéantar thar lear abhaile chun na hÉireann. Féach chomh maith is atá ag éirí le gnólachtaí na hÉireann sa tSín (agus ar chlár malartaithe mac léinn uaillmhianach na hOllscoile atá ar bun ansin) agus an tionchar atá ag cuideachtaí na hÉireann ar an tionscal bia ar fud an domhain. Gach bliain, tagann dea-scéalta nua chun cinn as UCD. Tá d’alma mater fíor mhórtasach as do chuid éachtaí agus spreagaimid tú chun do dhea-scéal a roinnt linn. Tá an mórobair thógála ar champas Belfield fós ag dul ar aghaidh. Beidh comóradh 50 bliain an chéad fhoirgneamh a tógadh riamh i mBelfield ann i mbliana – an Bloc Eolaíochta. Is féidir linn féachaint
siar ar an ócáid mór le rá sin le muinín ollmhór agus muid ag tnúth go mór le hoscailt an Ionaid Eolaíochta nua ar an suíomh chéanna an bhliain seo chugainn, a bhuíochas sin don Fheachtas Eolaíochta, an feachtas bailithe airgid is fearr a bhí ann go dtí seo.
Cuirtear go mór leis an taithí sin nuair a thugtar na heachtaí a dhéantar thar lear abhaile chun na hÉireann. Buaicphointe eile den teacht chun cinn sin ná oscailt an Ionaid Mac Léinn nua. Beidh an Alumni, cé nach raibh na saoráidí spóirt i rith a gcuid laethanta fóchéime féin leath chomh maith is atá siad anois, sásta a fháil amach gur féidir leo leas a bhaint as an Ionad Mac Léinn nua freisin. Agus muid ag caint faoi fhoirgnimh iontacha, is cosúil gurb é comóradh céad bliain Scoil na hAiltireachta an ócáid cheart chun ceiliúradh a dhéanamh ar an timpeallacht thógtha agus an méid oibre a dhéanann ailtirí na hÉireann ar son an tírdhreacha ar fud an domhain. Bhí an spóirt go mór chun cinn sna meáin don chuid is mó den bhliain (tháinig seisear Oilimpigh as UCD gan trácht ar éachtaí eile). Is príomhghné é sin de shaol an champais. I mbliana, bhíomar
ar sceitimíní mar gheall gur bhog Rugbaí Laighean chuig Belfield agus na héachtaí a bhain Lúthchleasaithe an Ad Astra Academy Elite amach. Cúis bróin a bhí i mbás Meave Binchy, is seoid náisiúnta a bhí inti agus dlúthchara de UCD, cuimhnímid uirthi le gean. Aireoidh muid uainn go mór í. Tá clár imeachtaí bríomhar UCD fós ar bun, le Life Stories, Characters in Conversation, Woodland Walks, agus neart eile. An bhfuil tú 40 nó 50 bliain pósta i mbliana? Seiceáil an láithreán gréasáin chun liosta na n-imeachtaí a fháil: www.ucd.ie/alumni agus bí i dteagmháil linn ar an ríomhphost: alumni@ucd.ie, nó ar ár leathanaigh meáin shóisialta - cuardaigh “UCD Alumni” ar LinkedIn, Facebook agus ar Twitter. Táthar ag scaipeadh UCD Connections in éineacht le Irish Times mar bhealach atá éifeachtach ó thaobh costais de le dul chomh fada le alumni agus le lucht féachana mór. Táimid sásta cóip a sheoladh ar an bpost chug céimí ar bith a bhíonn cóip de dhíth air/uirthi ach cinntigh le do thoil go bhfuil do chuid sonraí is déanaí again. Ó tharla go mbíonn UCD ag iarraidh ceangal a choinneáil leis an domhan mór i gcónaí, seolfaimid an iris freisin chuig alumni thar lear. ÁINE GIBBONS, LEAS-UACHTARÁN D’FHORBAIRT AGUS CAIDRIMH ALUMNI
UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
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| ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT |
A year in the
Spotlight
Many alumni had an ANNUS MIRABILIS in 2011-2012. We look at some of the movers and shakers. JANE MC CORKELL MLArch 2000
COLMAN LYDON BA 1997 The The award-winning landscape architect founder and managing director of and horticultural consultant scored a fifth Fonepool, Lydon and his partner John gold medal win for her show garden for Dennehy started their business by Bloom, this summer. Her previous four providing mobile services to Irish students gardens also won gold in the Large Garden working in the US on J1 visas, over time Category, along with a Best in Show Award evolving into providing mobile services 2010, and this exemplary record has elicited for overseas customers in the US. In June, a coveted open-ended invitation from the it was acquired by eKit, a subsidiary of JT Royal Horticultural Society to exhibit at Global, for an undisclosed sum. Lydon the Chelsea Flower Show. McCorkell has joins eKit in a consulting role. also been included in the judging panel for RTÉ’s Super Garden 2012 series. While completing her masters at UCD, projects included the restoration and ENTREPRENEUR maintenance of Dargle Cottage, the riverside gardens created by JOHN TEELING Sir Basil and Lady Goulding. (BComm 1966 MEconSc 1967)
THIS VERY SUCCESSFUL SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR AND FORMER UCD LECTURER WAS IN THE NEWS AGAIN LAST DECEMBER FOLLOWING THE SALE OF HIS COOLEY DISTILLERY FOR €73 MILLION TO US DRINKS MARKET GIANT, BEAM INC.
AIDAN WOODS BPhysio 1996 The leading physiotherapist to the Irish Olympic team in London has grown accustomed to life in an Olympic village. London was his third Olympics in an official capacity and Woods was a member of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) medical team in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008. His Olympic attendance predates this. While studying for an MSc in musculoskeletal medicine at the University of Queensland he watched Sonia O’Sullivan take silver in the 5,000 metres. Twelve years later they were teammates in London, where O’Sullivan was OCI chef de mission.
KATHLEEN MAC MAHON BA 1994 The first-time author published
her much anticipated debut novel This Is How It Ends in May. After graduation, MacMahon took a master’s degree at Cambridge University and has worked as a journalist with RTÉ
AUTHOR
kathleen mac mahon
Writes debut novel
PHYSIOTHERAPIST
GARDENER
jane mc corkell Another gold medal at Bloom
aidan woods Ministered to the Olympians
6 | UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
BROADCASTER
theresa lowe
Reappears on our screens
| ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT |
JUDGES MICHAEL WHITE BCL 1973 KEVIN CROSS BCL 1973 PAUL MC DERMOTT BCL 1979, Dip Eur Law 1981 ALL THREE MEN WERE NOMINATED FOR APPOINTMENT BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE HIGH COURT IN 2011. MICHAEL WHITE HAS PRESIDED OVER A NUMBER OF HIGHPROFILE CASES INCLUDING THE WIDELY REPORTED ‘ANNABEL’S’ TRIAL. KEVIN CROSS HAS HAD AN ACTIVE GENERAL PRACTICE FOR 30 YEARS. BARRISTER AND SPECIALIST IN CRIMINAL LAW, PAUL MCDERMOTT WAS CALLED TO THE BAR IN 1980, BECOMING A SENIOR COUNSEL IN 1999.
for many years; hers is a familiar voice on Morning Ireland and the News at One. The granddaughter of short story writer Mary Lavin, MacMahon sold the rights for a two-book deal to UK-based Little Brown and US-based Grand Central Publishing for an astounding £600,000.
THERESA LOWE BA 1983 The popular broadcaster, who graduated from UCD before taking a job as a continuity announcer with RTÉ, had been absent from our airwaves since qualifying as a barrister in 1997. In January the former DramSoc enthusiast was back in RTÉ presenting the pilot episode of a new Radio One news panel show “What’s the Story?”
JOHN LOGUE BCL 2012 In July, the UCD law graduate from Letterkenny, Co Donegal assumed his one-year term of office as President of the Union of Students in Ireland. Logue replaces fellow UCD
alumnus, Gary Redmond, who spent two years as president.
JONATHAN SEXTON BComm 2012 It’s been a busy summer for
the Leinster and Ireland out-half who took on a new role this year as official ambassador for Think Big, a programme designed to encourage young people to get involved in positive mental health projects. As well as playing in both the Heineken Cup Final and RaboDirect PRO12 Final, he managed to find time to sit his final exams at UCD.
JOSEPH O’CONNOR BA 1984, MA Anglo-Irish Literature, 1986 and Honorary Doctorate The prolific author
who turns his hand to essays, novels, short stories, stage plays and film scripts as well as broadcasting his hugely popular weekly radio diary on RTÉ’s Drivetime, is due to publish a collection of short stories in October. This comes hot on the heels of a very successful run of his adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel My Cousin Rachel at the Gate Theatre this summer.
New collection of short stories
DR RUTH BARRINGTON BA 1972, MA 1973 The health policy analyst
and former chief executive of the Health Research Board, has been appointed to the board of VHI healthcare by Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly. Dr Barrington is chief executive of Molecular Medicine Ireland, a charitable organisation established by a number of Irish universities, including UCD, to accelerate the transition of scientific advances into new therapies and devices. She will serve on the board until March 2015. In addition to her qualification from UCD she is a graduate of the College of Europe in Belgium and has a PhD from the London School of Economics.
CATHERINE FULVIO BA 1986 Successful cook and food writer Catherine Fulvio has established an award-winning cookery school at Ballyknocken, a 350-acre working sheep farm, run by Catherine’s father and siblings. Fulvio is a familiar face on television screens and is an established food writer and author.
SÉAMUS O’DONOGHUE MAgSc
CONOR RIDGE BComm 1998,
1977, MBA 1993 O’Donoghue, a
MBS 1999 The Dublin-based Horizon
member of the National Economic and Social Council, the State body which advises the Government on economic and social development strategy, has been appointed chief executive of the Irish Co-operative Organisation
Sports Management agency, established by managing director Conor Ridge in partnership with Colin Morrissey, and recently added world number one golfer Rory McIlroy to its books. McIlroy joins fellow US Open Champion Graeme McDowell and top Irish athletes including Derval O’Rourke, among others. Not bad considering that in 2005 Ridge left Drury Sports Management and remortgaged his house to set up in a basement in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. This latest signing propels his NUMBER 10 company into the major jonathan sexton league of a lucrative Finds time to get his BComm global industry.
AUTHOR
joseph o’connor
Society (ICOS). He was previously ICOS company secretary.
SPORTS MANAGEMENT
conor ridge Signs Rory McIlroy
UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
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| ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT | PROFESSOR GARY MC GUIRE BSc 1989, MSc 1990 The faculty member
of UCD’s school of mathematical sciences managed a world first when he and his team established that the minimum number of starting clues needed to deliver a unique solution when playing Sudoku is 17. The complex computation using a new checker algorithm developed by Professor McGuire was carried out at the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC), a national centre that provides support for research in high-performance computing and computational science. The algorithm also has applications in software testing, bioinformatics and mobile phone networks.
EMER O’DALY BSc 2001, BArch 2004 The UCD architecture graduate
has just won the prestigious Why Stop international competition with her design for a ‘super-pier’ in Boston Harbour. Her winning entry will be on public display as part of a travelling exhibition. After graduating from UCD, O’Daly worked with the Dublin-based Heneghan Peng design partnership for five years before studying for a Masters in Architecture at Yale. While there she worked on her submission with the help of Arts Council funding. This talented all-rounder is currently teaching at UCD and UCC, writing a chapter for a book on fractal
TRANSLATOR MANUELA SPINELLI BA 1997
geometry and architecture, and painting beautiful pictures inspired by urbanism, architecture, nature and space.
PROFESSOR JOHN FITZPATRICK MB BCh BAO 1971, MCh 1977 In January 2012, the Irish Cancer Society announced the appointment of Professor John Fitzpatrick as head of research. Professor Fitzpatrick, a former professor of surgery and a consultant urologist at the Mater hospital and UCD, plans to oversee the creation of a series of “virtual” research centres that will bring together significant groups of scientists, each targeting a specific type of cancer. This approach has already proven to be very effective in tackling prostate cancer.
PAULA ROWAN BA 1996 The Irish glove designer has opened her first London store in the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush and plans to have a presence in the Westfield centre in Stratford later this year. Rowan’s designs have been worn by legendary director Martin Scorsese, Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and were even presented as a wedding gift to Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco. She and business partner, former hedge-fund manager Laura Mulcahy, have been friends since their undergraduate days at UCD.
ROY EARLE BSc 1979 The Californiabased UCD graduate has taken over from the late Derek Crozier as the setter of the iconic Irish Times Crosaire crossword. “I’m honoured but I’m terrified,” he was
THE HARD-WORKING TRANSLATOR FOR IRELAND SOCCER MANAGER GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI COMPLETED HER DEGREE IN LANGUAGES AT UCD. ON GRADUATION SHE STUDIED FOR A MASTERS IN LINGUISTICS IN TRINITY AND HAS WORKED AS A FREELANCE INTERPRETER EVER SINCE.
DESIGNER
MANAGER CIAN O’BRIEN MA Arts Management 2004 RECENTLY APPOINTED ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE PROJECT ARTS CENTRE, O’BRIEN PREVIOUSLY HELD THE ROLE OF PRODUCER WITH ROUGH MAGIC THEATRE COMPANY AND GARNERED GREAT ACCLAIM AS A FREELANCE THEATRE PRODUCER WORKING WITH CLASSIC STAGE IRELAND, THE FOCUS THEATRE, BEDROCK AND MAKING STRANGE.
quoted on the day he started work. Earle posts a daily blog for fans struggling to find solutions to his cryptic clues.
MOIRA TIERNEY BA 1989 In 2011, the Department of Foreign Affairs selected Moira Tierney’s short film Lucha Libre to represent Ireland at screenings of new European work at the American University/Katzen Arts Center in Washington DC. The filmmaker, who co-founded the SOLUS Collective in Dublin, studied in Paris for several years before moving to New York on a Fulbright Scholarship. She is currently based in Brooklyn. AOIBHINN Ní SHÚILLEABHÁIN BSc 2005 Having received a
first class honours degree in theoretical physics in 2005, Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin also found time to enter and win the Rose of Tralee contest the summer she left UCD. The Mayo native worked as a secondary school teacher, and as a television and radio presenter, is fluent in Irish and toured the world as lead singer with traditional Irish music band Ragus. She was an ambassador for Dublin, City of Science 2012 this summer. This highachieving alumnus is studying for her PhD in mathematics education at Trinity.
paula rowan
Expanding her business
MATHS WHIZZ
aoibhinn ní shúilleabháin Making maths fun
8 | UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
| ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT | HELENA NOLAN BA 1989, MA 2008 Having achieved a joint second in
2010, the Kilkenny-born writer went one better when she was awarded the 2011 Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. Her work has appeared in several journals and anthologies and she has been shortlisted in a number of prestigious competitions, including Fish and Strokestown.
RICHARD HAYDEN BAgrSc 2002 The Kilkenny native has been busy in his role as Operations Director for the Yorkshire-based Sports Turf Research Institute, the organisation responsible for the preparation of the pitches for Euro 2012 this summer. He also worked on the Olympic cross-country course in Greenwich Park that was used for the equestrian events. Hayden will travel to Brazil for the World Cup in 2014. Closer to home, he has looked after both the pitch at Croke Park and the show jumping arena at the RDS.
JOHN STAPLETON BSc 1986 ANDY O’BRIEN BA 2000, HDipEntrep 2001 Stapleton, a
Roscommon native and co-founder of Little Dish, a range of nutritionally balanced ready meals for children, is no stranger to success in the food business. In 1997 he sold the New Covent Garden Soup Company for £22m, having established the company – and arguably the chilled soup category – just a decade earlier. His new partnership with co-founder Hilary Graves has already
secured listings in Tesco and Superquinn in Ireland and in Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s in the UK. In March 2011, fellow Irishman and UCD graduate Andy O’Brien left Innocent Drinks, a company that invested in Little Dish, to join the team as sales director. With revenue of almost £8m for 2011, forecast sales of £13m this year and great excitement surrounding the brand, it looks like he made the right move.
Ireland, will take up the post in January 2013, succeeding Dr Chris Fitzpatrick. Dr Sheehan becomes the first woman to hold the position of Master of the Coombe and only the second female Master in Ireland, joining fellow UCD graduate Dr Rhona Mahony, who was elected Master of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street in 2011. Sheehan was awarded a PhD from Trinity College in 2011 for her research into blood loss during caesarean section.
NIALL BRESLIN BA 2003 The
BILL SHIPSEY SC BCL 1979
former Blizzards front-man who is now pursuing a successful solo career has been on our screens quite a bit during the past twelve months. In addition to triumphing as winning coach on RTÉ’s The Voice of Ireland, he also collaborated with Damien Dempsey, Danny O’Reilly and The Dubliners on “The Rocky Road to Poland” – Ireland’s official team song for the European Championship campaign. Things could have been very different indeed had he stuck with his rugby career. The Ireland Under-21 and former Leinster professional might have been celebrating a third Heineken Cup win instead.
Thousands gathered in Dublin on June 18 to see Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy leader, invited to Dublin by lawyer Bill Shipsey who founded Amnesty International’s artist-engagement programme. He organised the sold-out Electric Burma fundraiser concert at which she received the Ambassador of Conscience Award by Bono. He is also counsel for Sean Quinn and family.
DR SHARON SHEEHAN, BMedSc 1997, MB BCh BAO 1998 In May the Board of the Coombe Hospital announced the election of Dr Sharon Sheehan as Master designate for the period 20132019. Dr Sheehan, who is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist and senior lecturer at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street and the Royal College of Surgeons in
CATHERINE DE GROOT BSc 2005, BArch 2008 Founder and owner of BakeMyCake, Catherine DeGroot is an architect who found herself out of work and turned the situation around by starting her own business from her own kitchen. BakeMyCake specialises in novelty and bespoke cakes, cupcakes and milkshakes. De Groot recently opened a second shop, on South Anne Street in Dublin.
LAWYER
bill shipsey
Masterminded the Aung San Suu Kyi concert
BROADCASTER ANNE DOYLE BA 1972, HDipEd 1973
MUSICIAN
niall breslin Finding new talent
THIRTY-THREE YEARS AFTER READING HER VERY FIRST NEWS BULLETIN, THE POPULAR BROADCASTER MADE HER FINAL APPEARANCE ON RTÉ ON CHRISTMAS DAY 2011. DOYLE, WHO ALSO HAS A HDIP, WAS A LIBRARIAN AND A TEACHER BEFORE WORKING BRIEFLY IN THE CONSULAR SERVICE AT THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. SHE JOINED RTÉ IN 1978.
UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
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| INTERVIEW |
FIRST LADY Her appointment as Master of the National Maternity Hospital was a watershed moment for women in obstetrics but Rhona Mahony is far too busy to dwell on gender bias. After nine months on the job, she’s focused on best possible outcomes in a system that’s under pressure. The UCD graduate slows down to talk to Antonia Hart.
I
n the tradition of past Masters, on New Year’s Day, Dr Rhona Mahony knocked on the front door of the National Maternity Hospital in Merrion Square (despite the main entrance now being around the corner in Holles Street) and was admitted through it as Master. She’s the first woman in the history of the State to run a maternity hospital, though Dr Sharon Sheehan has since been appointed as Master of the Coombe Women’s Hospital. “She’s a good friend,” Rhona Mahony says, “and coincidentally was at the same school as me. And UCD. So the Holy Faith Convent, Clontarf, followed by UCD, seems to be a good route for budding female Masters.” The office of the Master isn’t what I’m expecting (a first-floor room with a view through swagged curtains down Dublin’s
Georgian Mile to the mountains) but a simple, ground floor office, practical and more or less viewless. Nor does the new Master fit the popular stereotype of the medical consultant, being neither gruff, taciturn nor dismissive. Her style is informal and energetic, and she chats about everything her job involves, from individual babies and the hospital building to the welfare of the staff, with enthusiasm. The role of Master caps Dr Mahony’s long association with the hospital, which started in her days as a medical student and continued through jobs as registrar and consultant. She has also been a patient: she gave birth to each of her four children at the hospital. Mahony left Clontarf ’s Holy Faith Convent in 1988 and started pre-med at UCD in the same year. “It was one of the best years of my life, and I have to say that was reflected in my results,” she
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says. “I scraped by, just about. I joined the fencing team. I thought that the fencers would all be philosophy students, and that by joining the team I’d get some sort of cultural elevation, and would spend the whole time debating whether I was, or not. As it turned out, most of the fencers were science students and some of the most practical people in the world.” She lived at home, which she admits was a disadvantage of being a Dublin girl: “I envied the gang up from the country sharing apartments and having so much more fun. No-one had money or food to speak of but it didn’t matter. Back then no-one had money anyway, it was the late eighties and we could make a fiver go a long way. I had home comforts, but at that age you’d happily sacrifice those.” Evidently she knuckled down when it was necessary: she took first-class honours in obstetrics and gynaecology, and in
| INTERVIEW |
“Obstetricians need to be cool and calm. They need to be kind. They need to be good with their hands. These are not gender-specific qualities.”
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| INTERVIEW | 1994 was tossing up between the Mater and St Vincent’s University Hospital for her internship. She plumped for Vincent’s, because being on the DART line made it handier, and there, looking after children with cystic fibrosis, she worked with Muiris Fitzgerald, consultant in respiratory medicine and later to be appointed Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. “He was a real hero coming through medical school, one of the greats in the history of Irish medicine. It was fantastic to start with someone of his calibre, not just in terms of his medical knowledge and ability, but also because he was a great teacher, extraordinarily talented, interesting, well-read. I only worked with him for a few months at the beginning, but maybe that’s a very important time.” Mahony seems to have met lots of good people at just the right points along her medical career. At St Vincent’s she also worked with Diarmuid O’Donoghue, whom she describes as very brilliant and very good fun; and her decision to specialise in obstetrics was influenced by Colm O’Herlihy, “probably the best teacher UCD has seen”. It was during the couple of months she spent on his teaching programme in 1993 that she first came under Holles Street’s particular spell. “Professor O’Herlihy ran a superb obstetric training programme. Everyone turned up to give their lectures, the whole hospital was there to teach you, there was tremendous emphasis on you as a student, a tremendous wish to teach you and a real generosity. He was another of the greats, and certainly influenced my decision to come into obstetrics.” I comment that her mentors were all men, and that obstetrics still seems to be male-dominated, but Mahony rejects this. “Not at all. Professor Crowley in the Coombe, Orla Sheil here, lovely Mary Holohan in the Rotunda, Fionnuala McAuliffe. No shortage of women to bring you along, good women who are encouraging and committed.” Aren’t there still many more male consultants? “Well, if you were to count up the number of consultants there would be a preponderance of men, but I have never,
On New Year’s Day, Mahony was admitted as Master of the National Maternity Hospital.
in all my years of training and practice, felt that my gender has been in any way a disadvantage. Nor has it been an advantage, by the way – it has simply not been an issue. Obstetricians need to be cool, have an ability to think clearly, and be calm. They need to be kind. They need to be good with their hands. They need to be strong and have good physical stamina. These are not gender-specific qualities. In fact things are turning – I would think if we had this interview in 15 years’ time there would be a preponderance of females. Ten years’ time, even.” It’s to be hoped that the whole vista, from the National Maternity Hospital’s point of view, is different in ten years’ time. The seven years of Mahony’s term may seem a luxuriously long stretch, but change can be slow as molasses. Discussions about rebuilding the hospital on a new site have been going on for the past 14 years. Since 2008, the NAMAcontrolled Elm Park site on the Merrion Road, nicely situated for St Vincent’s, has
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seemed the most likely spot for the brand-new hospital that would release the NMH from its current cramped Victorian quarters. “Certainly at the moment we are feeling the pinch in terms of numbers coming through this site. We are under tremendous pressure, some of which comes from the infrastructural difficulties imposed by an old building. The last significant refurbishment of Holles Street was in the 1930s, but the day-to-day nature of our business has changed significantly since then – we now have a neonatal intensive care unit, scanning departments, different operating theatres – so this building is now by no means fit for purpose.” Dr Mahony can’t say how long we will be waiting for one which is. “Look, I would like to think that I would see it all happen in my tenure but obviously things are volatile at the moment. There’s been a commitment by government to look at the question in detail. We are just waiting to see what will happen.” Though hampered by outdated premises and our universal economic restrictions, the hospital is taking in
| INTERVIEW | more patients than ever: Mahony says the hospital has not been this busy since its foundation in 1894. Last year 10,000 babies were born there. She points out that the birth rate in Ireland is about 17 per thousand, whereas in Germany, for example, it’s about eight per thousand. “In terms of European fertility we are at the high end of the spectrum. When I was leaving university a lot of the young, reproductive cohort emigrated because there weren’t the jobs in Dublin to support them. When the economy grew, school and college leavers were able to find jobs here and settled here and went on to have – in European terms – relatively large families.” The hospital has also seen the effects of immigration and conglomeration. “Up to a quarter of Holles Street patients are not Irish nationals: from 1999 we saw a huge, sudden influx of immigrants of reproductive age. Young families live in our urban sprawl and commute all along the coastline from Swords and Balbriggan to the north, or as far down as Arklow to the south, or from Mullingar into Dublin. All of that catchment is coming to us.” Patients keep coming and the hospital keeps coping. Mahony, appropriately, salutes the staff. “I am hugely impressed by them. And I don’t just mean doctors and midwives, because it’s a whole team of people – the porters, the lab staff, the librarians, everyone involved in the safe delivery of the babies. There’s a great dedication to the job, and a lot of extra hours are put in which aren’t necessarily recognised or paid for, but are done because the job has to be done. That’s how we work here. The babies dictate our schedule, mums’ needs dictate our schedule and it’s impossible to ignore that. You need that level of commitment and you have to love it.” As Master, Mahony still delivers babies, does clinics and ward rounds and is actively engaged in her foetal medicine work. “I have a huge management role as well, obviously. Like any CEO of any organisation, you’re responsible for seeing that the work gets done as efficiently as possible. I also have responsibility for strategic planning, determining how
Holles Street is going to develop over the next seven years.” The hospital is a national tertiary referral centre for complicated pregnancies – often for mothers who are going to give birth to very premature babies, or to babies with particular complications. “Some of these babies are born as early as 24 weeks, and weigh as little as 500 grammes. The support required to get these, the youngest and most vulnerable of our citizens, on the road, is enormous, in terms of requirements both for medical skill and resources. The technology is driving forward all the time, and over the last ten years the survival of babies born here at less than 26 weeks has improved by about 30 per cent, so advances in neonatal intensive care are quite a success story in this country.” The work in which the neonatal unit is engaged is a reminder that childbirth is unpredictable and risky. “You have a brilliant outcome and feel on top of the world. You have an adverse outcome and are very upset. But you must always keep your head, because the next problem is never far around the corner in obstetrics.
Mahony wants the government to prioritise obstetrics in the provision of our national health service. “If you think about it, in our society there are few things as important as the safe delivery of our children. One in eight babies born in the State is born in Holles Street. A baby that is born healthily has hopefully a long life to live and will contribute enormously to society. But where a baby has had a more adverse outcome, life can be very challenging for that baby and the family. We need to make sure that those children who do have challenges are cared for in our society, and that their families are supported. Sometimes it can be very difficult for parents to access the care they need for children with particular problems.” While she’s obviously keen for her new purpose-built hospital, and for resources to ease pressure, Dr Mahony wants to do more than sit and wait. This year she has founded the National Maternity Hospital Foundation to raise money for, in particular, the neonatal unit. Padraig McManus, ex-head of the ESB, is the
“There’s a great dedication to the job, and a lot of extra hours are put in. That’s how we work here. You need that level of commitment and you have to love it.” One minute everything is lovely, next it’s sheer chaos. Things aren’t always as they seem, and situations change very quickly.” It’s not just the medical aspect but the human aspect which can be tough. “Things don’t always go well, and it’s difficult to see what some young families go through in their efforts to have children. We are always very aware that there can be tragedy behind the scenes. Sometimes I see young couples and I know everything in their lives will change from this point on. It’s very hard to look at their faces as they begin to understand what’s facing them. I’m always inspired by how resilient people can be, by how well they can cope.”
Foundation’s chairman, and Miriam O’Callaghan its patron. “When money is a problem we have to look at generating it. A good deal of the money the Foundation raises will buy specific pieces of equipment for the neonatal unit and fund related research.” The Foundation is already raising money through events – like March’s fashion show at the National Gallery, and a Bloomsday outing in June – and is now looking for corporate partnerships and private individual donors. I’d be surprised if the liveliness, ability and compassion of Holles Street’s new helmswoman didn’t encourage a few more people to rummage in their pockets for the hospital’s benefit. n
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| SUBJECT MATTERS |
EVERYONE SHOULD DO IT
Would the world be a BETTER PLACE, and would we make better sense of it, if we all studied ECONOMICS or PHILOSOPHY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; or CLASSICS? No question, EVERYONE should do at least one, say three experts in the field as they SHINE A LIGHT on their pet subject ...
ECONOMICS PROFESSOR DAVID MADDEN HEAD OF UCD SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS
WHAT IS ECONOMICS? Essentially, economics is the discipline which studies the choices people make, how choices are affected by incentives and the trade-offs involved in making choices. So economics is not just confined to traditional areas like production, consumption and banking, but can also be applied to areas like love, sport and leisure. Continued overleaf.
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| SUBJECT MATTERS |
CLASSICS PROFESSOR THERESA URBAINCZYK HEAD OF UCD SCHOOL OF CLASSICS
WHAT IS CLASSICS EXACTLY? The word “classic” means “of the highest rank or quality” so it’s a study of the best. The best Greek and Roman writers. Today the term refers to the study of ancient Greece and Rome from about 800 BC to 500 AD, although others would disagree about the dates. Not just ancient history, but philosophy, literature, drama, and archaeology. We even have a Classical Museum on campus.We study not only Greece and Italy but the whole Mediterranean and beyond, if you consider that Alexander the Great travelled as far as India, and the Romans conquered Britain. Continued on page 18.
WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? Philosophy is the study of the most central issues facing humanity. Philosophers try to provide answers to questions about the nature of reality, our place in the universe, how we should live, what we can know, and the very meaning PROFESSOR MARIA BAGHRAMIAN of our lives. Philosophy is the oldest of all HEAD OF UCD SCHOOL academic subjects, in fact the word “academy” OF PHILOSOPHY was the name of a school of philosophy established around 385 BC, by Plato, one of the greatest philosophers of all time. Philosophy, Plato said, “begins with wonder” but that wonder is not exclusive to a few university teachers or students. In my experience, children often ask the most interesting philosophical questions. So, I think philosophy is just as, if not more, natural to us as music or painting. Continued overleaf.
PHILOSOPHY
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| SUBJECT MATTERS | IN RECENT TIMES, IF MORE BANKERS, POLITICIANS THE GEOGRAPHICAL HEART OF ECONOMICS IS WHERE? HAD STUDIED ECONOMICS WOULD WE BE IN THE Like most academic disciplines, the geographical heart is at the MESS WE ARE IN NOW? I suspect we still would be. great American universities: Harvard, Chicago, Princeton and MIT. Without in any way wishing to absolve them from their role Closer to home, economics is probably strongest at LSE, Oxford in the mess, you could say that bankers and politicians both and Toulouse. And of course in Ireland, UCD is the best! behaved rationally given the environment they were in. It ANY WELL-KNOWN IRISH ECONOMICS WRITERS/ was the inadequacies of the regulatory system which meant SCHOLARS WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT? Historically that bankers and politicians did not face sufficient constraint Francis Ysidro Edgeworth (from Longford) made many in their actions. They also (correctly) predicted that even if fundamental contributions to microeconomics as did Terence they did mess things up, they would not be held to Gorman (from Fermanagh) and the great Roy Geary (first account, or at least only to a limited director of the CSO) while primarily a degree. One of the fundamentals of statistician, was also a distinguished economics is that people respond economist. More recently, two of the to the incentives facing them, and most celebrated Irish economists are unfortunately that’s exactly what Peter Neary, a trade theorist who worked PROFESSOR DAVID MADDEN bankers and politicians did. at UCD for nearly 30 years and is now at HEAD OF UCD SCHOOL NAME AN INSTANCE IN Oxford, and Cormac O’Grada, a worldOF ECONOMICS THE RECENT PAST WHERE renowned economic historian who is KNOWLEDGE OF ECONOMICS just retiring from UCD. Both Peter and MIGHT HAVE PREVENTED A Cormac received the gold medal of the Royal Irish Academy which CRISIS? A neat example which was suggested to me by is pretty much the highest local honour any Irish academic can a colleague is the way in which mobile phone licenses in receive. Ireland have been allocated. Simple knowledge of economics CAREERS WHERE ECONOMICS WOULD HELP? suggests that these licenses should have been auctioned (as in Apart from the obvious one of being employed as the UK). Instead we had our “beauty parades” which created a professional economist, the training involved in their own problems. economics is useful for any career where analytical, IS ECONOMICS A SCIENCE? An old chestnut, but on coherent thinking is required. balance, I think so. It involves the application of logical, FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO YOU MIGHT BE coherent analysis to issues, it comes up with testable SURPRISED TO DISCOVER HAVE A hypotheses and tries to test those hypotheses in a rigorous ECONOMICS way. One of the extra dimensions to economics which makes DEGREE? it so fascinating is that when trying to formulate economic I guess the two most policy, for example, we typically have to invoke value famous are Mick LEO CULLEN judgements. So economics draws not just upon science but Jagger and Arnold ECONOMICS, also moral philosophy. Not to mention economic history etc. Schwarzenegger. But UCD It is a very rich and varied discipline. you could also include CAN ECONOMICS HELP YOU MAKE SENSE OF THE Tiger Woods and Arsene WORLD? Yes, definitely. As I said before, economics is the Wenger. discipline which looks at the choices which people make and CATE BLANCHETT how they respond to the incentives facing them. So clearly, ECONOMICS, trying to understand why people do what they do must MELBOURNE help you in making sense of the world around you. CAN IRRATIONAL PEOPLE BECOME MORE RATIONAL BY STUDYING ECONOMICS? Economics can show you how your actions don’t always conform to what we call “rational choice”. But that doesn’t always mean that you will change your actions in the future! One of the really interesting areas of economics at the moment is behavioural economics, whereby insights from psychology are now being incorporated into economics to try to explain ARSENE WENGER why many people seem to systematically behave ECONOMICS, TIGER WOODS “irrationally”. UNISTRA
ECONOMICS
ECONOMICS, STANFORD
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SUBJECT MATTERS
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WHY STUDY PHILOSOPHY? about all aspects of life and the world, to Philosophy introduces students to understand and organise complex ideas some of the most important human and information and to find solutions for ideas and questions and helps them abstract problems. Philosophy also teaches to better understand who they are good writing and communication skills. PROFESSOR MARIA BAGHRAMIAN as well as the world they live in. In Students learn to explain and communicate HEAD OF UCD SCHOOL that sense, I think philosophy is an difficult material to construct and articulate OF PHILOSOPHY indispensable part of our efforts strong arguments. WHAT ARE THE JOB PROSPECTS to come to terms with the “human FOR PHILOSOPHY STUDENTS? condition”. Philosophy can also Philosophy is connected with all areas of human life and thought. help us to live better because it encourages us to consider what Philosophers explore ideas relevant to medicine, law, literature, it means to lead a fulfilled life and how we can reach fulfillment science, artificial intelligence, and the media, for instance. Several both at a personal level and in social and political settings. studies in the US and UK have shown that philosophy graduates do TELL US SOME OF THE THINGS THAT YOU LIKE better than graduates with other non-professional degrees. In fact, ABOUT STUDYING PHILOSOPHY? It teaches us one survey done in the UK in 2006 showed that philosophy graduates intellectual and moral humility. After just a short period of were less likely to be out of work than graduates in physics, biology, studying philosophy, we discover how fallible all our claims to
PHILOSOPHY
knowledge are. Philosophy also helps us to be open-minded and to appreciate different perspectives. In an age when the arrogance of those in power has led to the economic and political disasters we are witnessing, these are very valuable “habits of the mind”. DOES PHILOSOPHY HAVE A SOCIAL OR POLITICAL ROLE? Philosophy is a very democratic and egalitarian subject: in doing philosophy, you are only as good as your arguments. Social status, age or even educational background are irrelevant. Philosophy teaches students to be critical and to develop independence of thought. In that sense philosophy is subversive, in the best sense of the word, because as the great 20th-century German philosopher, Hannah Arendt said: “There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous” and thinking is exactly what philosophers and their students do well. Philosophers often contribute directly to important ongoing social and political debates. Only today I started reading a new book where the philosopher John Broom evaluates the moral dimensions of climate change. DOES PHILOSOPHY HAVE ANY PRACTICAL VALUE? In addition to its intrinsic value and interest, philosophy teaches skills valued by many employers. In particular, philosophy students learn to think critically HARRISON FORD PHILOSOPHY, RIPON
IT, economics, or mechanical engineering! WHAT SORT OF CAREERS DO PHILOSOPHY GRADUATES PURSUE? Irish philosophy graduates have become prominent in the media, civil service, film and theatre, advertising, music, journalism, television presentation, teaching, NGOs, human resources and sports. Film makers Neil Jordan and Lenny Abrahamson, playwright Conor McPherson, journalists Fintan O’Toole and Sean Moncrieff, for instance. George Soros, the money magnate, filmmakers Terrence Malick, Wes Anderson and Ethan Coen, musicians Sting and Philip Glass, writers TS Eliot and Mary Higgins Clark, comedians Steve Martin and Ricky Gervais, and political visionaries Vaclav Havel and Aung San Suu Kyi are all philosophy graduates. HAVE THERE BEEN ANY IMPORTANT IRISH PHILOSOPHERS? Some of the most important philosophers of the 18th century, George Berkeley and Edmund Burke for instance, were Irish. University College Dublin was established by the philosopher, John Newman. In the past two decades, a large number of Irish philosophers have taken up jobs at Oxford, Princeton, University College London, Kings College London, Boston College, as well as at Irish universities. They are producing exciting and imaginative work in all areas of philosophy and are influential voices in their field. WHAT ARE THE PLANS FOR THIS ACADEMIC YEAR? Three major conferences, including one on women and politics. We are also celebrating UNESCO World Philosophy Day on November 17 with a workshop on why (and if ) we should tolerate religion. Information about these events is on the School of Philosophy’s webpage: www.ucd.ie/philosophy and on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/UCDPhilosophy
AUNG SAN SUU KYI MATTHEW
CONOR
PHILOSOPHY,
MC CONAUGHEY
MC PHERSON
OXFORD
PHILOSOPHY, UCD
PHILOSOPHY, UT
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| SUBJECT MATTERS | HOW IS THE STUDY OF CLASSICS RELEVANT TO more radical form of it – a direct democracy where the people TODAY? The works we study were considered over the actually formed the government and decided on the day-tocenturies to be the best ever produced, the high points of day running of their city. the most creative and imaginative cultures the world has AND WHAT WOULD YOU SAY A DEGREE IN ever seen, and the products of the most highly educated CLASSICS IS USEFUL FOR? Well, it’s not like accountancy and reflective men (and it is men, of course). So their works where what you learn you will use in the first day of your job, have vast funds of wisdom that are still helpful but it does teach you a unique set of skills like examining today. The Greeks and Romans wore different your sources, thinking for yourself, learning clothes, spoke different languages, had different different disciplines and applying skills across technologies and different religions those disciplines. and fought with different weapons, WHAT DO YOUR STUDENTS but the motivations and ambitions GO ON TO DO? A retired that drove them are the same that we colleague came up with this list: face today: lust for power, control, barristers, judges, diplomats, PROFESSOR THERESA URBAINCZYK defeat, jealousy, hatred, revenge, teachers, IT, finance, banking, HEAD OF UCD SCHOOL love, and the pursuit of happiness. social work, the media, the UN’s OF CLASSICS The ancient Greeks and Romans saw international terrorism section, that human nature was unchanging civil service, academics, librarians, in the midst of the chaos of rising and crumbling empires and journalists, an Olympic athlete, a composer (of music), opera political careers, warring nations and booming and slumping singers, archaeologists and having their own businesses in economies. And they captured this in what they wrote, thus tourism, dog grooming, catering, and fashion. I suppose if one many of their written works have a timeless quality. That’s thing marks out those who choose classics it’s that they’re a bit one of the reasons why the study of classics is relevant. different, individualists, people who want to know more about Another is that it has constituted the mainstay of education their own world. We find that people choose our courses out of systems in western Europe for centuries, and has driven the a mild interest and then become hooked. Some of these carry forging of our national and individual identities in strong and on and end up doing MAs and PhDs. subtle ways. DO YOU HAVE TO KNOW GREEK AND LATIN? No. BUT AS YOU SAY, WOMEN DON’T GET A LOOK For undergraduate level you can study everything in
CLASSICS
IN, AND THEY HAD SLAVES? We are not saying that everything about ancient society was perfect! But given the conditions of the time, Athens in the fifth century BC was remarkably progressive. They would have laughed at us thinking we lived in a democracy since they had a much
MAEVE BINCHY CLASSICS, UCD
BORIS JOHNSON CLASSICS, OXFORD
CHRIS MARTIN RYAN TUBRIDY
CLASSICS, UNIVERSITY
CLASSICS, UCD
COLLEGE LONDON
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translation. We don’t expect any knowledge of the languages but we do teach both. We find that students, by the time they come to the MA, are keen to learn Latin and Greek because they understand by then that you do lose something in translation. IS THE SUBJECT GOOD FOR MATURE STUDENTS? Of course. One student took classics after she retired and went on to do her BA, MA and PhD and recently published her thesis as a book at the age of 73. ARE ANY FAMOUS IRISH PEOPLE CONNECTED TO THE CLASSICS? There’s James Joyce of course. If you want to understand Ulysses you have to have read Homer’s Odyssey. Oscar Wilde was a classics student at Trinity. Seamus Heaney’s poems are imbued with classical references, and he is a past president of the Classical Association of Ireland. Professor Brian Arkins of NUI Galway has written a book about Greek and Roman themes in Yeats called Builders of My Soul. Frank McGuinness has adapted several Greek tragedies for the modern stage. There’d be very few authors who don’t owe a huge debt to their ancient forebears. Ryan Tubridy and Caroline Casey studied Greek and Roman Civilisation, and Maeve Binchy taught Latin. ARE THERE ANY FAMOUS PEOPLE THAT WE MIGHT BE SURPRISED TO KNOW WERE CLASSICISTS? There’s Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Colin Dexter, the creator of Inspector Morse, JK Rowling, Stephen Fry, Boris Johnson and Chris Martin of Coldplay. n
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| ARCHITECTURE |
DESIGNS ON THE WORLD The work of Irish architects is transforming cities all over the world, and as UCD’s School of Architecture celebrates its centenary this year, DR SANDRA ANDREA O’CONNELL links Architecture’s alumni to ambitious plans for projects overseas.
W
hen Irish monks left their centres of learning to bring spiritual enlightenment to mainland Europe during the dark medieval ages, they returned to their native shores empowered by the knowledge of a new building style. The result was Ireland’s unique medieval ecclesiastical architecture style, the Hiberno-Romanesque, a blend of Irish pagan imagery with European building culture that reached its highpoint with the world-renowned 12th-century Clonfert Cathedral in Co Galway. Centuries later, today’s Irish architects are setting forth from their places of education to make an important contribution to the global architecture culture. UCD’s School of Architecture, which celebrates its 100th year anniversary this year, has played an important role in the international success of Irish architects – from those who left in the first half of the 20th century to work with the great Modernists to today’s practices which are being commissioned to design universities and key cultural institutions from Britain to mainland Europe, Egypt, the Middle East and South America. As current head of School, Professor Hugh Campbell says, “the centenary year has been as much about looking forward as celebrating past achievements. It’s what we do as architects – we project possible futures.” This commitment to shaping the future of the built environment has resulted in a number of exciting and much-lauded projects by UCD alumni.
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GRAFTON ARCHITECTS’ acclaimed Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan, for example, won them the 2009 inaugural World Architecture Award, while O’DONNELL + TUOMEY have been three-times finalists for Britain’s most prestigious architecture award, the Stirling Prize, with a fourth nomination in 2012 for the Lyric Theatre Belfast. HENEGHAN PENG architects have accumulated a plethora of international design competitions – from an elegant bridge across the middle Rhine in Germany (designed with Mitchell + Associates) to the masterplan for the Palestinian Museum at Birzeit University near Ramallah. Millions of spectators will have crossed Heneghan Peng’s landmark ‘Central Bridge’ at the 2012 London Olympics. Spanning over Carpenters Lock, at the heart of the London Olympic Park, the structure has been ingeniously designed to adapt into two single permanent bridges in the ‘Legacy Park’.
IRELAND AT VENICE
The work of these three remarkable, UCD-educated Dublin practices features strongly in the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale (29 August – 25 November) – arguably the world’s most prestigious showcase of architecture. Biennale Director, the distinguished English architect David Chipperfield, has invited both Grafton Architects and O’Donnell + Tuomey to show in the prestigious ‘Central Pavilion’ at the Giardini and the Arsenale, alongside other hand-selected global projects. Both will respond to Chipperfield’s theme ‘Common Ground’ with original work. (Chipperfield also invited the UCD School of Architecture to
| SLUG |
Grafton Architects’ impressive Universita Luigi Bocconi sits comfortably in the Milan streetscape. PHOTO: FEDERICO BRUNETTI.
contribute – second year students will display a collection of models.) Heneghan Peng mark Ireland’s official entry at the Architecture Biennale, having been selected by Commissioner Elizabeth Francis and Curator John McLaughlin through open competition, sponsored by Culture Ireland and The Arts Council. UCD graduate Róisín Heneghan and her American partner Shih-Fu Peng founded the practice in New York in 1999 and relocated to Dublin two years later, when they won a competition to design Kildare County Hall. With projects in London, Germany and Palestine, they are one of Ireland’s successful practices on the international stage. A central motif of their exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale is their evocative design for the Grand Museum of Egypt – a competition they won in 2003 against stiff international competition. The vast 100,000m2 museum is located at the edge of the first desert plateau between the Giza Pyramids and Cairo. Heneghan Peng use the level difference to construct a new ‘edge’ to the plateau, a surface defined by a veil of translucent stone that transforms from day to night. The visitor will move through a monumental forecourt into a shaded entrance area and up a grand staircase to the exhibition galleries, where, for the first time, the pyramids will reveal themselves from within the museum. Heneghan Peng’s presence at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale is respectively commissioned and curated by the UCDeducated architects ELIZABETH FRANCIS and JOHN MC LAUGHLIN. Irish Pavilion Commissioner Elizabeth Francis is Italian-speaking and based in Bologna where she set up the interdisciplinary
Yvonne Farrell and Shelly McNamara, founders of world renowned Grafton Architects.
studio Atelier Francis, focusing on collaborative art and architecture projects. In June 2011, she curated the highly evocative An Cosán Glas sculpture trail in a Bologna park, where 14 Irish visual artists created environmental light sculptures powered by Ri-Ciclo bicycles. Prior to this, she was Elizabeth Francis and John a partner in Mario Cucinella McLaughlin, Irish commissioner and curator for the 2012 Venice Architects (MCA), with Architecture Biennale. offices in Paris and Bologna, delivering landmark international projects such as the Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies at Ningbo, China. The 13th Venice Architecture Biennale – Ireland’s seventh participation – will arguably be the strongest showing yet of
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| ARCHITECTURE | Irish architecture, as the three established practices are joined by the young UCDeducated architects ANDREW CLANCY and COLM MOORE, who will feature in a select show of emerging talent. Having graduated from UCD in 2001 and 2002 respectively, Clancy and Moore have won several RIAI architecture awards, including one for their acclaimed parish centre at the Church of St George and St Thomas in Dublin. Ireland’s official representation at Venice began in 2000 with considerable acclaim when UCD architect TOM DE PAOR built his quirky pavilion, N3, entirely from peat briquettes – a reference to Joseph Designed for theatrical intimacy – The Lyric, Beuys’ “Irish Energy” turf sandwich, Belfast by O’Donnell + Tuomey. shown at Rosc ’77. “It looks like a big PHOTO: DENNIS GILBERT, VIEW. chocolate and, unusually for architecture, it smells,” wrote the leading Irish architecture critic and UCD architecture graduate, SHANE O’TOOLE, who commissioned Ireland’s 2004 and 2006 Biennale entries. Responsible for Tom de Paor’s N3 pavilion was the former UCD architecture lecturer RAYMUND RYAN, who occupies an influential position as curator at the Heinz Architecture Center in Pittsburgh. Ryan recently curated (commissioned by the Irish Architecture Foundation) Working globally from their Dublin office – Sheila Architecture Now, an extensive O’Donnell and John Tuomey. East and West-Coast lecture tour of Irish architects in the US, which Connecting Ireland and the US – Raymund Ryan, Curator formed part of Culture Ireland’s year of Irish Heinz Architecture Center, Pittsburgh. arts in America, Imagine Ireland. BRAVE NEW WORLD – IRELAND AND THE US
PHOTO: RENEE ROSENSTEEL.
“Irish sweat built [American] cities,” President Obama famously proclaimed in College Green on his Dublin visit in 2011. Ireland’s long and enduring relationship with American architecture dates back to 1792 when Kilkenny man JAMES HOBAN (1758-1831) won a competition to design The White House. A trained wheelwright and carpenter, Hoban had apprenticed with architect Thomas Ivory before leaving for the New World, where he established himself as an architect in Philadelphia
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in 1758 and came to the attention of President Washington. In the first half of the 20th century, the US became a natural destination for young Irish architects who were still educated in the Beaux Arts tradition at UCD and sought to immerse themselves in international Modernism.
With the growing globalisation of architecture, Irish architects and graduates also have their focus firmly on opportunities in the Middle and Far East. Following his graduation from UCD in 1945, and a stint with MICHAEL SCOTT, the young architect KEVIN ROCHE left Ireland in 1948 to undertake post-graduate studies with Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He subsequently joined the practice of Eero and Eliel Saarinen, whose Helsinki Railway Station Roche had admired as a student as “the most modern thing we had ever seen”. After the untimely death of Eero Saarinen in 1961 (his father Eliel had died in 1950), Roche and his partner John Dinkeloo completed several Saarinen projects, such as the TWA Terminal at JFK airport, the CBS Headquarters and the St Louis Arch, before setting up Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (KRJDA). Having celebrated his 90th birthday this year, Roche is still actively involved in his practice and arguably Ireland’s most renowned international architect, being the only Irish Pritzker Prize Winner – the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for Architecture. His practice KRJDA has introduced radical new ideas into architecture, such as the integration of landscape design within a building, as in the acclaimed atrium of the Ford Foundation Headquarters (1967) in New York. His spectacular extension wings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are renowned for their restrained Classicism, while the tilted glass façade of the National Convention Centre Dublin (his only Irish project to date) was conceived to celebrate views to Dublin city and the landscape of
| ARCHITECTURE |
Metropolitan Museum of Art Extension by Kevin Roche, Ireland’s Pritzker Prize laureate.
Emma O’Neill’s sculpted interior for the Tom Ford Store, New York.
mountains and sea beyond. Working for a time at Kevin Roche’s studio in Hamden, Connecticut was the young Irish-American architect LORCAN O’HERLIHY. Lorcan’s father was the late Hollywood actor and UCDeducated architect, DAN O’HERLIHY (1919-2005). To supplement his architecture studies, Dan O’Herlihy worked as an actor in the Abbey Theatre, ultimately gravitating to Hollywood, where he was nominated for an Oscar in 1954 for the Bunuel film The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and became famous in the Robo Cop movies. His son Lorcan followed him into architecture, working for example with IM Pei and Partners on the celebrated glass pyramid of the Grande Louvre Museum in Paris before setting up his own practice, LOHA, in Los Angeles. Lorcan’s interest in experimentation with form, colour and materials is evident in his housing projects Habitat 825 and Formosa. The practice has won over 42 design awards and built over 60 projects, including a stunning mews residence in Ballsbridge, Dublin. UCD architects continue to be drawn to the US for work and graduate studies. TONY REDDY, the founder of Reddy Architecture, gained valuable experience there in the late 1970s, working with Kevin Roche and Paul Rudolf before setting up his Dublin-based practice, which also operates a successful London office today. In the early to mid 1990s, UCD graduates EMMA O’NEILL and STAS ZAKRZEWSKI were headed for post-graduate studies in the US, as Kevin Roche had been in the late 1940s; both have since established successful practices in New York city. The daughter of CATHAL O’NEILL, UCD’s former Professor of Architecture, Emma O’Neill is renowned for her exquisite retail designs, having created interiors for Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent as well as Tom Ford’s solo store on Madison Avenue. Stas Zakrzewski worked for the
large US practice Skidmore Owings & Merrill before setting up Zakrzewski Hyde Architects (with Marianne Hyde) in New York in 2002, where the practice designs innovative residential projects such as their Spring Street Condos. As Head of the School of Architecture Professor Hugh Campbell says: “Many of our architecture graduates go on to study in the US now – at Harvard, Princeton, A daring competition winner for South Boston Columbia and Yale.” by Emer O’Daly. Making a splash on the East Coast today is EMER O’DALY, who graduated from UCD in 2004 and obtained a Masters in Architecture from Yale University, and has now returned to teach at UCD. Her Yale research project (supported by the Irish Arts Council) led her to enter the ‘SHIFTboston Why Stop’ international urban design competition, which sought innovative proposals for Boston’s proposed south coast rail extension. Beating off international practices, O’Daly presented her winning proposal at the ‘Why Stop’ forum to a distinguished jury of government, community and business leaders. Her radical
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| ARCHITECTURE | Designing for the Middle East – the Rosewater Hotel Tower at Manama, Bahrain by Henry J Lyons.
Heneghan Peng
Setting the Pyramids in scene – Heneghan Peng’s Grand Museum of Egypt.
urban design proposal located the proposed train station for New Bedford (the end of the line) out into the river, in the form of a Super-Pier, thereby reconnecting the town with the sea. NEW SHORES – THE MIDDLE EAST AND FAR EAST
With the growing globalisation of architecture, Irish architects and graduates also have their focus firmly on opportunities in the Middle and Far East. UCD-educated architects RICHARD DOORLY and PAUL O’BRIEN have led the expansion of HENRY J LYONS ARCHITECTS in China, where the practice supported the OPW with the realisation of the Irish Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 – a cool, contemporary glass structure, representing a modern, high-tech image of Ireland. The practice designed the masterplan for a major new d200 million tourism project on the east coast of China, adjacent to the city of Quingdao. The 300km2 Tangdao Bay Ocean Village provides key tourism infrastructure and a 250-berth marina, arranged around waterfront boulevards and public open spaces. Henry J Lyons also has a presence in Abu Dhabi where it is currently master-planning a luxury resort of beachfront villages and a 7* hotel for the Rosewater Garden and Tower at Manama, Bahrain. SCOTT TALLON WALKER ARCHITECTS are continuing their strong international tradition – which commenced with Michael Scott’s seminal 1939 Irish Pavilion at the New York World Fair. At King Saud University, the largest and most prestigious university in the Middle East, the practice is currently competing the new College of Movement and Sports Science and a 40,000m2 sports
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New campus arrival – the Student Centre at the LSE by O’Donnell + Tuomey.
campus, with a 10,000-seater sports arena. Their strong track record in healthcare design (St Vincent’s Private and the Mater Hospital, Dublin) has enabled STW to expand on this experience by developing their portfolio of educational, sport and healthcare projects overseas such as a new £250m scheme for University College London Hospitals, and a new Royal Marternity hospital in Bahrain. A LOCAL DESTINATION – LONDON
London has been an enduring centre for Irish architects and architecture and a ‘local’ destination for UCD graduates past and present. Born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1962 to Irish parents, UCD graduate NIALL MC LAUGHLIN set up his practice in London in 1992 at the height of the last Irish recession. Together with Heneghan Peng, his multi awardwinning practice is one of two Irish that have designed key Olympic infrastructure. Despite the tough design constraints of the London Olympic site, McLaughlin responded to the challenge of providing housing for 4,000 athletes – with an evocative design solution. Experimenting with reconstituted stone, McLaughlin employed a façade design made from relief castings, based on an ancient frieze in the British Museum that shows parades of athletes assembled for a festival. JOHN TUOMEY and SHEILA O’DONNELL also worked for a time in London, having joined the office of post-modernist James Stirling (1926-1992), before setting up their award-winning practice in Dublin in 1988. They collaborated with fellow UCD practices (including Grafton Architects) on the 1991 Temple Bar
| ARCHITECTURE | Evoking an ancient tradition – Niall McLaughlin’s London Olympics Athletes’ Housing.
PHOTO: OLYMPIC DELIVERY AUTHORITY.
Framework Plan competition, which they won as the architecture collective – Group 91. In recent years, O’Donnell + Tuomey have started to make their mark again on London, where their new ‘Photographers’ Gallery’ opened in May and where their new Students’ Centre for the London School of Economics is on site. In recognition of being “two of Ireland’s most notable architects”, Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey were given Honorary Fellowships by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2010. Earlier in 2012, O’Donnell + Tuomey won an architectural design competition for a new campus for the Central European University in Budapest. The project involves existing historic buildings, two new buildings and courtyards and a new route through the city block – recalling ODT’s proven skill of stitching together city fabric as displayed in their Temple Bar buildings. LOCAL TO GLOBAL
The ability of Irish architects to intuitively respond to context and develop bespoke solutions for each local, cultural, geographic and historic setting is arguably their biggest asset, as they compete in the global architecture arena. Grafton Architects’ acclaimed Universita Luigi Bocconi (2008) emerged as the winner of an international design competition, as it successfully marries building and city. Conceived “as a window to Milan”, the building and its large sunken Aula Maxima provide the passerby with a glimpse of the inner life of this prestigious Italian academic institution, while allowing the university to play its part in the city life of Milan. Following on from their success in Milan, Grafton Architects won an international competition in 2009 to
design a Faculty of Economics for the University of Toulouse and, earlier this year, the new University Campus of Engineering and Technology, UTEC, in Lima, Peru. In this two-stage international competition, four Peruvian practices and Grafton Architects reached the final five. “We thought about their city, far away,” say Grafton Architects in their contribution to the RHA Summer Show and explain how the motif of “cliffs onto the Pacific Ocean that define the edge” of Lima has inspired “a new manmade cliff ” for the campus. Once more, their perceptive reading of local context and ability to deal with complex urban issues – cascading gardens will shelter the university campus from the large inner city motorway – has won them the day in Peru. The work of Irish architects is transforming cities all over the world. While commissions are increasing in scale and complexity – a recent example being Henchion-Reuter’s impressive tropical biome Gondwanaland, which houses 17,000 exotic plants and a rainforest in the German city of Leipzig – the success of Irish architects lies in their ability to adapt (in true monastic tradition) their intuition for the essence of the local with the demands of the global. Ireland’s strong showing at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale is clear evidence that Ireland is now regarded as having an architecture culture of international standing. Writing in the RIAI’s Annual Review, Irish Architecture (vol2), EDWARD JONES, of the renowned London practice Dixon Jones Architects, who taught at UCD’s School of Architecture in the 1970s, predicts a bright future for Irish architects. Even “in distant parts,” writes Jones, one can hear a whisper: “the Irish are coming!” ^
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| PEOPLE AT UCD |
DARING to LOOK The work of writer Mary Lavin, that precise, thoughtful observer of Irish life, is being reassessed and brought to a wider audience. A centenary celebration of her work in New York was an occasion to explain just why Lavin deserves our attention. Belinda McKeon reports.
S
HE FAMOUSLY DESCRIBED the short story as “an arrow in flight”, and at an event in New York to mark her centenary year, the spirit of the Irish writer Mary Lavin (BA 1933, HDipEd 1934, MA 1936, DLitt 1968) seemed present in just such terms: the rooms of NYU Glucksman Ireland House, where the celebration was held, thrilled to the quickness, the precision and the powerful impact of Lavin’s work. “The narrative goes on,” said James Ryan, lecturer in creative writing at UCD, who had organised the day-long symposium with his late wife, Caroline Walsh, Lavin’s youngest daughter and the much-loved literary editor of The Irish Times. Walsh died tragically last December following a short illness, and Ryan spoke movingly of how “delighted” she would have been to hear her mother’s work discussed in so many different and illuminating lights, not just by the three speakers on the day, but by a large audience which included many figures from the world of literature and Irish studies, including Professors Joe Lee
(NYU), Maureen Murphy (Hofstra), Lucy MacDiarmid (Montclair), Kate Costello-Sullivan (LeMoyne) and Mary Burke of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where Lavin was writer-in-residence in the 1960s. Also present were figures who had known Lavin personally, including the historian Margaret Mac Curtain and the writer Cormac O’Malley, who presented several letters and press clippings for display on the day. Also present was Lavin’s youngest granddaughter, Alice Ryan, who worked with her father to realise the event. “Mary Lavin’s name should be on the lips of every lover of great English prose,” said Mary Gordon, McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard University, as she began her talk, “The Many Voices of Mary Lavin”. That Lavin’s work was not more widely known and appreciated was, Gordon argued, “a problem of gender and genre”; to be a short-story writer and a woman both pushed Lavin into a marginal realm, and Gordon was candid about the fact that the passage of time had done little to resolve this situation. This was true in spite of the fact that she
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published regularly with The New Yorker and won recognition including the James Tait Black and Katherine Mansfield prizes and a Guggenheim Fellowship. These laurels notwithstanding, Lavin’s work was not, Gordon suggested, sufficiently fashionable to truly make it past the gatekeepers of late 20th-century literary criticism. “Like Eudora Welty,” Gordon said, “Lavin is a writer of great stylistic and formal range and daring. But her vision is marked by tenderness and generosity. And it is a prejudice of much modernist and post-modernist critical thinking that formal and linguistic rigour cannot be combined with a poignancy or plangency of voice, with a moral vision, with a taste for elegy.” We’d been told by Yeats, Gordon noted, to “cast a cold eye” – but did we have to cast it at all times? Mary Lavin’s work, she said, insisted that we question such limited thinking. In a rich and evocative paper, Gordon illustrated that it was Lavin’s
| PEOPLE AT UCD | OPPOSITE: Mary Lavin, at home. BELOW: The writer, with John Updike, in New York.
“It is dangerous to write what you want to write, when there are no clearly obvious forebears to lead the way.” very turning to that subject matter so often deemed “safe” – the lives of widows, of the mothers of adult children, and the tension betwen women and their mothers – and her mastery of that territory which in fact rendered her work daring, radical and starkly original. “Because,” Gordon said, “it is dangerous to write what you want to write, when there are no clearly obvious forebears to lead the way.” Gordon’s keynote address could not have gone more directly to the point of the event as it was originally conceived by James Ryan and Caroline Walsh; speaking afterwards, Ryan explained that the hope had been to bring the work of Lavin to a larger audience – an audience both of readers and of those who teach Irish literature at US universities. And indeed the second paper of the day, from Greg Londe, Assistant Professor of Irish and Irish-American Studies at NYU, made clear that this reassessment and incorporation of Lavin’s work is already well underway; Londe, like Gordon, teaches Lavin on his own undergraduate and graduate courses, and his talk showed the value of Lavin’s work not only on its own terms but as a lens through which to consider the relationship
between literature and the cultural and historial context in which it is produced. Like Gordon, Londe drew atention to the subtlety and the lightness of touch with which Lavin built her fictional worlds, her focus on the characters rather than, for instance, the larger national questions of a time like the early 1970s; the Troubles, the women’s movement. All of these shadows and situations are present in her work, but not overtly – and that, Londe’s paper suggested, is what gives her work its lasting value. This notion was furthered memorably by the day’s other keynote speaker, author Colm Tóibín (currently also Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University), who spoke on Lavin and the poetics of solitude. Describing how he had discovered Lavin’s stories in his local library in Enniscorthy as a teenager, and how he later came to see her in 1980s Dublin, taking coffee in Bewleys or reading in the National Library, Tóibín brought Lavin into the room as a vivid and powerful presence. “Rereading her stories now,” he said, “it is clear that they include a great sense of mystery and wisdom, and a use of voice and tone which seems effortless and might be easy to miss. But part of their power, also, comes from what has been left out – and that is more complex and, in her work,
harder to be sure about. Mary Lavin was more interested in families than in politics; more interested in the drama around the solitary figure than the drama around Ireland or around large questions of identity.” “Mary Lavin had read Jane Austen, and she knew that nations change, but other things don’t, and it is the job of artists to care more about the other things.” If anything, he suggested, Lavin used the public traumas of Ireland as a metaphor for private pain, rather than the other way around. He closed by recounting how, as a young journalist in the 1980s, he had interviewed Lavin at her Co Meath home overlooking the Boyne. He asked her about the uses of autobiography, he said, and in return she gave him the greatest of gifts: “her wise and calm gaze.” Audience members then had the opportunity of meeting that gaze for themselves, with a screening of the 1992 RTÉ documentary on Lavin, An Arrow in Flight, which was introduced and afterwards discussed by James Ryan. Rarely seen, this intelligent and quite beautiful documentary was itself a gift; a glimpse into the mind and the world of a writer who was truly unique. Such was the success of the New York symposium, a Mary Lavin Commemorative Event will take place at Newman House, 85-86 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, on Tuesday 23rd October 2012 – register to attend at ucd.ie/alumni/events Speakers include Professor Frank McGuinness, Professor Anne Fogarty and Professor Thomas Kilroy. Some promising offshoots of the Lavin Centenary are already in train as plans are underway to establish a Mary Lavin Scholarship Fund. In addition, a bequest of Lavin papers to UCD Special Collections is in the pipeline. All this will do much to accomplish the centenary objectives to bring the work of this great author to a wider audience. ^ For more details, please contact James Ryan, lecturer in Creative Writing, at james.ryan@ucd.ie
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FINANCIAL PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE How financially
independent
will you be in retirement?
I
t’s well known that we are all living longer; today’s life expectancy figures show that the average person retiring tomorrow aged 65 years has a life expectancy of 20 to 25 years and many of us live for far longer. Coupled with this our living standards have been on the increase in the past twenty years. According to Deirdre Kelly of The Pensions Board, “our consumer market research shows that the majority of people, seven out of 10, say that the current State pension of €230.30 per week wouldn’t meet all their needs in retirement – would it meet all your needs? You should understand how the plan for your pension will help to meet your expectations in retirement. To get an approximate idea of how much you should be saving to meet your expectations in retirement you can run the Pension Calculators on www.pensionsboard.ie”.
PENSIONS AT WORK By law an employer must provide all employees with access to a Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) where there is no company pension scheme or where there is a company scheme but not all members can fully access it. There is no obligation on the employer to contribute to the PRSA. In addition employees are legally entitled to information about their employer’s pension scheme or a PRSA. A pension is an important benefit for employees and can play an important part in the approach to recruiting, rewarding and retaining the right staff.
FURTHER INFORMATION To find out further information about your pension options log onto The Pensions Board website www.pensionsboard.ie
Deirdre Kelly, Pensions Board
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| MEMORIES |
Writer Conor Brady, in the former forensic laboratory at Earlsfort Terrace. As one of the last Arts students to attend Earlsfort Terrace, he remembers the corridors teeming with students and “having to elbow your way into the lecture theatres”. The space now contains an IMMA exhibit and education remains a function of the space.
CharaCter Building
Conor Brady, former editor of The Irish Times, explains how a history degree at UCD formed the background for his first novel.
C
an a pre-used, former newspaper editor realistically hope to move from years of writing starchy editorials to something as freeflowing as a novel? We were the last Arts graduates from Earlsfort Terrace; the class of 1969. Lucky people, we came out into an Ireland filled with opportunities. I had been editor of Campus UCD News, now consigned to history. So I opted for journalism. I did 37 years in and out at The Irish Times, latterly as understudy to Douglas Gageby, following him as editor in 1986. Turning out editorials constrains one’s writing style. The prose is buttonedup. Editorials are carefully weighted
and balanced, understated in tone and cautious in conclusion. Punctuation and grammar have to be perfect. The venerable deputy editor, Bruce Williamson, warned me that misuse of the semicolon would be unforgivable. Could one actually write English after all that? I mean, English from the heart; English that could evoke joy and sorrow, achievement and frustration; that could create real, living characters? I didn’t know. I suspect that a great many people – certainly many journalists – feel they have “something creative” inside them if they could only get it out. But it’s damnably hard. The training one gets in a newsroom should condition one to suppress emotion, to stick to the facts, to focus on detail rather than interpretation. Other journalists had done it. But
Maeve Binchy had started writing creatively in her thirties. John Banville had been a writer before ever he became a literary editor. Poets, like colleague Gerard Smyth, had been working in verse since their teens. In fact, my starting point was even less propitious than I have described. After The Irish Times I had been appointed as a Commissioner of the new Garda Ombudsman. I spent much of my sixyear term immersed in criminal files, negotiating the dry, parched language of police investigators and lawyers. If there was any creative space left in my mind, I reckoned, the Commission had probably driven it out. I had always heard authors say “write what you know about”. And so, I began to draw a story together using my Irish
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| MEMORIES | history courses at the Terrace as a foundation. I had done my MA thesis on security policy in Ireland so I knew a bit about that subject. And so much is preserved in the walls and buildings of Dublin Castle that I decided to locate my plot and my principal character, Detective Sergeant Joe Swallow, there in the closing decades of the 19th century. I started throwing sentences and paragraphs into a document on my hard drive. I had no working title for the story. And while I knew how to start it, I had no idea how it might end. I wrote 100 words sometimes over lunchtime or travelling on the DART. Maybe I would write ten words waiting for a kettle to boil. Before I knew it I had a story of sorts – with text to spare. I told nobody at first. Not my wife, my family or my friends. I was terrified of failure, of humiliation. My fingers hovered over the ‘delete’ key a thousand times. And then one day I realised I had a first draft; crude, ragged and inconsistent but a draft, nonetheless I had lunch with the late Caroline Walsh, then Literary Editor of my old newspaper. Nervously, giving nothing away, I told her I had “something” in contemplation. “Send it to Dermot Bolger at New Island,” she said. And I did. When an editor submits his work to other editors it’s a bit like a doctor submitting to other doctors for treatment. It requires humility and trust. But
The New Island designer came up with an evocative, atmospheric cover. Finally, there was a book. Three months on, it hasn’t displaced James Joyce or Dan Brown. But it has done well and it sells steadily. It has been well received by the reviewers. Perhaps the strangest part of the process is the realisation that one has created a cast of characters who are now real in the minds of readers. People ask questions and inquire about them as they might about family members or old friends. They tell you they like such-and-such a character but that they dislike or distrust another. And they delight in spotting what they believe are inconsistencies in behaviour or contradictions in the storyline. A bizarre aspect has been the way that characters take on lives of their own. They refuse to conform to what you have planned for them – like children, only more so. They end up doing things the author has not envisaged. The bad ones can turn out to have some good. The good ones are often less upright than one has imagined. Now the publishers say they want to look at another book of Detective Sergeant Swallow’s adventures. I think I can do it. In fact, I have 50,000 words on the hard drive. I have learned two things. It’s never too late to start something new. And the semicolon isn’t as important as I used to think. ^
The library at Earlsfort Terrace.
Maeve Binchy had started writing creatively in her thirties. John Banville had been a writer before ever he became a literary editor. Poets, like colleague Gerard Smyth, had been working in verse since their teens. the patient should emerge the better. Inconsistencies of spelling and style were unearthed and dealt with ruthlessly. A somewhat jagged tale emerged as a polished, easy-flowing narrative. A title was found – A June of Ordinary Murders.
MEDIA TYPES
Brady’s Contemporaries at UCD KEVIN MYERS Journalist and writer Myers graduated in 1969 with a degree in History. A columnist with the Irish Independent, he is well known for his trenchant prose and right-wing position. HENRY KELLY
Television presenter and radio DJ, Kelly began work as a journalist, becoming Northern Editor of The Irish Times in the 1970s. In 1976, he moved to London and from 1987 to 1996 presented Going for Gold, a popular
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TV quiz show on BBC. OLIVIA O’LEARYJournalist and writer, O’Leary joined RTÉ in 1972 as a current affairs presenter. She was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature by UCD in 2011.
| SCIENCE |
THANK YOU
We are deeply grateful to all the individuals and companies who, through their philanthropic support and investment, are enabling UCD to realise its aspirations and ambitions for Science and create a world-class national resource, as well as advance scientific endeavour worldwide. UCD Science Centre is a €250m+ development planned in three distinct phases. Phase II is currently under construction and is set for completion in autumn 2013. This is the most significant science development in the history of Irish third level education and will be home to 2,000 undergraduates, 1,500 Masters and PhD students and 1,000 researchers – the largest science community in Ireland. The cutting-edge facilities have been designed to support the life cycle of the scientist, from primary and secondary school students to undergraduates to ambitious PhD students and technology entrepreneurs. Importantly, the Centre’s research facilities will be highly networked nationally and internationally through research and education collaborations and strategic partnerships.
The Innovation Hub
Campaign for UCD Science Centre Funding for Phase II complete UCD Science Centre, a transformational resource for Irish Science
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING ALUMNI, FRIENDS AND PARTNERS OF UCD WHO ENDORSE AND SUPPORT OUR VISION FOR SCIENCE: GEORGE AND ANGELA MOORE; EDDIE AND HILDEGARDE O’CONNOR; DR CORMAC AND ANNE KILTY; THOMAS AND DEIRDRE LYNCH; SHAY GARVEY; JIM FLAVIN.
THE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN FOUNDATION
INVESTING IN YOUR FUTURE
| SLUG |
ANIMAL kingdom
The Veterinary Hospital at UCD is equipped to deal with the most complicated animal health issues, as well as giving final year students the hands-on experience they require. Claire Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connell talked to the Dean of Veterinary Medicine, UCD, Professor Grace Mulcahy. 32 | UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
| VETERINARY SCIENCE |
H
ow do you get a horse onto an operating table? Or take an X-ray of a gorilla? Or manoeuvre a large dog for a CT scan? Those are the kinds of things you have to think about in a veterinary hospital. And whether it’s a baby cheetah with a heart condition or a horse with colic, a household pet with a tricky problem or even the occasional elephant, the Veterinary Hospital on campus at UCD caters for all. The facility is the only teaching vet hospital in Ireland. It opened in 2002 as part of the new building when the School moved from its former home in Ballsbridge, where it had been for almost a century, explains Professor Grace Mulcahy, Dean of Veterinary Medicine, UCD, and Professor of Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology at UCD. “Before the move we were in very old, unsuitable cramped conditions,” she recalls. “But the building here, which comprises our academic facility and our hospital, was specially built. It’s the first time we have had the luxury of working in a purpose-built hospital.” And from the wall of photos in reception showing happy pet customers, right through to the stables, winches and custom-built imaging equipment inside the hospital, the facilities focus on the patients that come in from around the country. “Cases are referred for treatment which can’t be provided at other veterinary practices,” explains Professor Mulcahy. “We get the complicated cases, the things that require advanced surgical intervention or advanced diagnostic procedures like CT scans, or endoscopy in small animals.” Often the first contact in the hospital is with a final year veterinary student, because working in the hospital is an integral part of the training at UCD. “To have
a high-quality veterinary education you need to provide hands-on clinical experience to students, so in the final year of our vet programme the students don’t have lectures, they are rotating through the hospital at all times,” says Professor Mulcahy. Veterinary nursing students and vets who are training to be specialists also work in the hospital alongside senior, specialist veterinary clinicians, and the fees paid for animal treatments helps to subsidise the expense of education. In general, pet owners have a very high expectation of the standard of care, and the veterinary hospital’s services are in great demand – there’s even a waiting list for some surgical procedures.
“People expect advanced medical and surgical treatment for their animals like they would themselves get in hospitals.” “People expect advanced medical and surgical treatment for their animals like they would themselves get in hospitals – they are quite unfazed by their pets having CTs or MRIs or surgeries,” says Professor Mulcahy. “And equine surgery and medicine also tend to be highly technical and professionalised.” So who comes in? Lots of pets for a start – the hospital can see as many as 4,000 dogs each year, one of the most common complaints being joint trouble, explains Mulcahy. “You have heard of footballers and their cruciate ligaments,” she says. “Dogs can have trouble too and there are various surgical procedures that can be used to treat that successfully.”
Around 1,000 horses – sport and thoroughbred – also come into the Belfield facility each year, many of them with intestinal problems such as colic, and Professor Mulcahy points out the hydraulic equipment installed to winch anaesthetised horses in from the stables for scans or procedures. Zoo animals benefit from the hospital’s expertise too, but sometimes it’s easier to bring the equipment and vets to those patients rather than the other way around. Diagnostics, pathology and research are also important elements at the hospital – and the training it provides – and keeping farm animals healthy has become an increased focus, explains Professor Mulcahy. “The agri-food industry has come to the fore in the recession as one of the things that may pull us out of the financial morass that we are in,” she says. “Particularly the dairy industry, which has been projected to grow rapidly with the doubling of the national dairy herd. Our farm animal vets and the students we are training are more concerned now with preventive medicine and with herd health rather than just with the fire brigade service to the individual animal. While that is important for dealing with individual clinical cases, our vets are proactive in maintaining the health of herds, dealing with nutrition, fertility, lameness, infectious disease, making farm visits, inspecting housing conditions and suggesting solutions.” Back at the hospital, one of the big rewards for students and staff is seeing an animal get better after they have intervened, and hearing from the humans too. “We get great satisfaction from the positive feedback from our clients,” says Professor Mulcahy. “And the hospital is crucial to our training, so it is a facility we greatly value.” ^
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FOOD IS GOLD Ireland’s AGRI-FOOD sector is FLOURISHING. We talk to UCD graduates who head up GLOBAL businesses, so precious to this ECONOMY, and look at how we can continue to grow as a MAJOR FORCE in the food-export industry.
T
ake a look at the ISEQ 20 and you’ll notice that food and drinks companies feature heavily on the list. They have sat there comfortably for years and, as the banks and construction companies went tumbling, Irish food companies remained buoyant. If you’ve been to McDonald’s, scoffed a slice of pizza, eaten supermarket fruit and veg, or taken milk in your tea recently, you’ve sampled the produce of those companies currently performing so well on our stock exchange. And Irish food is popular well beyond our shores: whether it’s dairy, beef, seafood or whiskey, Irish products are turning up on tables around the globe. Which is very good news for our economy.
“Globally, there will also be a increase over the next ten to 15 years in the number of middle-class consumers with increased disposable income.” One in Irish eight jobs – 230,000 – is currently linked to the country’s agri-food sector and agricultural exports give back to the economy in away that other exports don’t. Professor Gerry Boyle, who studied economics at UCD and is now director of Teagasc, explains: “For every €100 million of gross exports it has been estimated that about €50 million is added to GNP in the agri-food sector,” he says. “That would contrast with about €20 million that is added by the pharma and ICT [information and communications technology] sectors, which are more import-intensive. [In agriculture] we use fewer imported inputs to produce our exports.” And we export in vast quantities. Ireland supplies food and
34 | UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
agricultural products to about 160 countries around the world, and last year did so to the tune of nearly €9 billion – up about a billion on the previous year. The figures might be even more impressive if we didn’t have a restraint on production, particularly in the very profitable milk sector. But that will soon change. “There have been quotas in existence since 1984 that put a cap on production, but that is going to be lifted in April 2015,” says Professor Boyle. “That is probably the basis for a lot of optimism, as once the quota is lifted, you would expect the volume of production to grow considerably.” UCD agricultural science graduate John Moloney, the group managing director of Glanbia – whose portfolio of brands include Avonmore, Kilmeaden and Yoplait – agrees that the ending of the quotas will be hugely significant. “It presents an opportunity for dairy production to expand for the first time since quotas were introduced in 1984,” he says. “Glanbia is committed to facilitating this expansion. An increase in milk output of between 50-60 per cent from 20152020 will drive significant economic value over Glanbia’s milk supply catchment area in the east and south-east of Ireland.” It’s not just dairy products that we send overseas – beef production is a mainstay of the agriculture sector here too; we are the largest exporters of beef in the northern hemisphere (Brazil out-beefs us, in case you were wondering). So what’s the secret to our livestock success? Good grassland is a major factor. “The main crop we are good at is grass, and apart from New Zealand, there is probably no other country in the world that relies as much on grassland as we do,” says Professor Boyle. “Up until maybe 15 years ago we didn’t look upon it as such as valuable crop, but we have put in a lot of research in Teagsac in how to produce it to maximise the conversion of grass into animal products, meat and milk.” So who is eating and drinking Irish? About 40 per cent of our
| FOOD SCIENCES | total food and drink exports go to the UK market, 35 per cent to other continental European destinations and 25 per cent to international markets outside the EU. Another UCD agricultural science graduate Aidan Cotter, CEO of Bord Bia, explains how our imports are developing. “We are exporting more to everywhere,” he says. “It is most likely that continental European and international and particularly Asian markets will figure more prominently in the future. What we are exporting to China is predominantly dairy products, with pork the second largest.” John Moloney says Glanbia has a strong focus on building their global businesses. “These businesses are addressing global markets with sales in over 110 countries,” he explains. “We are building businesses in West Africa, the Middle East, China and south-east Asia. Global food demand is forecast to rise by 70 per cent over the next 40 years. There will also be a marked increase over the next ten to 15 years in the number of middle-class consumers with increased disposable income. Ireland can and will be a secure, sustainable supplier to global markets of quality dairy and beef products.” But in a global economy you can’t rest on your laurels. Owen Killian, who also studied agricultural science at UCD is now CEO of Swiss-based Aryzta, one of the world’s largest baking products firms – is adamant that Ireland needs to commit to its food industry with passion and innovation. “When I ask people around the world what Ireland is famous for, people mention U2, Bono, maybe Guinness, St Patrick’s Day gets a good airing; it would be great if people would respond ‘excellence in food’,” he says. “If we are to live up to this potential in this vital industry, it will take an enormous change in our commitment. Will we have the appetite for risk? Will we be single-minded in pursuit of our goals and will we have this unity of purpose? Can we overtake New Zealand in dairy exports? It’s more
important than beating the All Blacks and maybe more achievable. Can we develop a reputation for sustainable farming practices? Can we become the silicon valley of research and knowledge in food? It won’t happen by chance.” Research and innovation is ongoing, and while Ireland has a name for being a green island, we need to quite literally prove it on the world stage. Bord Bia has a sustainability programme that measures the carbon footprints of dairy farms. Cotter explains: “Our vision is that every farm and food business would sign up to the sustainability agenda so that we can go out into the marketplace as a world leader in sustainability, covering things such as carbon, water and biodiversity.”
“Can we overtake New Zealand in dairy exports? It’s more important than beating the All Blacks and maybe more achievable.” And as the world’s population continues to grow and resources come under more pressure, there will be plenty to keep the food sector on its toes. “Sustainability is going to become more and more of an issue in the food industry,” says Cotter. “Those who can demonstrate they are doing the right thing are going to gain significantly in the future marketplace.” If we can prove our commitment to sustainability, if we can increase milk production significantly when the quotas are lifted, if we can couple our natural resources with a pool of well-educated and switched-on agricultural science graduates who enter the industry with passion, knowledge and expertise, then the world of food exports is our oyster. ^
AN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE DEGREE IS A HOT TICKET All SEVEN BILLION (and counting) of us on the planet need to eat. But for such a precious commodity in our lives, food is facing some pretty serious challenges, ranging from a lack of food security to a disconnect between food and good health. At UCD, students of agricultural science are becoming more and more skilled in the science of tackling such problems. Agricultural science is a red-hot ticket now, with increasing numbers of students taking the course. “Approximately 320 undergraduate students commence in first year annually,” says Professor Alex Evans, Head of UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science. If you compare that to four or five years ago, this is an increase of more than 100 students. Why are so many now signing up for Ag? “Many of the programmes have a STRONG FOCUS on SCIENCE,” explains Evans, including agronomy – the science of plants and developing new crops that may be more resistant to drought and the impact of climate change – and the science of managing and breeding animals for food. “All of these advances will significantly IMPACT our ABILITY to feed the world’s growing population,” says Evans, who describes how UCD’s programmes in agriculture span the entire spectrum of food production, from how to grow it to how to ensure it is safe and who is likely to eat it. One of the newest
developments in the programme is human nutrition, with research ongoing into more personalised nutrition and raising awareness of healthy eating. “We have RISING RATES of dietrelated chronic conditions like obesity, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease,” says Evans. “Staff at the UCD Institute of Food and Health are looking at the impact of nutrition and how we can perhaps influence consumer behaviour to address some of those diet-related diseases.” There is also an angle on crops, not just as food but as sources of green energy. “More and more students have an APPRECIATION of the importance of this subject and are voting to study or have their career in this sector.” Every year, the final year students ORGANISE a JOBS FAIR that attracts exhibitors to showcase and recruit. The range of careers is wide – food science, agricultural consultancy, research, sales and marketing, business management, teaching, advisory, banking, ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING, journalism and even TV presenting – but interestingly the nature of who is employing the graduates is changing, says Evans. “If you look at the range of employers over the last number of years, there is now relatively little semi-state or state employment; now it’s mainly PRIVATE SECTOR employers.”
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| RUGBY |
Perfectly PITCHED
A new and exciting chapter begins for Leinster Rugby as the long-awaited move to Belfield is complete.The result of rigorous planning on the part of the club and the University, the potential rewards for Irish rugby are enormous.
I
f you look back for one moment
to a facility within David Lloyd Riverview
small move around the corner to UCD,
in professional sport you fall
which housed the team, management,
but a giant leap organisationally.
back. Only a few years ago the
medical and conditioning staff. And it was
players trained in the grounds
from a position of strength that Leinster
establish a new high performance training
of Old Belvedere RFC, changing
Under this partnership Leinster will
Rugby announced in May 2011, less
unit on UCD’s Belfield campus adjacent to
at times out of the boot of their cars and
than a week after securing the province’s
UCD’s state-of-the-art Institute of Sport
completing gym sessions in a shed out of
second European title in three years,
and Health (ISH). In addition, Leinster
the Anglesea Road club. In the latter years
details of exciting plans for the forging
will avail of UCD’s extensive suite of
of the last decade the province moved a
of a High Performance Partnership with
top-class synthetic and grass pitches as
short distance geographically up the road
University College Dublin. It was another
well as the recently constructed 50-metre
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| 37
| RUGBY | swimming pool and complex. In time, the
move which began in March 2012. The
had the benefit of having come from
new athletics track will also benefit both
Leinster Rugby story moved another step
one of the traditional rugby-playing
organisations. The pooling of resources,
forward when the administrative arm
schools and hold clinics for young, up-
coupled with the obvious advantages of
of the organisation, incorporating the
and-coming rugby club players twice a
basing their Academy of Rugby in an
accounts, domestic game, community,
week during the summer. Benefits have
internationally recognised university, will
marketing, referees, schools, ticketing,
already been seen, with the emergence
be crucial to the development of the game
and media and communications
of the likes of Shane Horgan and more
in the province.
recently Séan O’Brien, for example, from
For Leinster Rugby
investing greater resources
Chief Executive Mick
into the Youths game,
Dawson, who joined the
which is flourishing.
organisation in November
According to Dawson,
2001, it will see many years
“The Academy is very
of planning and logistics
conscious of encouraging
come to fruition and he is
every player to go to
confident that the move
college or have a trade;
is the right one. In time,
the reality is that you may
he feels, the benefits of
not be good enough to
the relationship between
progress or you may get
Leinster Rugby and UCD
an injury which puts a
will become more evident.
stop to your rugby career.
“All teams at this level are
The chair of the Academy
looking for an edge. A significant edge can be as tiny as a half a per cent in training or fitness. If this can come via the collaboration of Leinster with UCD, this would be a wonderful advantage, not just to the province but to Irish rugby as a whole.”
ABOVE: An artistic depiction of the province hangs in the foyer of the new Leinster Rugby Headquarters. RIGHT: Dave and Rob Kearney hold aloft the Heineken Cup trophy.
There is no doubt about the high
[Frank Sowman] and the entire Academy Board are very hot on that.” Leinster Rugby has leased the grounds once owned by Philips, adjacent to the Belfield campus, formerly occupied by the UCD Boat Club, now accommodated in
quality of the current fixtures. The
departments formally moved to their new
the high performance gym at the new
management of Leinster Rugby
office in the Newstead Building.
Student Centre. The squad, coaching
feel players will benefit from UCD’s
There is another area where the synergy
staff and Academy personnel moved
physiological and biochemical testing
of these two ambitious institutions
into the purpose-built facility in June
platforms and sports medicine facilities
may prove beneficial. The cultivation
2012 and it is hoped that the new facility
in their Institute of Sport and Health.
of homegrown talent is vital and the
will help inspire the next generation of
The quid pro quo for UCD is that there
improvement of Irish rugby must start
provincial and international talent.
will be huge opportunities for mutually
from the ground up. “There are 130 staff
beneficial research in areas such as high
in Leinster Rugby because, not only do we
have happened without the financial
performance science, bioengineering
administer the professional game but we
support of David Shubotham in
and sports physiology. Educational
are also in charge of the amateur game
particular, government funding and the
collaboration will see an increasing
– club rugby in the province, juniors,
assistance of Bank of Ireland Private
number of Leinster players enrolling in
schools, the Women’s game and the
Banking, and our sincere thanks go to
UCD courses, using the flexible modular
Leinster Academy,” says Dawson. “We
all those who assisted with the move.
UCD Horizons curriculum to prepare for
teach “the Leinster way” to a very broad
Hopefully Leinster Rugby can continue
a career after rugby.
base – so necessary for the game on every
to grow and develop this season and over
level and for the next generation.”
the coming years as we build on what
A UCD Consultative Group met regularly to iron out any logistical and administrative issues ahead of the initial
Leinster Rugby has been very keen to encourage rugby players who have not
38 | UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Dawson adds: “None of this would
has been a fantastic period at all levels of the game.” ■
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RE CONNECTIONS
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RE-CONNECTIONS Whether it’s four years or 40 since you graduated, find out what your fellow classmates are up to. Our thanks to all who submitted details, some of which are reproduced here. For more, see “Reconnect with Friends” on ucd.ie/alumni 2000s ZELIE ASAVA BA 2000, PhD 2010 I finished my PhD in 2010 and am a lecturer in film studies at University College Dublin and IADT in Dun Laoghaire. My monograph on racial representations in Irish film and television is under contract with Peter Lang Ltd and I was the recipient of their Young Scholars award for 2011/12.
JAMES KINSELLA MMgt 2010 I recently accepted a position as an environmental engineer at SABIC (Ibn Rushd) in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, having completed an MSc in Environmental Science and Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. I am the head environmental engineer with responsibility for ensuring quality environmental performance of our operations. I’m currently developing, implementing and updating environment procedures to minimise risks and meet environmental statutory requirements, as well as evaluating and improving environmental awareness programs and conducting environment awareness training for employees and contractors.”
DECLAN FALVEY MBS 2005 I recently accepted a position as director to set up and run the financial and treasury operations of Forrester Research
(NASDAQ) in Zurich. After seven years of banking experience (four and a half of those with UBS), working across various investment banking and wealth management units as an analyst and, most recently, treasurer, a change was needed. Forrester, a global research and consultancy company have tasked me in a treasury capacity to set up the Swiss entity which will serve as the booking centre for their non-US revenues. It’s a challenge to set up a new business entity for a major global research firm and help it on its course for further growth. Some of the key challenges after the provision of a treasury and finance infrastructure will be to further align the global sales divisions strategy to the booking model. As Forrester desire to be on the acquisition trail, further aims will be to seek out best fits for the firm.
MICHAEL CUMMINGS PhD 2007 Since finishing my PhD in 2007, I have taught strategy at Babson College in Babson Park, Massachusetts. I have recently assumed the position of faculty director for graduate blended learning with responsibility for both the East Coast and West Coast programmes. More travel and less classroom time for the next two years will be a real change of pace. I am looking forward to the challenge.
TIZIANO CROCE DBS 2000 I am currently working as chief
VISIT ucd.ie/alumni to RE-CONNECT with more classmates
GAVIN MANLEY BA 1996
2000s
JAMES KINSELLA MMGT 2010
operating officer TIZIANO CROCE of Rail Traction DBS 2000 Company (RTC), an Italian freight railway undertaking based in Verona. I oversee all aspects of RTC’s business relating to train operations, rolling stock fleet management and personnel training. In addition to ensuring that all trains are operated reliably and safely, I am responsible for the safety and security of staff and assets, and I guarantee that all operations are conducted with concern for the environment and railway standards and regulations. Recently, I have started up as shareholder and director, the first and, so far, only railway training centre recognised by the Italian Ministry of Transport that provides training for train drivers, checkers, conductors and rolling stock inspectors, as well as consultancy in the fields of railway safety. www.trainingsrl.it
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| RE-CONNECTIONS | SHANE KIERNAN BBLS 2004 I was awarded a Fulbright–CRH Award in Business Studies which will support my pursuit of a masters degree in health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health. This is a very proud moment for me and I would like to acknowledge the huge contribution my BBLS has had on my ability to have such a fulfilling career to date, which has lead to this fantastic honor. I am proud to call UCD home and look forward to promoting the institution whenever I can while I’m in the US.
FIONA LEIGH DipEmpL 2006, MBS 2007 I am currently the CEO of a new start-up online promotional business called Unipupil. I have almost 20 years’ experience of HR management, business development and leadership. I spent 13 years with Intel where I was responsible for large recruitment campaigns, was an employee advocate and lead several transition projects. I have two years’ experience as a business development director for a HR company and two years’ experience as a CEO of an international e-learning business based in Dublin. I have an MBS in management consultancy from UCD Smurfit School of Business and a postgraduate Diploma in new business development from DIT.
JER HAYES BA 1997, PhD 2010 I am a psychology graduate (BA 1997) and work in the computer science field (PhD 2010). I’m currently working on a research project for IBM and the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) to understand and minimise the environmental impact of converting wave energy into electricity. This involves deploying acoustic sensors into the sea to gather acoustic data to produce one of the largest continuous digital libraries of underwater acoustic data and covers everything from the sound of a ship’s propeller to rain
hitting the surface of the ocean, to the calls marine mammals such as dolphins and whales make.
MARICKA BURKE KEOGH MSc 2009 After leaving Google, I set up Online Marketing in Galway, a new not-for-profit online network BERNARD PIAT which was established as a place for MB BCH BAO 1992 marketers to share best practices, knowledge and ultimately enable small businesses to make the most out of free online tools. I recently moved back to Galway to start a role as a senior online marketing executive in Enerit – an energy management software company.
PETER FRANCEV MA 2001 In 2011, I was accepted onto the PhD programme in English at the University of Leicester. In 2012, I will be presenting a number of conference papers, most notably in Beirut, on Lord Byron.
JASON RYAN PhD 2007 I recently changed employers. I now work as a senior lecturer in marketing in the state university system in California – the largest university system in the US.
1990s GAVIN MANLEY BA 1996 After eight successful years at AR New York, I have accepted a new role at Laird + Partners, a leading fashion advertising and branding agency to support the growth of the agency’s business globally.
JOHN JENNINGS BA 1999, HDIPEQUALST 2001
my business in 2007 to pursue an MSc in technology MARICKA BURKE KEOGH, MSC 2009 and management from the University of West England (UWE, Bristol). I withdrew from the course in 2008. I am currently settled back in Delhi, India.
BERNARD PIAT MB Bch BAO 1992 After a few years GP training and working in the UK, I returned to Mauritius as a GP, in 2000, got married to Coralie and now have two kids, Victor and Zoya. I am in a single practice but I share the surgery with other therapists. In addition to my GP work, I also work with a life insurance company twice a week.
RAKESH ARORA BE 1992, DipMaSc 1993 After leaving Dublin in 1996, I worked out of India on offshore and on-site software projects in the US and Europe. In 1999, I moved to the US, where I worked both for consultancy and product companies. 2004-2007 was spent running my own consultancy business from Delhi, India. I closed
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DERMOT MURRAY BSc 1992 I recently transitioned from the philanthropy to the sustainability side of corporate social responsibility (CSR) when I joined FedEx’s Memphis-based corporate sustainability team in late 2011. In my new role I am overseeing the development of FedEx’s CSR/
| sustainability initiatives and ensuring that initiatives receive appropriate resource allocation from responsible parties across the FedEx lines of business. I would love to hear from other CSR/sustainability professionals in the UCD alumni community.
JANE (O’BYRNE) MC CARTHY
JANE MC CARTHY BCL 1997, DES 1999 CLAIRE LORD BBLS 1996
BCL 1997, DES 1999 I am now a psychotherapist and counsellor working in private practice in Greystones, Co Wicklow. www.janemccarthy.ie
JOHN JENNINGS BA 1999, HDipEqualSt 2001 Since my last update I have been creating a lot of visual art. My art has been exhibited all around the world (including Ireland). People can track my exhibits by country on www.sites.google.com/site/johnjenningsgallery
STEPHEN SHEEHAN BComm 1994 & ELIZABETH SHEEHAN (O’CONNOR)
sustainability data metrics collection and reporting processes to improve our performance in key rankings such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and Carbon JOHN RYAN Disclosure Project, PHD INDUSTRIAL and to enhance our MICROBIOLOGY 1996 reputation among key external stakeholders such as enterprise customers and socially responsible investors. I’m also providing programme management, oversight and guidance for strategic IT,
BComm Int’l Spanish 1994 We were classmates back in 1994, we married in 2003 and now we have three young boys. Stephen is director of securities finance at Citi in the IFSC having previously worked for ABN Amro in Dublin and London. Elizabeth spent several years in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and the Netherlands after graduation working on international drinks brands. She returned home in 1998, joining Mars Ireland and for eight years was head of marketing for PepsiCo in Ireland. She now heads up her own marketing consultancy and an online and wholesale jewellery business, D&E Diamonds.
RE-CONNECTIONS
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of our services, enabling businesses around the world to achieve certification to ISO Standards. At present, I am overseeing the opening of our London operation, which, like our Dublin office, will provide ISO management system certification and inspection services to organisations globally. I am an expert and advisor in the area of environment, energy, carbon management, industry greening and SME development. I have delivered numerous seminars, workshops and training courses internationally on sustainable energy management (ISO 50001) and I am currently chairman of ISME – Ireland’s only independent SME representative organisation. I am a founding member of the Association of Accredited Certification Bodies in Ireland, a member of the Irish Environmental Standards Consultative Committee (ESCC), and an expert to the European SME representative group – UEAPME.
CLAIRE LORD BBLS 1996 Claire Lord was promoted to partner at Mason Hayes & Curran in April 2012 and practises on both the corporate team and the charities and not-for-profit team. Her corporate practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and corporate finance and corporate reorganisations. She has established a reputation in the renewable sector, particularly in the sale and purchase of wind farm projects and she advises clients in the charities and not-for-profit and sport sectors. She is also the author of the Irish Chapter of International Securities Law Handbook (Kluwer Law International, 2010, Third Edition).
MICHAEL MC LOUGHLIN JOHN RYAN PhD Industrial Microbiology 1996 I recently became director of services at Certification Europe Ltd, a company I co-founded in 2001. I had previously been commercial director. My new role in the organisation involves strategic planning to achieve a global presence
BA (Economics & Statistics) 1992 I am a foreign direct investment (FDI) specialist who has worked internationally in both the public and private sectors. Originally from Dublin, I joined IDA Ireland as a graduate trainee. I moved up the ranks, developing inward investment
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in the healthcare and financial services sector. I later moved to Chicago with IDA where I was initially responsible for securing investment projects for Ireland in the electronic and engineering technology sectors and later in life sciences, particularly pharmaceutical and medical device companies. In 2002, I moved to the private sector where I was business development director for a group of Irish outsourcing and marketing companies. I later joined International Business Development Group Limited (IBDG), a specialist consultancy in economic development and trade investment, where I worked as a director for nine years. Today I am the CEO of ConnectIreland, a new global referral programme that seeks to tap into Ireland’s 70 million plus members of the diaspora. The aim is to target small- and mediumsized companies around the globe and encourage them to set up operations in Ireland. I live in Malahide with my wife, Aisling, and our three children.
DEBORAH MC HUGH BBLS 1996 Deborah McHugh was promoted to partner at Mason Hayes & Curran in April 2012. Practising in employment law and benefits, she advises pension scheme trustees, employers and individuals on all aspects of pensions law. As an experienced litigator, she advises clients on a variety of pensionrelated disputes, including Pensions Ombudsman and Pensions Board investigations and enquiries.
1980s JAMES MC CORMACK BE 1986 I recently accepted a position at FEI located in Eindhoven as principal system architect. Before that I was employed at Philips Lighting as function owner/system architect. After almost 26 years at Philips, I felt it was time to freshen things and try a new area and a new type of technology and market. Fortunately, an opportunity presented
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itself that made sense. So after checking the opinion of classmates at the 25th UCD Engineering Class Reunion last January, I decided to go for it! So I will be leaving the world of consumer electronics and LED lighting control to enter the world of professional high-resolution electron microscopes (TEM) with new technical challenges and different market drivers. Thanks to all at the class reunion for the good and helpful advice!
NIALL TIERNEY
BE 1989 After graduating in July 1989, I moved to Japan in October of that year with 65 other new graduates. I am still here. Japan has been good to me. I have always had interesting jobs in telecoms or IT. I married a local and have three wonderful children. I keep in touch with many Irish people in Japan, some who were in UCD with me.
BA 1988 I am the cofounder of Contego Intellectual MARIA MAHER Property, a BA 1986, DBS 1989 specialist intellectual property firm of solicitors in London. I was formerly a Senior Associate at Clifford Chance LLP in London. I was described in Legal 500 (2004-2005) as being “a highly rated individual with a strong reputation” DEBORAH MCHUGH and Legal 500 BBLS 1996 (2005-2006) said I was “boosting” the trademarks team at Clifford Chance.
MARIA MAHER
LORCÁN Ó HÓBÁIN
BA 1986, DBS 1989 I set up AcuWell in 2007 and started practising acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine part-time. I leapt at the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy from my day job in 2010. Since then I have been practising acupuncture and TCM full-time, based at my clinic in Ranelagh and, one day each week, in Athlone. It was a radical change from my career in international business but I love it. I am following and living my dream!
BComm 1987, MBS 1988 I recently completed a PhD in DCU Business School that examined the emergence of dynamic capability in SMEs. The research provides evidence of the need for a combination of learning, identifying and assimilating new knowledge and the use of business contacts to drive the development of small- and medium-sized firms.
PADRAIG MAC COLGAIN
PATRICK FLYNN BCL 1983 Following graduation in 1983, I qualified as a solicitor in 1987 with A&L Goodbody Dublin. I subsequently worked for Ulster Investment Bank and its IFSC operation overseas. I founded my own law firm ten years ago. Flynn O’Driscoll Business Lawyers now employs 17 people in Dublin providing business law advice to operations in Ireland and overseas. I am currently the managing partner.
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VALERIE GORDONWALKER BA 1982 I have more than 28 years’ experience as a senior global HR professional, having operated at MD level in both industry (retail and energy) and the financial sector (investment banking and insurance). I now have a portfolio career which includes international consultancy work, being a senior advisor to the FSA (with a focus on governance and remuneration), guest lecturing on HR strategic matters, and I sit on the IoD City business panel that feeds into the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee.
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1970s DONNCHADH MAC CARTHAIGH
PADRAIG MAC COLGAIN BE 1989
BAgrSc 1974 I am a professor of applied sciences in the Weihenstephan University, Freising, Germany but have been on leave of absence since October 2009 to act as founder dean of agriculture in Adama Science and Technology University in Asella, Ethiopia.
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and Determinism with SUNY Press www.sunypress.edu in New York. Chance is invoked by many to explain evolution, the origins of life and the order in the universe, as well as human freedom and happiness. The major thesis of this book is that a profound understanding of Aristotle’s views is highly relevant to the debate on these topics. I provide a new interpretation of Aristotle’s philosophy, arguing strongly that human freedom is not a unique exception in an otherwise determined world. I argue that evolution cannot be understood merely in terms of natural selection, but requires to be completed by final causality.
WILLIAM PHELAN
PATRICK FLYNN BCL 1983
JAMES MC CORMACK BE 1986
IRENE O’GORMAN BA 1989, DBS 1990, MBS 1997 Since graduating from three UCD programmes, I have worked in a variety of marketing roles in Ireland and abroad – in South Africa and Australia. NIALL TIERNEY I’ve been with BA 1988 Deloitte as head of marketing and business development since 2006 and as the firm has more than doubled in size in the last seven years, I’ve enjoyed being able to grow my own team and have hired a number of marketing and business graduates from UCD’S Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business. I attended the Executive Edge Day there in March and it reminded me of all that’s exceptional about the School: first-class lecturers, a commercially focused dynamic learning environment, excellent facilities and rich networking opportunities with alumni of the college and others. Staying connected with UCD and its alumni offers immense benefits
BComm 1972 Following graduation in 1972, I joined Lisney as a trainee surveyor and, having qualified, went on to work in Finnegan Menton and Hamilton & Hamilton (now Savills) before commencing practice as The Phelan Partnership in 1983. I retired in 2008 and now am a partner in the introduction agency TwosCompany. ie. I have had the enormous pleasure since then in introducing many men and women who are in long-term relationships.
MICHAEL O’SULLIVAN SJ BSocSc 1974 I am currently director of the DCU MA in applied Christian spirituality at All Hallows College, Dublin and co-director of the Spiritual Capital Ireland Centre. I am the author of How Roman Catholic Theology Can Transform Male Violence against Women and coeditor of Spiritual Capital: The Practice of Spirituality in Christian Perspective. I am a member of the editorial board of Spiritus and of the promotions committee of the International Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality.
JOHN DUDLEY BA 1971, MA 1972 I have published Aristotle’s Concept of Chance: Accidents, Cause, Necessity
SEÁN MAC BRIDE BCL 1972, LLM 1976 I could be described as a country attorney, an athlete and a judge. I owe a debt of graditude to the Jesuit Fathers of University Hall, Hatch Street, Dublin; to the late Jack Sweeney, athletics coach; and Professors Geoffrey Hand and Niall Osborough of the School of Law, UCD. In 1971 I became the first UCD athlete to break four minutes for 1,500 metres and I won the UCD mile four times. In 1975 I was admitted as a solicitor and my wife, Gretta Friel, and I founded the firm of MacBride and Co in Donegal in 1978. We have four children, all graduates of UCD, and we are also proud grandparents of two. I became a GAA football coach and in 1988 I was admitted as an attorney and counsellor at law of the New York State Bar. From 1999 to 2002, I served as a judge of the Dublin Metropolitan Court; from 2002 to 2004 I was a permanent movable district judge; and in November 2004, I was permanently assigned as judge of the District Court for Cavan/Monaghan.
EAMONN CEANNT BSc (Psychology & Computer Science) 1974 UCD has been a major and very important part of my life. I was a science student in the 1970s, worked with the legendary Joe MacHale for six years in the 1980s, returning to the university as bursar in 1999, a role
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Since then I have been deeply involved as vice-president/director of capital development in the ongoing expansion of the campus. It is a privilege to be involved with UCD in this capacity and personally very satisfying. I have always been interested in art and, specifically, sculpture. I make works in bronze and I started exhibiting in 2010 with “Sculpture in Context” at the Botanic Gardens and am represented by the Leinster and Gormleys galleries in Dublin and Greenacres in Wexford. I had my first solo show with Gormleys Gallery www.gormleys.ie in April this year. One of the projects underway at UCD is to further expand the outdoor sculpture collection. The university is home to a stunning collection of works built up over the last 20 years. A Sculpture Trail booklet is available online and an updated version of the booklet will be produced later in the year to include four major pieces that are currently being installed. Companion booklets include the Origins of the Belfield Campus/Period Houses and the UCD Woodland Walks.
MICHAEL C COLEMAN BA 1970, HDipEd 1981 I am a professor (emeritus) in the Department of Languages (English), and a docent in the department of General History at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland; and a docent in American Studies at the University of Helsinki. I received my PhD in American history in 1977 from the University of Pennsylvania. I have published American Indians, the Irish, and Government Schooling: a Comparative Study (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), based partly on research in Ireland as a senior fellow of the Academy of Finland (1996-97); American Indian Children at School, 1850-1930 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi Press, 1993), and Presbyterian Missionary Attitudes Toward American Indians, 1837-1893 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1985). My publications have appeared in
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the United States, Canada, Scandinavia, Ireland, England, and Poland. In 2008 I was named university teacher of the year, and given an honorary professorship. In 2009 and 2010 I was named teacher of the year in an intercultural environment by the Subcommittee for International Affairs of the Student Union. I went on full retirement in 2010, but still mentors student theses. I am a dual citizen of Ireland and Finland.
TREVOR MC GILL MB BCH BAO 1967 MCH 1978
ANNE (LOCHRIN) FLETCHER BArch 1977 I am MD of Coady Partnership Architects (CPA). We recently won a major international competition to design four new secondary schools in Belgium, which has resulted in staff numbers increasing in the practice by 30 per cent. I contributed to the joint UCD/RIAI Part 3 Professional Practice Course for a number of years and this year I am on the board of examiners. My husband, Patrick Fletcher, an architecture alumnus from UCD, works with A & D Wejchert & Partners Architects (the late Andrezj Wejchert was one of the original designers of UCD, designing the arts buildings and other buildings including the water tower) and our son recently qualified from UCD with a BSc in architecture.
JOHN O’CONNOR BA 1977, LLM 1997 I was recently nominated as a Judge of the District Court.
PAUL LOFTUS BComm 1971 I continued my studies after UCD with a BA in psychology from Concordia University in Montreal and an MSc in industrial and organisational psychology from Lamar University, Texas. I am owner and president of Paul Loftus
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& Associates Inc, a firm of international management and organisational development consultants founded in March 1984 and incorporated EAMONN CEANNT in 1991. I am a BSC (PSYCHOLOGY AND COMPUTER SCIENCE) 1974 licensed industrial/ organisational psychologist, an intercultural consultant and a freelance journalist. I am working on my second book, We Have to Stop Meeting Like This: Your Guide To Effective Meetings. I am president of the IrelandCanada Chamber of Commerce, Montreal Chapter and I am UCD’s Montreal Chapter representative. I met his wife while speaking at a conference in Indonesia and our daughter, Mary Lynne, is a champion Irish dancer. We are regular visitors to Ballina, Co Mayo and make a point of being home for the Salmon Festival every year. I am also a frequent business visitor to Ireland where I conduct management development seminars for a number of organisations.
SEAN FINLAY BSc 1971 I have a passionate interest in promoting the public understanding of technology and science and a keen interest in professional ethics. In 1999
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WILLIAM PHELAN BCOMM 1972 FINOLA KENNEDY BA 1963, MA 1965, PHD 1971
I was awarded the President’s Prize of Engineers Ireland for my work on the development of a code of ethics for engineers. Having graduated from University College Dublin with an Honours degree in Geology, I developed a vast amount of experience within the mineral extraction and mining industry where I became keenly aware of the importance of public acceptance of major industrial and infrastructure developments. I worked on one of Ireland’s first environmental impact statements (EIS) for the Tara Mines development in Co Meath. In 2000, I joined TES Consulting Engineers, an environmental engineering subsidiary of TOBIN Consulting Engineers, where I led the expansion of TES into a leading environmental consultancy specialist in EIS and design for a wide range of infrastructure projects. TES was incorporated into its parent company in 2006 and I continued to lead the expansion of TOBIN in the Dublin region and in Poland. I recently became a non-executive director of TOBIN. In January I was announced as a non-executive director to the Irish Academy of Engineering.
1960s TREVOR MC GILL
JOHN DUDLEY BA 1971, MA 1972
SEAN MAC BRIDE BCL 1972, LLM 1976
ANNE FLETCHER BARCH 1977
MB BCh BAO 1967, MCh 1978 I was awarded an honorary degree of doctor of science by UCD in June 2011. I received my medical degree from University College Dublin in 1967. I commenced training in otolaryngology in London and continued in Liverpool until 1974. This was followed by a two-year fellowship in otology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, as a recipient of the Fogarty International Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded by the National Institute of Health. I served as president of the University College Dublin Medical Graduate Association of North America 1996-1998. I was the University College Dublin Medical Alumnus of the year in 2001. . I was the recipient of the
Ainsworth Scholarship awarded by the National University of Ireland. My work has been published in 90 peerreviewed papers and three textbooks. In 2012, an endowed chair in paediatric otolaryngology at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School was established in my name.
FINOLA (FLANAGAN) KENNEDY BA 1963, MA 1965, PhD 1971 Fifty years have gone in a flash. I married Kieran when I was a 23-yearold lecturer in economics in UCD at Earlsfort Terrace. Kieran worked in the Department of Finance and later was director of the ESRI. We have six children – all UCD graduates. My main areas of research have been public expenditure and family change from the perspective of economic change. I have published two books: Cottage to Crèche: Family Change in Ireland (IPA, Dublin, 2001) and Frank Duff, A Life Story (Continuum, London and New York, 2011). Frank Duff was founder of the Legion of Mary, which has four million members worldwide. He received an honorary doctorate from the NUI in 1968. His two sisters were medical graduates of UCD and his brother was a science graduate.
1950s SARAH POYNTZ BA 1955, HDipEd 1956 I emigrated to England to teach at second level in 1956, starting in London, then Cornwall and finally as head of the English department at the grant-aided Perse School for Girls, Cambridge. Because of ill health after major surgery, I had to take early retirement although I still taught part-time at the Oxbridge Entrance Exams and at Girton College, Cambridge. I was awarded a Schoolmistress Scholarship at Girton in 1971. I retired to the Burren (Ballyvaughan) and wrote a monthly Country Diary, mainly on the Burren, for the Guardian newspaper. I retired from that in 2010 after 23 years. I have written
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the following books: A Burren Journal, a collection of my Burren Diaries for the Guardian (2000), Memory Emancipates – Scenes from Life and Imagination of New Ross in the 1930s and 1940s (2005), Burren Villages – Tales of History and Imagination (2010). I recently met my UCD colleague Veronica McShane – we were the only two students of our year who were allowed to read honours English and history as it was held at the time that the reading for each was too extensive. I owe so much to two of my lecturers in UCD, Professor Dudley Edwards and Professor Lorna Reynolds.
SR CORA RICHARDSON BA 1955, MEqualS 1995 Having worked for five years training carers to look after people living at home with AIDS, in Limpopo in the north of South Africa, I came to Midrand, South Africa in November 2008. It was seven months before the World Cup Soccer, and Midrand, halfway between Pretoria and Johannesburg, was a hotbed of human trafficking. With a few others I revived the Catholic Justice and Peace group in Midrand Parish and we took up combating trafficking as our project. The government has a draft bill, but we want it to become law. We organised a march to raise awareness of trafficking before the World Cup and about 500 people marched, including the Minister of Education, the Minister of Women, Youth and People with Disabilities, and the National Director of the Justice Department. That very day in another township not far away three young girls playing in the street were kidnapped and have never been seen since. We have helped rescue a few people but if a girl is not rescued quickly, she will be harmed for life. We also speak in schools and churches to educate people to the danger of trafficking, and we cooperate with other NGOs.
MARGARET (MAIGHREAD) MC PARLAND BSc 1955 After the city of Florence was flooded in 1966, I resigned from Clondalkin
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Paper Mills where I had worked as a quality control chemist, and went to Italy to study restoration, particularly paper restoration. In 1968, I joined the international team rescuing the flood damaged books in the National Library in Florence. From 1971-1999, I worked in the National Gallery of Ireland, caring for works of art on paper, monitoring and specifying the environmental conditions. I have maintained an interest in modern developments aimed at providing an energy-efficient, sustainable climate in the museum/ library sector, and have written on this theme. I was an occasional lecturer on the arts administration and MUBC courses in UCD, and have lectured extensively elsewhere in Ireland. I served on the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery. I am a founder-member of the Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works in Ireland.I deeply appreciate the opportunity, which arose from the disastrous Florentine floods, of applying my science degree in such a fulfilling way.
Mason Hayes & Curran DARAGH O’SHEA HDipBusiness 2000 Daragh O’Shea was promoted to partner at DARAGH O’SHEA, Mason Hayes HDIP BUSINESS 2000 & Curran in April 2012. He focuses on transactional banking and practises primarily in leveraged acquisition finance, general corporate finance and property finance, mainly advising institutional clients. He has extensive experience in dealing with cross-border issues and multijurisdictional finance transactions and he regularly advises foreign corporates and lenders on Irish banking and financial services law. He has also worked as a privatisation lawyer with a European Union/United Nations-mandated privatisation agency in south-east Europe.
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NIALL COLLINS BCL 2000 Niall Collins was promoted to partner at Mason Hayes & Curran in April 2012 NIALL COLLINS, BCL 2000 and practises in EU and competition law. Niall joined Mason Hayes & Curran in 2011, having previously practised at another leading Irish firm, and with Ashurst LLP and Latham & Watkins in London. His main areas of practice are Irish and EU competition law and he has extensive experience advising clients on complex mergers and strategic alliances, Article 101/102 TFEU and equivalent Irish legislation, intellectual property/ competition interface issues, sector inquiries and cartel investigations. Niall has particular experience in the energy, transport and infrastructure, technology, gaming and betting, insurance and sports sectors.
EOIN CASSIDY BBLS 2000 Eoin Cassidy was promoted to partner at Mason Hayes & Curran in April 2012. EOIN CASSIDY, BBLS 2000 Practising in both contentious and non-contentious construction law, he advises banks, state bodies, developers, contractors, and construction professionals on all aspects of construction law. He has particular expertise in the areas of energy, infrastructure projects, health & safety, environmental law, planning, litigation, arbitration and conciliation, and he has lectured and spoken at conferences in Ireland and overseas on planning and development issues in renewable energy projects.
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BOOKS RACHEL FEHILY HDip 2007 Rachel Fehily’s second book Break Up, Don’t Crack Up: A Positive Plan for Your Separation or Divorce was published by Orpen Press in March. It’s a companion book to Split: True Stories of Relationship Breakdown in Ireland which was published by Y Books last year. She also was a winner of The Irish Times Tiny Plays for Ireland competition and had her play produced by Fishamble Theatre Company in the Project Arts Theatre in March. CLAIR (MILLS) CALLAN MB BCh BAO 1963 Clair Callan’s first book Sevoflurane – the Untold Story was published in May 2012 by Millfield Press. It is the story of how a team, led by Dr Callan, managed to overcome any obstacles in bringing what is now the most widely used inhalation agent in the world to the market place. See www.sevofluranestory.com éILíS NI DHUIBHNE é BA 1974, MPhil 1976 Éilís Ni Dhuibhne’s latest book, a collection of short stories called The Neighbours, was published by Shelter of Neighbours Blackstaff Press in April. It’s available in bookshops, on Amazon, and on Kindle. MARIE BOURKE BA 1978 Mari Bourke, the keeper and head of education at the National Gallery of Ireland, has written The Story of Irish Museums 1790-2000 Culture, Identity and Education, which gives a long-term and comprehensive account of the stories, the histories and the evolution of Irish museums and galleries. PAUL MARTIN BA 1991, DBS 1993 Paul Martin spent most of the decade after graduating from UCD living abroad (Italy, Australia and the US) before settling with his young family in Wicklow. As another generation left in droves for Down Under he was unable to find a convincing account of the experiences of young people working and travelling in Australia so he decided to write the book himself: Travels with Bertha: Two years
exploring Australia in a 1978 Ford Falcon Stationwagon. It was named an Irish Times “must-read” book for 2012 and has featured on TV3, Newstalk’s Tom Dunne Show and Sydney radio. It is available in all good bookshops and on Amazon. Visit www.travelswithbertha.com PATRICK BENNETT MB BCh BAO 1954 Where & Whither is an autobiography by Patrick Bennett which takes us from his childhood in 1920s Ireland to establishing a school for nurse anesthetists in the USA and retiring in the 1990s. He has five children and lives in the Seattle area with his wife Emily. TOM INGLIS BSocSc 1972 Making Love is a memoir by Tom Inglis, who recounts the life he shared with Aileen, who died from breast cancer aged 47 in 2005. He and Aileen met as teenagers in the 1970s and went on to marry and have three children. Tom Inglis is an associate professor of sociology at UCD. P KEVIN MAC KEOWN BSc 1962 P Kevin MacKeown’s study of the Hong Kong observatory and the rise of modern atmospheric science in South China, Early China Coast Meteorology: The Role of Hong Kong, won the 2011 Choice Award from the Atmospheric Science Librarians International. In the book, MacKeown takes the reader through the development of the Observatory in the period 1882-1912, featuring in particular its founding director William Doberck. MacKeown spent the bulk of his career teaching physics and studying cosmic radiation at the University of Hong Kong, where he remains as an honorary professor. JANE STANFORD BA 1966, HDipEd 1967 Jane Stanford’s That Irishman, the biography of John O’Connor Power, who rose rapidly through the ranks of the Fenian movement to become a leading member of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, was first published in May 2011 and is now in a second edition.
BELFIELD BABIES
RMM PRADEEP BSc 2007 RMM Pradeep and Kasuni Dharitha are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Nathuli Duhul Kandhari. She was born on November 21, 2011 in Panadura, Sri Lanka, and weighed 5 lb.
Nathuli Duhul Kandhari Claudia O’Dwyer
KEITH O’DWYER BComm 1999 & CAROLINE MC GUIRE BA 2005 Keith and Caroline are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl, Claudia Patricia O’Dwyer. She was born on February 5, 2012 in Drogheda, and weighed 7 lb, 10 oz
Teddy Johnston
NORA BEAUSANG BCL 1990 Nora and William Johnston are delighted to announce the birth of our precious son, Edmund Donall Johnston (Teddy), on 8 December 2011 at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street. On the grounds that Teddy’s maternal and paternal greatgrandfathers were NUI professors (James Hogan, History at UCC and John Cunningham, Medicine at UCD), they are hopeful that Teddy will revive the familial academic fortunes. For the moment, Teddy is more concerned with jumping in his bouncer and attempting to eat his rubber duck when in the bath.
WEDDINGS JOHN GREENE BComm 2005 & HELEN (MAHONY) GREENE BComm 2004 John and Helen are happy to announce their marriage, which took place on April 28, in London. They currently reside in London. Many UCD alumni attended the wedding and they spent the following two weeks in Costa Rica on their honeymoon.
John and Helen Greene
MICHAEL CURRAN MBA 1996 & KERRY SPELLMAN MBA 2003 Michael and Kerry met at a UCD Alumni event in July 2007 in Boston, MA, USA. Michael Curran Both had also graduated from and Kerry Boston College but they didn’t Spellman meet until the UCD event. They married in September 2010 and welcomed a baby boy (whom they hope will be a future UCD student) Rory Emmet Curran on March 8, 2012. They currently live in Boston.
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| GIVING TO UCD |
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MAKE A BEQUEST Legacy gifts and bequests by alumni, faculty and friends have been a significant source of financial support for University College Dublin for over 150 years. The continuation and expansion of this tradition of remembrance contributes to UCDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial strength and continued academic excellence. If there is a school or subject area you wish to benefit, reseach that is important to you, a scholarship you would like to establish, or a library you would like to support, you can make a difference by leaving a gift in your will. We are grateful to all donors whose foresight will build the future of UCD.
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UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
IN THIS ISSUE
THE KNIGHT’S TALE NIALL FITZGERALD’S BLISTERING CAREER PAGE 52
JUST PRESS ENTER MEET COLM LYON, TECH ENTREPRENEUR PAGE 58
The Family Dynamic Clans with a Plan PAGE 62
MISSION CHINA
FORGING LINKS WITH THE EASTERN SUPERPOWER PAGE 66
THE KNIGHT’S TALE By anyone’s standards, Niall FitzGerald, KBE, chairman of the British Museum and up to last year, deputy co-chairman of Thomson Reuters, has had a stellar business career. Rory Egan finds him unassuming – and refreshingly frank – on pursuing new and interesting possibilities and on the subject of Ireland’s future. WHEN WE MEET VERY successful people, we sometimes look for that one ingredient that makes sense of their success. In many cases it is a lucky break – being in the right place at the right time. In other cases it might be a blindly ambitious gamble where someone invests
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heavily in something on the way up and rides the wave as the tide surges. With Niall FitzGerald, it’s a bit different. It takes a little time to work out why this modest man from Limerick has been so spectacularly successful, every step of his career. It’s not that you feel he is not
UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
worthy of every promotion, honour or distinction he has received. In fact, after the end of the interview, it becomes quite apparent that FitzGerald would have succeeded in any career he chose. We sit in a private room in the Four Seasons Hotel just a few hours before
JUNE MENDOZ
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| BUSINESS INTERVIEW | he is to be honoured by the UCD Quinn School as Outstanding Alumnus of the Year. FitzGerald, who joined Lever Brothers (later to become Unilever) in 1967, rose to become chairman and CEO of that company 29 years later. He was created an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002 and subsequently joined the board of Reuters as a non-executive director in 2003, becoming chairman a year later. In 2006, the British establishment bestowed on him one of their highest honours – chairmanship of the British Museum. Until May 2011, he was deputy co-chairman of Thomson Reuters and is also chairman of the controversial, but in FitzGerald’s opinion, much misunderstood, Hakluyt & Co. Fitzgerald is disarming. He deliberately plays down his achievements as though anyone in his position would have accomplished much the same. However, despite the relaxed atmosphere of the interview, his intelligence and determination become evident. We talk about his upbringing in Thomondgate in Limerick. “My father was a customs officer in Limerick Port and my mother was a mother and housewife. She gave up a very successful career as a journalist with the Times. “I was much closer to my mother, and many of the values I have, and the way I think, come from her. My father had a little trouble with the drink and, although I loved him dearly, he was not around as much as my mother. “My Irishness has never once been a problem in my career. The English, and I say English, not British, the English like to categorise you. They like to work out who you are by how you speak, your accent. It’s not really about class, they just want to put you in a box somewhere and, of course, with me that was just not possible. And so they accepted you as kind of funny or eccentric, kind of different, and that worked out fine at the start of my career. In fact it allowed me to get away with more things, especially in a corporate environment and made me stand out a bit more.”
Ironically, it is his ordinariness that sets him apart from other dynamic and successful figures. There is no bombast, no vanity, no rewriting of history. In fact, he alludes to this conceit when accepting the award that night when he cautioned anyone who was in a position of leadership, urging his audience to be wary of plaudits, as “people tend to tell you what they think you want to hear”. FitzGerald studied for his Bachelor of Commerce at night while working in Irish Shipping by day. His relationship with Unilever started completely by accident. He was a very keen golfer at that time and he called his friend to arrange a game in Portmarnock for the following Tuesday. His friend said he could play but had to go for an interview with Lever Brothers in Sheriff Street first,
sat on my father’s knee at the 1948 cup final. When United scored the first goal he threw me in the air. History doesn’t record how I fell.” He started his career at the then Lever Brothers working as a management trainee in an animal feeds company they had just bought, called Paul and Vincent. “I learned a lot about basic business which I wouldn’t have if I had gone into a bigger Lever Brothers company. “I then decided that I would like to work at Lever Brothers outside Ireland so I approached Peter Keehan and he arranged for an interview for me in London and the rest, as they say, is history.” After a brief stint in London and the US, FitzGerald was asked to take over the running of the South African division of
“I was happy to take up another serious role but not a multitude of directorships as I have a horror of not being in control of my own agenda. I wanted to do something cultural.” so they decided that FitzGerald would accompany him and they would head to the golf course afterwards. While waiting for his friend, he was asked if he would mind making up the numbers as there was to be a panel of eight interviewees and one hadn’t turned up. He said, “As long as I can leave when my friend leaves”, and went on to enjoy the whole process immensely. Afterwards, Peter Keehan, who proceeded to be a great mentor of FitzGerald’s, offered him a job. FitzGerald immediately declined, explaining that he was only accompanying his friend and that he didn’t actually need a job. They left it at that. Two weeks later, Keehan tracked him down, suggested lunch and again offered him a job. By then FitzGerald was sufficiently intrigued to take it. Golf was not his only passion in those days. He shared a love of soccer with his father. “I have been a Manchester United fan since the age of three and I
Unilever’s business while the country was in the throes of apartheid. “I was in the US when my then chairman, David Orr, who was also Irish, asked if I would I run the business in South Africa.” FitzGerald was appalled, reminding Orr how he felt about South Africa, segregation and apartheid and saying he couldn’t possibly work in that environment. “David Orr explained that that was exactly why he wanted me for the job. They had made a policy decision that they would stay in South Africa as long as they could run the business by our standards.” It was, as he says himself, probably the defining moment of his life. He moved there and met the South African government and told them that Unilever would continue in South Africa only if they could do so on their terms. The South African regime were very keen to avoid any relaxation of apartheid rules but FitzGerald came to the conclusion that they could
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| BUSINESS INTERVIEW | role in business but not a multitude of directorships as I have a horror of not being in control of my own agenda. I also wanted to do something cultural because I had a great interest in music and the arts and hadn’t been able to do something substantial with them in my career. I wanted to devote some time to South Africa because I love that country and I ended up being a friend of Mandela whom I admire very much. And lastly, I got married for the second time in 2004, and I had a three-year-old daughter and wanted to devote a bit more time to her and my wife and my older children than I had been able to when I was with Unilever.” When Thomson Reuters invited him to become nonexecutive deputy co-chairman, FitzGerald knew he would have much more chance of being a “hands-off ” chairman if it was a business he wasn’t familiar with, so he was happy to accept. The chief executive, Tom Glocer, was someone for whom he had enormous respect, too. “So it worked out well,” ABOVE: Niall FitzGerald was deputy co-chairman of Thomson Reuters (with headquarters in Times Square, he says. New York, left) and is chairman of the British Museum, right. To his great surprise, the board of the British Museum years after that he became both chairman At the opening of the factory some then asked him if he would become and chief executive of what is now the months later, FitzGerald guided the then chairman. He had given a guest lecture third-largest consumer goods company in Minister for Industry, Dawie de Villiers, on his favourite piece in the museum, the the world. through the factory, including the toilets Benin Bronzes, which originated in what He told the board that he would take in the tour, in order to establish their is now Nigeria. He was fascinated that the job but for a maximum period of acceptance. About three months later, these sophisticated artefacts (a collection eight years and, near enough to the day a man called Van de Merwe from the of 3,000 brass plaques) equalled, if eight years later, he stepped down. To say Department of the Interior appeared not surpassed, anything comparable in that someone like FitzGerald would retire in FitzGerald’s office. He told him that pre-reformation Europe. His talk was would be akin to saying Eamon Dunphy the factory was illegal as it was not extremely well received and in 2008 may, someday, stop holding an opinion. properly desegregated in the ‘ablution he was appointed the first non-British The very prospect is foreign to him but he block’. “We have a problem,” said Van de person to chair the board of trustees of did have very definite plans as to how he Merwe. “No” said FitzGerald, “You have the museum. was going to continue. a problem. I’m going to do nothing about Soon after, he made the easiest “I divided my life into four quadrants. it so now you have a decision to make.” decision he ever made in his life. Nelson I was happy to take up another serious FitzGerald heard no more from them. not afford to lose very big businesses like Unilever over policy decisions. Things came to a head when FitzGerald was shown the plans by his chief engineer for a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for approval. He noticed that in the office section, there was a great deal of space devoted to toilets. In fact, he counted eight different sets of toilets, side by side. They were, of course, for white men, white women, Indian men, Indian women, coloured men, coloured women, black men and black women. FitzGerald vetoed this and told the architects to segregate by gender only but make them the best toilets possible so nobody could object.
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FitzGerald built Unilever in South Africa into one of their best performing subsidiaries but, more importantly in his view, he made it a vanguard of corporate change in South Africa, with the result that other international companies decided to follow his lead. In the end, he was reluctant to leave the country, even for the more prestigious appointment of treasurer of Unlilever and deputy to the finance director in London. The following year, the finance director resigned and FitzGerald was invited to join the board and become finance director of the whole company at the tender age of 41. Three years later, he was running the massive food division and six
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Tullow Oil Ltd Number 1, Central Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18. Tel: 01 2137300 Fax: 01 2930400 Email: info@tullowoil.com
| BUSINESS INTERVIEW | Mandela asked him to head for an exceptional amount his Legacy Trust. FitzGerald’s of money. “When he told me admiration and respect for they sold it for €55 million, I Mandela developed into a was genuinely shocked. I told warm friendship culminating in him that I was no property FitzGerald being close enough developer but that I could to call him by his clan name guarantee him that if that of “Madiba”. developer put up four hotels, For an Irish man from each 100 storeys high and Limerick (though born in Sligo), filled them every night for ten to be accepted into the top tiers years, he still would not get of the British establishment was a return on his money. I flew rare enough. For one to be in the home that night and instructed forefront of that establishment, my accountant to get rid of Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, Dean of UCD knighted and chairing the British investments based on property School of Business, Niall FitzGerald KBE, Outstanding UCD Quinn School Alumnus of the Year 2012, Museum, is unheard of, yet even in Ireland.” and Ingrid FitzGerald. more was to follow. However, he is more FitzGerald was invited to chair a hopeful about Ireland than some of our society for economic freefall, asking: controversial but intensely interesting critics. “Don’t put Ireland in the same “Were they aware of the risks that were company called Hakluyt & Company. Set boat as Greece or Portugal. Greece has being taken and thus ‘complicit with up in 1997 by two former MI6 British a structural deficit – it hasn’t paid its the recklessness’? Or were they unaware secret service agents, the company way since the nation was started. It of what was going on and thus failing shuns publicity. A strategic consultancy gave itself a standard of living which it to discharge their responsibilities as organisation specialising in intelligence never generated as it lived off what it directors?” The question, he says, and research on a global scale, it is was getting from Europe. That economy prompted a “very ferocious conversation”. engaged by companies such as Shell and cannot survive at that level. It will have When I ask him about this, he said BP for various projects. to take a 50 per cent cut in its standard “One of the reasons I left [Ireland] “I didn’t know anything about it of living, not ten, if it wants to be in 1971 was that, at that time, I could but the then chairman, Willie Purves, competitive again. The issue with Ireland probably write down a list of the 40 chairman of HSBC, who I knew very is fundamentally different. Ireland had people in Ireland that mattered and if I well, asked me to look at the position. a successful economy, it didn’t have a didn’t get connected with them quickly, I then met the CEO, talked to him, balance of payments problem, it didn’t I wasn’t going to succeed, and I wasn’t researched it and found it to be a very have a fiscal problem and then, one prepared to do that, so I left.” interesting business, with a blue chip weekend, it decided to nationalise the His views on the property boom that clientele, with almost a quarter of its bank’s debt and it’s that single event followed are illuminating. FitzGerald business from Japan. It is a strategic that created the problem. I think if that recounts two stories. One was when he intelligence – and I mean intelligence decision hadn’t been made, the banks went to Spain in 1999 to buy a holiday gathering in an entirely proper way would have inevitably gone down but home. “When the agent, recognising my – and advisory firm offering analysis. there would have been a stabilising accent, asked me whether I was Irish, The composition of the Hakluyt team European rescue package and the said to me ‘You are not like my other Irish banking system would have returned, but sometimes comes in for criticism from a customers – you only buy one apartment, small minority but it is a very interesting at a lower level.” they buy three or four’”. business that does a very worthwhile job.” With this thought, my interview with A few years later, when he was And it’s now chaired by an Irishman. Niall FitzGerald concludes. At the dinner presented with a medal by the Royal Ironically, FitzGerald has not been later on, FitzGerald rises to speak. For Dublin Society, he talked to his host about a full 15 minutes, he has the audience as well fêted by the Irish establishment funding a society like his one. He was told after remarks he made in an interview in the palm of his hand before leaving they had just sold one acre of land to a with The Irish Times in which he berated them with some insightful and prescient property developer who intended to build Irish directors and regulators, not just thoughts. “In this era of the adoration a hotel. The sale would fund the RDS for the speculators, for not doing their of celebrity, we should remember that the next ten years. FitzGerald replied that job properly. He recounts the story of there is no limit to what a man can either their funding requirements were a dinner party he attended where he achieve so long as he doesn’t care who exceptionally modest or they sold the acre blamed the intimacy of Irish business gets the credit.” ^
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| INNOVATION |
Just Press ENTER Payment processing technology doesn’t sound like the most fascinating business in the world, until you talk to Colm Lyon, founder of Realex Payments, a committed and creative entrepreneur who has turned a simple idea into a business with almost limitless potential. The journey from concept to corporation wasn’t always easy, though, as Douglas Dalby found out.
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hances are you’ve never heard of Realex Payments but if you fly with Aer Lingus, fancy a flutter with Paddy Power or are a Vodafone customer, then you rely on its services. This Irish company founded in 2000 by current Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business Alumnus of the Year, Colm Lyon, now processes over €12 billion in online payments for more than 5,000 clients across the world. Lyon completed a BComm in 1984 and went on to do a Masters Degree in Management Science. He describes himself as a ‘technologist’ – someone who is comfortable applying technology to solve problems. He was encouraged to go
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to UCD by a neighbour in Clontarf, the entrepreneur and legendary Commerce faculty lecturer, John Teeling, who promised him he would never regret it. “I remember lectures in Theatre Q and Theatre R, which were 300-seaters, so they were vast – but if you were late you would be lucky to find a place on the steps,” he recalls. “I have no idea where the rest came from because the BComm only took in about 300 every year – but at the time the lectures were very colourful and very real, so maybe it wasn’t such a surprise they would draw a wider audience.” Just 37 and with a young family to support, Lyon left a secure job as head of IT in Ulster Bank for the uncertainty of self-employment. He had grasped the commercial opportunities afforded by the Internet: businesses and consumers
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increasingly needed a safe way to conduct trade online and he was determined to provide it. “I had been dying to leave the bank to set up my own business but I just didn’t know what that business would be,” he says. “It struck me retailers had a problem because they had no way of processing the payment without talking to the bank and the bank has a problem because it couldn’t be talking to thousands of retailers and getting them all connected to its platform so we would become the gateway to connect the two.”
Lyon’s problem was that the market had yet to catch up and it was hard to get anyone to buy into the vision. He tried and failed twice to raise investment and was forced to work as a freelance consultant for 18 months after leaving the bank to pay the bills. “There were no holidays for several years and a lot of public transport,” he recalls with a wry smile. “I remember one time I couldn’t even afford anti-virus software for my PC and it became infected – I stared at the screen thinking ‘this is ridiculous’. But
“It struck me retailers had a problem because they had no way of processing the payment without talking to the bank and the bank has a problem because it couldn’t be talking to thousands of retailers.”
even in the darkest days I never regretted leaving the bank – there was no question of ever giving up.” In the background, he had been warming up potential retail customers and eventually this meant he could convince some family and friends to put €320,000 into Realex through a Business Expansion Scheme at a time when the vast bulk of the money pouring into this government initiative was going into bricks and mortar investments. In techspeak, they were investing in a scalable
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| INNOVATION |
IN BRIEF Stanford Business School with the Leadership 4 Growth programme. He has worked in financial servicesrelated businesses for over 25 years, starting with 14 years in the banking sector. HE IS PASSIONATE ABOUT business, start-ups and in particular internet businesses. HE FOUNDED the Internet Growth Alliance in 2009. This led to the creation of the highlyacclaimed Enterprise Ireland iGAP development. HIS AWARDS INCLUDE: Outstanding UCD Smurfit School Alumnus of the Year 2012; Software Industry Person of the Year award 2011; Business Person of the Month accolade from Business & Finance COLM LYON, founder and CEO of Realex Payments (www. realexpayments.com) is a graduate of University College Dublin, with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Management Science Degree. Over the past few years he has spent time in Harvard and
solution: in other words, a start-up with limitless potential because of its ability to win customers anywhere in the world. But you have to start somewhere and Lyon recalls his first sale to a small, Irish online ski operator with considerable fondness.“We went to Directski and talked around the number of customers we had, because at that point we didn’t have any – I was completely elated when I got the sale. You don’t think about the amount: you only think about the fact this is a real customer and they are willing to pay you real money for a service you provide. We thought they didn’t know they were our only customer but we later found out they had known all along!” With limited resources, he and his partner Owen O’Byrne had approached suppliers of the various components they would need such as hardware and software, hosting, legal and accountancy
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Magazine; Ruban d’Honneur in round two of the European Business Awards 2009; Internet Hero at the Eircom Golden Spiders Awards 2007. Lyon was awarded lifetime membership of the Irish Internet Association. In 2005 he was a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
for help to get Realex up and running. “I was very slow to go looking for help at the start but when you go looking for the help and you tell everybody that everyone else is helping, by the time you get to the end you’re not lying anymore!” There are certainly no porkies involved when it comes to Realex in 2012. The company now employs over 110 highlyskilled employees in Dublin, London and Paris and, following nine years of consecutive revenue growth, is forecasting a further 35 per cent rise this financial year. It is also on the brink of launching an ambitious alternative banking service, Carapay, which will allow consumers to pay and be paid online at negligible or no cost – something likely to prove attractive to many people now facing the prospect of paying hundreds of euro in current account fees. “We believe this is the future. You can pay or be paid using a range of currencies
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in real time with no need to enter credit or debit card details online anymore, which also cuts down on the prospect of fraud,” Lyon explains. Realex is currently gearing up to launch this service later in the year. Its recent move from southside suburbia to beautiful new offices overlooking the Liffey in the heart of Silicon Dock certainly looks like a statement of intent. Around 100 employees from 14 different countries work here: there is room on the floor for almost double that number. With almost 80 per cent of the equity in the company, Lyons remains the driving force. In characteristic fashion, he hasn’t wasted any time putting his indelible stamp on the new surroundings. Dublin born and bred, his heart is firmly in Co Clare, where he spends as much of his spare time as he can. The meeting rooms are themed around various parts of The Burren – decked out with ceiling-high photographs taken by his brother and tasteful stencilled glass depicting wellknown beauty spots. Dotted around the open-plan offices are informal ring fort meeting pods, which are designed to encourage employees to speak their minds (albeit briefly as there are no seats and only a small, high table to lean on). The canteen area is a reconstruction of the legendary Gus O’Connor’s pub in Doolin – minus the music and the beer, of course. The incongruity of the iconic graphic of Che Guevara on the wall behind Lyon’s desk – a special edition Jim Fitzpatrick memento for participants in the prestigious invite-only Internet Founders event in Dublin in 2010 – is in marked contrast to the corporate maturity attained by technology-based companies such as Realex in a relatively short time. But standing still is not an option – innovation will always be key. “The most wonderful thing that has happened to me since I left the bank twelve years ago is that my vision has continued to grow faster than my ability to execute it,” Lyon says. “You just see more and that is the essence of the excitement I get every day.” ^
SEAN JACKSON
A TECHNOLOGY GENE Dublin-based Combined Media was founded by its creative director, John Lynam (above left) in 1992 and has grown to become a highly successful and broadbased digital design and consultancy company. Current clients include Vodafone, Roche Products, Novartis, ESB Electric Ireland, Barnardos and World Vision. The business is very much a family affair. In 1997 John was joined by his brother Dec (above right), who is operations director, and in 2000,
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Colm (above middle), a third brother, came on board as managing director. All three believe that the fact that they come from very different academic disciplines adds significantly to their success in their respective roles. John graduated with a BA in psychology before completing the UCD Diploma in Business Studies, Dec has an MA in history and Colm recently added an MBA to his BSc in computer science. Colm cites trust as the main advantage of working with family members, saying
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“when we got together to discuss the positive aspects of working together this was the very first word that came up”. He confirms that the three “are close and there is a great trust there. We can depend on each other and we know that the commitment to the business is there.” All three feel a close connection to UCD. Colm was on campus last year speaking at the UCD Science Open Evening in the O’Reilly Hall. He is proud of his BSc and describes how during the event he found himself “promoting science and
| FAMILY BUSINESS |
THE family DYNAMIC Small, dynamic and quick to respond to changes in the market, family businesses are an important facet of our economy. Many graduates of UCD have joined a family firm or established a brand new start-up with a family member. Eleanor Fitzsimons discovers a well-established business run by the fourth generation of the same family, a website development firm established and managed by three brothers, a successful solicitors’ practice welcoming the next generation into the fold, and a husband and wife team, who run a hotel abroad.
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rediscovering the strong connection I felt to the School.” Despite spending several years working outside Ireland he is still in touch with many of his classmates and greatly values the annual science graduate meet-up that takes place every December. Working together has posed no problems for these three brothers and they have successfully found a way to make it work. Colm welcomes the inclusion of a module on family business in the UCD curriculum, believing that this “recognises and reflects the reality of doing business in Ireland.”
he companies that come to mind as those contributing most to an economy tend to be the publicly-quoted, multinational behemoths consistently profiled in the business pages. Of just as much importance are the thousands of family firms that operate in every business sector, many of them enduring for generations. Dr Eric Clinton, who completed his PhD research in UCD on transgenerational entrepreneurial practices in family firms, found that family-controlled companies account for 90 per cent of the businesses operating in most modern economies and contribute as much as 50 per cent of GDP and employment opportunities. Small local traders and embryonic start-up partnerships make a valuable cumulative contribution, although some of the largest and most successful companies in the world have also been managed by the same family for generations. These include Wal-Mart, founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and presided over by his son Robson; BMW, which has been controlled by the Quandt family ever since they rescued it from bankruptcy in 1959; and fashion house, Chanel, co-founded by Pierre Wertheimer, whose grandsons Alain and Gerard still own a controlling interest. Ireland has its dynasties too in Fyffes, Sisk and Smurfit Kappa among others. On a smaller scale many thousands of family-run SMEs are trading successfully and contributing to economic recovery. The UCD Quinn School of Business, recognising the importance of engendering an ethos of entrepreneurship and excellent management practices within familyrun businesses, has developed a module on Family Business. This course, taught by Dr Patricia Kavanagh, is offered as an elective during the second year of the Bachelor of Commerce degree programme and was taken by 27 students last year. Postgraduate research in Entrepreneurship and Family Owned Business is also undertaken at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.
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| FAMILY BUSINESS |
REANTO GHIAZZA
FAMILY LAW Dublin-based firm of solicitors Kent Carty was established by brothers Hugh (left) and John Carty (right) in 1976. Managing partner Hugh graduated with a BCL from UCD in 1968, later qualifying as a barrister in 1970 and as a solicitor in 1975. John, also a graduate of the UCD law faculty, qualified as a solicitor in 1972. Asked to identify the key to their success in a sector where similar partnerships have come to grief, Hugh quotes an old joke that perfectly illustrates the secret of their success: “After the war a Russian and a Pole found a cache of gold. ‘Let’s share it like brothers,’ said the Russian. ‘No, lets share it equally,’ said the Pole.” In keeping with the others interviewed, Hugh stresses the importance of trust when it comes to running a successful partnership. He describes the “great willingness to work hard and never examine too closely what the other is doing but each just get on with it.” Both credit their strong work ethic and healthy work/life balance to the summers they spent in Canada; their parents relocated there when Hugh and John were students at UCD. “There we learned to get up early and make time for family later in the day,” Hugh says, describing how both make a point of getting to their desks by 7am or 8am and tend to keep their social lives separate. Both have fond memories of their time at UCD and remember the old Earlsfort Terrace campus as “a very collegiate and close-knit community”. Friendships forged in the faculty of law and beyond have endured to this day. Hugh was particularly inspired by the enlightened lectures delivered by acclaimed legal academic turned politician, John M Kelly, then the Professor of Constitutional Law, Roman Law and Jurisprudence. He describes these memorable sessions as “a real breath of fresh air”. The challenges of running a family business include the difficulty of managing the succession process and Hugh admits that it can be “very hard to move on”. However, several members of the next generation are already involved. Gavin Carty, who heads up the commercial law department and specialises in insurance law, is a graduate of TCD and also holds a diploma in arbitration from UCD. Cormac Carty graduated with a BCL from UCD in 2000 and completed an HDip in business studies and IT at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business. Shane Carty graduated from UCD with a BA and a Diploma in Arbitration before qualifying as a solicitor in 2002.
UCD ALUMNI AND THE FAMILY FIRM ANNE HEFFERNAN, HR Director of Dunnes Stores, is tipped to succeed her mother Margaret and uncle Frank at the forefront of the business founded by her grandfather, Ben Dunne Snr. Heffernan graduated with a degree in medicine and practiced for seven years before commencing the full-time MBA programme in at UCD Michael Smurfit School of Business. She graduated in November 2000. COLM SORENSEN, a former international tennis player and managing director of Butlers Chocolates, graduated from UCD with a BComm 64 |
in 1980 and assumed his current role in 1984. His father, Seamus Sorensen acquired Butlers from its original founder, Marion Bailey-Butler in 1959. Under Colm Sorensen’s tenure the business has expanded significantly and won many industry awards. PETER COONEY, general manager of the water cooler division of Gleeson Group, Ireland’s leading supplier and distributor of beverage products, graduated with an MBS in Management and Organisational Structures from the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in 2005. The
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Gleeson Group was acquired by his father, Patrick and his uncle, Nicholas in June 1974 and remains a fully privately owned family business. COL CAMPBELL, a director of Ireland’s leading coffee and tea company, Campbell Bewley Group, and one-time manager of the iconic Bewleys of Grafton Street graduated with an MBA from the UCD Smurfit School in 2001. He is a son of entrepreneur, sculptor and artist, Patrick Campbell, who established Campbell Catering in 1967 and acquired the Bewleys business in 1986.
| FAMILY BUSINESS | FRENCH CONNECTION Le Presbytère Chambre d’Hôte, formerly the house of the priest in the picturesque village of Thézan Lès Béziers in the Languedoc region of France, is now a beautiful guesthouse run by husband and wife team, Martin and Sile Dwyer, who each graduated with a BA from UCD in 1971. They knew each other slightly as undergraduates, although they didn’t become a couple until they left university. Initially both pursued a career in teaching but Martin’s passion for food led to a change of direction. “I ended up running a restaurant in Waterford. Sile, who was a successful primary school teacher, also helped run the restaurant,” says Martin. The couple were drawn to France from early on. Martin describes how they had worked briefly there in 1973 and were always determined to retire in France. They
describe the village of Thézan Lès Béziers as a classic Languedoc circulade – built in concentric circles, on a hill. As a result, their guests enjoy marvellous views from the terrace right down the valley of the Orb and sometimes as far as the Pyrénées. They each bring different skills to the business, with Sile’s French degree an obvious advantage. Martin believes that offering a module on managing a family business is a good idea. His family ran Dwyer & Co for 200 years, a successful Cork-based business employing 4,000 at one time. Both his brothers ran family businesses and insisted that each member became qualified in different but equally useful disciplines. “It would be a foolish idea to suppose that being related is enough to work together well,” he ponts out. In this case, it certainly seems to have worked.
Seafood wholesaler, Wrights of Marino has been in business for almost a century. Employing just four people in 1973, the company has increased its workforce to 44, and operates a production and processing plant in Howth in addition to the original shop in Marino. Brothers Jonathan (left), James (right) and Jeffrey are the fourth generation to manage the business, although their parents, John and Esther, are still very much involved. Jonathan graduated with a BComm in 1996, as did his brother, James, in 1999. They believe that the advantage of working in a family business is in having “a common goal in managing and handing on the successful family name”. James values the “full commitment from all family members” when it comes to making decisions, completing projects and dealing with suppliers and customers. Jonathan appreciates the “trust” and “peace of mind” that comes from “knowing that the decisions and deals that are done are for the best of the company and the integrity of the family name.” Both have been involved in the business since their teenage years. James says, “Since I was a teenager, I always wanted
CONOR HORGAN
GENERATION GAME
to be in the business. I was working in our factory in Howth the day I got my leaving cert results and drove into collect them on my lunch break. That day I discovered I was going to UCD.” Jonathan, who spent eight months working for KMPG after graduation, worked in the shop to earn pocket money remembering how, at Christmas, they were brought in to label all the smoked salmon. While at UCD, Jonathan believes that he learned a lot about how to run a company and how to deal with people. His role as chairman of Commerce
Day helped enormously. Many of the major hotel chains he approached for sponsorship are loyal customers of Wrights to this day. James values the “social skills, self-discipline and sense of achievement” he gained as a student. Both believe that any module on managing a family business should “include input from people actively involved day-to-day”. James recommends that students be required to compile a five-year plan and believes, although it may sound obvious, that “all family members know exactly what their role and responsibility is within the business”. n
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UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2012
| FOCUS ON CHINA |
mission
CHINA As Sino-Irish relationships strengthen at government level, we discover that UCD has been forging academic links with China for several years. The result: student exchange, business co-operation and deeper cultural understanding. Eleanor Fitzsimons investigates.
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magine two families enjoying a convivial meal. Each member raises an Irish crystal glass to drink to future happiness and success. Now, imagine these families live thousands of miles apart, one in Dublin and one in the bustling city of Hangzhou in Eastern China, a city with a population of eight million. Suddenly the world seems like a much smaller place. Such is the appeal of Tipperary Crystal that in January when the company, in cooperation with Chinese partner Neoglory, opened China’s first dedicated crystal store in Hangzhou, 60 per cent of the stock, much of it designed by Irish designer Louise Kennedy, sold within the first three days. By May 2012 a further five co-branded stores were open with plans in place for 16 more. The partnership with Neoglory, the world’s largest crystal jewellery company, is integral to the success of this project and the personal involvement of founder Linda Zhou, a deputy in the Chinese government, has been invaluable. Declan Fearon, owner of Tipperary Crystal knows from experience that establishing such a successful agreement takes time and effort. “You have to go through the relationshipbuilding exercise, which is part of the whole deal-making process out there,” he says, mentioning the “thousands of cups of tea” that were involved. No wonder the Chinese and the Irish get along so well.
Many opportunities exist. The building trade in Ireland may be in the doldrums but the skills and expertise honed here are transferable. CRH, the Irish multinational building materials and construction services company has invested heavily in China; no surprise when you consider that cement was used in the construction of the Great Wall as early as the seventh century BC. Skills transfer has been a two-way process. Two trainee accountants from CRH China, Alice Sheng and Kevin Liu, spent six months working here in the CRH finance department. At the same time the UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland delivered a one-day training programme on Chinese business and culture to senior CRH executives. One of the participants commented: “The key to conducting business is good communication between people, so learning about Chinese culture is very important to us. We can only better develop and extend our business in China if we can fully understand and appreciate Chinese people and their culture.” The importance of personal relationships is echoed by Professor Alan Keenan of UCD, the man charged with overseeing the establishment of the Beijing-Dublin International College in partnership with Beijing University of Technology (BJUT), the most ambitious of UCD’s projects in China. “Any involvement in China has to be a joint venture so there has to be a formally recognised and contributing Chinese partner” says Professor
“Any involvement in China has to be a joint venture so there has to be a formally recognised Chinese partner.”
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| FOCUS ON CHINA | University, with 46 students from Keenan, adding “You can’t just march Wuhan University joining years two in and buy a bit of land.” and three of the BComm in UCD That aside, progress on this hugely every year, having completed their beneficial project has been rapid. first year of the programme in Wuhan. The first intake of students will sit in At masters level, the Business School lecture theatres on the BJUT campus has 15- 25 students from Wuhan each this autumn. It’s difficult to believe year studying at UCD Michael Smurfit that the project was first mooted in Dr Hugh Brady and Chinese Vice-Premier, HE Graduate Business School. Over 60 June 2011 at the signing of a twinning Mr Zeng Peiyan at the official launch of the UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland. students have come from Wuhan to agreement between Dublin City UCD Smurfit School over the last Council and the Beijing Municipality, a five years. development pioneered by Dr Liming UCD and Wuhan University also run Wang, Director of the UCD Confucius a joint programme in Suzhou where Institute for Ireland. Professor Keenan students can obtain a double masters lauds him as “someone who really by spending one year in Suzhou on works tirelessly on UCD’s behalf ”. the Wuhan University programme and Within two months, Dr Wang was one year at UCD Smurfit School. In back in Beijing, accompanied by UCD September 2012, 30 students will enter President, Dr Hugh Brady, to propose Dr Hugh Brady and HE Mr Li Changchun meeting the programme. the collaboration with BJUT to Mayor students during an official visit to UCD. Next year, 63 students from Xiamen of Beijing, Guo Jinlong. By Christmas University will attend UCD Smurfit a memorandum of understanding was The Chinese Ambassador His Excellency Mr Liu Biwei addressing the CEA conference. School across a number of different in place, swiftly followed by the signing MSc programmes. of a detailed joint contract, witnessed UCD Smurfit School also recruits by Mr Xi Jinping, Vice-President of about ten students from Shenzhen People’s Republic of China during his University each year across a number landmark visit to Dublin. of different masters programmes. Professor Keenan stresses the Forty-five students will join the importance of having key opinion BComm International programme makers present at such ground this year, spending their third year on breaking events, pointing out that the exchange in top Chinese universities; Mayor of Beijing “has been the prime driver of the project from the Chinese side and is interested Renmin and Peking Universities in Beijing and Fudan, Jiao Tong in seeing this project through. His involvement has speeded and Tong Ji in Shanghai. Strategic partners Xiamen, Wuhan and up events far beyond what could have been imagined in any Beijing University of Technology are also exchange destinations. Many students stay for internships following their studies and other context.” In BJUT, an elite Chinese university earmarked for special many will return to China upon graduation. UCD Smurfit School is also placing students in China through funding, UCD has found a truly prestigious partner. Alex the Bord Bia Fellowship and EI G4IG programme. Metcalfe, interim director of International Affairs in UCD, Alex Metcalfe firmly believes that “in any relationship with confirms that: “UCD has placed a very high priority on its links with China for quite some time” and believes that “UCD’s record any country it’s important that there’s a two-way element,” for innovation is one of the reasons why we’ve been first chosen evidencing this by the presence of over 500 Chinese students on the Belfield campus. and then approved as a partner”. The highly regarded UCD Confucius Institute for Ireland, a Graduates from Beijing will be awarded dual degrees. There is precedence in the UCD/Fudan degree in computer science resource for every Chinese and Irish citizen, has been central. Dr already offered by the prestigious Fudan University. Professor Wang describes it as “a bridge between China and Ireland in all Keenan describes this as “successful in terms of bridge building, aspects of life”. The Institute has almost singlehandedly pioneered the opening doors, establishing relationships and generating mutual respect between partners, something that is so important in the inclusion of Mandarin, widely spoken in mainland China, Taiwan Chinese context.” Many UCD/Fudan graduates now work with and Singapore, in the Irish education system. Dr Wang remembers his “shock and surprise” when in 2006 the Department of top Chinese software development companies. UCD School of Business has been active in Asia for 20 years Education told him that of seven languages targeted, only one was and has close relationships with Xiamen University and Wuhan from Asia and that was Japanese. “You’ll need to review that policy
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UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
| FOCUS ON CHINA | very soon” was his response. (The UCD BComm International with Chinese has for the first time this year overtaken French as the most popular language of choice for students.) Surveying every secondary school in Ireland, the UCD Confucius Institute uncovered significant untapped demand and enthusiasm. It took these findings to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment and together they devised a transition year unit, the first stage in a plan to “deliver a route map from scratch to include Mandarin as a Leaving Cert subject”. It was piloted in September 2011 with all teaching materials supplied by the UCD Confucius Institute. In the near future, a dedicated UCD Confucius Institute building, jointly funded by the Chinese and Irish governments, will become a focal point for Sino-Irish relations. Although closely linked with UCD, providing the language and cultural training element of the popular BComm international degree, the institute is a resource for everyone and courses in Chinese language and culture are accessible to all. The UCD Confucius Institute surveyed more than 600 Irish businesses before compiling a report called “Doing Business in China: the Irish Experience”. This concluded that Irish people have an advantage because of “similarities between Irish and Chinese culture and history, and because both peoples are very sociable and good at forming human relations”. The importance of China as a trading partner cannot be underestimated. As Zhu Yicai, chairman of Yurun group, a pork processor based in Nanjing in Jiangsu province, says “Ireland can be a gateway to Europe for us”. Among many initiatives Glanbia has launched Avonol, a whey protein ingredient, into the Chinese infant formula market and Ireland secured 67 per cent of the EU quota for boarfish, present in large quantities off our coastline. UCD is at the forefront of trade developments and recently signed a memorandum of understanding with leading Chinese dairy producer, Dairy United that includes the development of a China-Ireland agricultural demonstration farm in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. Links between UCD and its Chinese partners are myriad and deep-rooted. The UCD Applied Language Centre hosts an internship programme for Chinese government officials and the establishment of a centre of HSK, the Chinese Language Proficiency Examination, hosted by the UCD Confucius Institute, is a very significant development. Professor Keenan says, “We see opportunities for linking innovation and entrepreneurship with the academic, the language, the culture and the business acumen. UCD can be a vehicle, a hub, a conduit for many of these activities.” “It’s very important to understand the context in which you’re trying to do business,” he adds. “Irish people are relaxed about relationships and in my experience, it has been beneficial to be able to be relaxed but formal where required.” That ability to do business while retaining the personal touch, long the key to the success of Irish entrepreneurs around the globe, has now taken a new generation of entrepreneurs into the heart of the world’s fastest-growing marketplace. ■
UCD AND CHINA: THE ACADEMIC LINKS CHINA SCHOLARSHIP SCHEME UCD uniquely has a direct relationship with the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) and has LEARN established a scholarship scheme to assist Chinese PhD students. There is an active UCD Chinese
Students and Scholars Association. Alex Metcalfe says “These are highly prestigious scholarships and they select only the very best Chinese students. The aim there is to educate the future faculty of Chinese universities which will have a positive impact on Ireland’s diplomatic and trade relations. Business and political leaders will be drawn from that elite group. There is an immediate benefit that we get very good quality students conducting research in our classrooms and labs. Some of these students may stay working in academia or feeding high tech industries here, filling skills shortages.” UCD / BJUT JOINT VENTURE The joint venture with Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) establishes the Chinese RELATIONSHIP capital’s first international university. UCD President Hugh Brady says, “This is the continuation of our policy to internationalise UCD – to bring the expertise and knowledge of UCD academic staff to other countries and to open up the opportunity for non-Chinese students in UCD to study in Beijing.” In Phase one, an intake of 350 students across four dualdegree programmes in business, technology and science will rise to 4,000 students by year five. Phase two will establish a fully-fledged international university with its own campus and faculties, offering its own degrees. UCD / SZU JOINT VENTURE UCD has an agreement with Shenzhen University (SZU) to jointly establish the Institute of Health Science and Innovation. The universities MEDICINE will establish a doctoral programme (MD) for qualified SZU medical graduates. The first year will be completed in Shenzhen and once the state medical licensing examination of China has been completed, students will transfer to Dublin to pursue two years of translational research doctoral studies. Students are then awarded an MD degree from UCD. UCD CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE The UCD Confucius Institute works at all levels of Irish society – political, businesses and academia – to develop stronger educational, cultural LANGUAGE and commercial links between Ireland and China. This joint venture between the Office of Chinese Language Council International, Renmin University of China and UCD, was established in 2006 and declared three times “Confucius Institute of the Year” since its establishment. It is one of two in Ireland and almost 360 worldwide.
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| NEWS | ROWING: UCD took three of the four titles on offer at a lively set of Colours Races in Dublin in March. The rise of UCD, the national champions in both men’s and women’s eights, continues.
SPORTS SHORTS
On the field, on the track and on the water, 2012 was another year of achievement for UCD.
UCD science undergraduate Annalise Murphy became the first Irish sailor to qualify for the London Olympic Games after performing exceptionally well at the ISAF Sailing World Championships.
THE OLYMPIANS UCD UNDERGADUATES AMONG THE IRISH TAKING PART IN THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS
included Arthur Lanigan-O’Keeffe and Annalise Murphy, and UCD graduates Derval O’Rourke, Joanne Cuddihy, Ger Owens and Deirdre Ryan. There was heartbreak for Annalise Murphy, also an AD Astra Elite Athlete, as she came fourth in the Laser Radial class at the Olympic regatta. The 22-year-old had started out well, winning the first four races in the competition. The pragmatic sailor has vowed to learn from the experience and come back fighting for Rio in 2016. Twenty-year-old Lanigan-O’Keeffe, who is an Ad Astra Elite Athlete at UCD, took part in the modern pentathlon event which comprises pistol shooting, fencing, freestyle swimming, show jumping, and a 3km cross-country run. He was a last-minute Olympic entrant and shows strong promise for future competitions. Ger Owens, BA 2001, MBS 2005, also represented Ireland in sailing. Owens, along with team-mate in the mens 470 class, Scott Flanigan, finished 23rd overall with a net total of 173. Deirdre Ryan, BComm, MBS 2000, competed in the high jump. Ryan successfully jumped 1.80 and 1.85, but missed at 1.90m. O’Rourke, BA 2003, HDipBS 2005, MMgt 2010, and Cuddihy, MB BCh BAO 2009, both failed to make the final of their athletics events but put in times that they can be proud of.
HOCKEY IN MAY, THE UCD LADIES’ HOCKEY team claimed the ELECTRIC IRELAND IRISH SENIOR CUP in a thrilling match against Loreto in the National Hockey Stadium, Belfield. This concludes the end to a fantastic season for the UCD Ladies’ Hockey team as the team has also claimed a number of other distinguished honours. These include the LEINSTER DIVISION 1 CUP AND LEAGUE double and
The ladies’ hockey team wins the Electric Ireland Senior Irish Cup.
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the CHILEAN CUP beating Queens University in the final. The victorious team coached by Johnny Harte was Niamh Atcheler, Kate Collins Smyth, Stella Davis, Jeamie Deacon, Hannah deBurgh Whyte, Deirdre Duke, Leah Ewart, Noelle Farrell, Brenda Flannery, Dora Gorman, Nicola Gray, Sarah Greene, Caroline Hill, Anna O’Flanagan, Rachel O’Reilly, Chloe Watkins and Laura Wilson (Captain). Niamh Atcheler, Deirdre Duke, Nicola Gray, Sarah Greene, Caroline Hill, Leah Ewart, Brenda Flannery and Jessica McMickian were capped at their respective provincial level and Chloe Watkins, Niamh Atcheler and Anna O’Flanagan all capped for the Irish Senior Women’s team.
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SOCCER THE UCD MEN’S SOCCER TEAM, captained by Ad Astra Elite Athlete, Mick Leahy brought home the COLLINGWOOD CUP for the third time in four years at the competition hosted by the University of Limerick in February. UCD: M McGinley, T Dent, C O’Brochlain, M Leahy, M Langtry, S Doyle (S Sexton 80), N Hanley (B McCabe 71), S Buckley, B McDonald (N Wright 75), R King (C Morrisson 78), M Arnold, R Keogh, B O’Brochlain, C McGroarty. UCD mens soccer team win the Collingwood Cup.
ATHLETICS Ciara Everard put in a scintillating
performance on Saturday February 4th at the IUAA IRISH INTER-VARSITY CHAMPIONSHIPS held in Nenagh to break the Irish under-23 800m indoor record held by Sonia O’Sullivan. The UCD physiotherapy student knocked .14 of a second off O’Sullivan’s record, running 2.05.76. The following week, Ciara Everard of UCD rounded off her short but very successful indoor season with another win at the NATIONAL INDOOR ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS at the Odyssey Arena Belfast.
HANDBALL Martin Mulkerrins won the UNITED
STATES COLLEGIATE HANDBALL OPEN title in Springfield, Missouri,
Ciara Everard in action.
becoming the first Irish champion in over seven years. Mulkerrins, the first year Ag student, overcame a number of top American and Irish players throughout the week. In the final, the Galway native despatched University of Texas at El Paso’s DANIEL CORDOVA in a thrilling 11-10 tie-breaker victory to secure the title and the number one spot in collegiate handball in the world. The arrival of Mulkerrins has seen a renaissance of sorts for the GAA Handball club as they became the Irish senior collegiate team champions early in the year, defeating DCU in the final.
HURLING UCD’s Liam Rushe was named on the GAA and GPA 2011 HURLING ALL-STAR TEAM and was awarded the prestigious
title of YOUNG HURLER OF THE YEAR. Rushe, a final year student and sports scholarship recipient, made his first appearance for the Dublin Senior Hurling team during the 2009 championship, has become a regular member of the starting 15 since then and has been a runner-up in two Leinster finals. With Dublin, he qualified for the National Hurling League final in 2011, their first decider in over 70 years. An epic defeat of Kilkenny gave Rushe a coveted National League winners’ medal. The LIAM MC CARTHY and SAM MAGUIRE CUPS came to UCD on a beautiful day in April, when AIB Campus Bank hosted their arrival. There with the cups and students, staff and members of the public were Dublin and UCD hurler Liam Rushe; Tipperary and UCD hurler, Noel McGrath who won an All Ireland medal and All Star with Tipperary in 2010; Cavan and UCD footballer, Josh Hayes and Dublin and UCD member of the 2011 All Ireland Dublin winning side, Rory O’Carroll.
Martin Mulkerrins in action.
Rory O’Carroll and Liam Rushe with the Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy cups.
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| NEWS |
RUGBY It was a fantastic season for the Rugby
Club with the first team managing to secure their place in Division 1B of the All Ireland League with a final day victory over Dungannon while at underage level the club had a clean sweep of victories with the Under-21 A team (left) winning the JP FANAGAN LEAGUE (Leinster), the CONROY CUP (Intervarsity), the JAMESIE MAHER CUP (Colours), the IRFU ALL IRELAND FRAZER MC MULLAN CUP and the LEINSTER MC CORRY CUP. The Under-21 B’s also won the PURCELL CUP (Leinster Cup). A significant number of players were capped at provincial and national level. Seven UCD players represented Ireland in the Under-21 Rugby World Cup in South Africa in June, when Ireland finished third.
UCD RUGBY CLUB’S CENTENARY WALL UCD Rugby Club visit Aldershot and Devonport. This 1952 team was the first to travel by air.
Ray McLoughlin plays against the All Blacks, Lansdowne, 1973.
Aidan Bailey with LB McMahon in close support, Ireland v Scotland, 1937.
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UCD rugby club is 100 years old this year and the club is celebrating its centenary with an interesting building project, the brainchild of long-time member and trustee Adrian Burke. The “centenary wall” is a monument to 100 years of rugby club events and adventures, and honours past presidents, captains and players. Situated at the back of the stand of the Belfield Bowl, the wall is composed of individual bricks, each of which has been inscribed with a name or a reference to the club’s rich history. So there is a brick for Barry Breslin, the first official sub in rugby history, who was on the Lions tour in 1966. A brick to honour grandfather, father and son – James Meenan, Professor Paddy Meenan and James Meenan – who were all presidents of the club. There is one for Alex Spain, who was captain in the 1950s and president in the 1990s; one each for legendary coaches Mick Doyle and Jimmy Kelly; one for Brian O’Driscoll and his multifarious achievements; one for New Zealander, Dave Hewitt who played for the All Blacks with his first cap – and first try – at Lansdowne Road; one for Tom Grace, the IRFU treasurer; and one for Denis Hickie. There is a brick to remember Kevin Barry who was a first year medical student and a keen player before his execution in the Civil War. There is one for professor of biochemistry Don Hingerty, who was capped for Ireland in the 1940s and played for UCD for decades, including as an over-70 (as a “golden oldie”, you wear white socks and no one tackles you). There’s a brick called “Ballboy Triplets” because UCD was the only club to have triplets as ballboys … who also happened to be the sons of University president, Dr Hugh Brady. There’s even a brick to commemorate an incident that occurred in 1974 when, on an away trip, Maurice Murphy, the captain of the seconds, rang the hotel pretending to be the president of the club and authorised a £50 spend on drinks. The wall will correspond with a “virtual wall” on the club’s website, www.ucdrugby.com which will provide more detail on the legendary players and episodes that impacted on the history of Irish rugby as a whole. Team photos, lists of the thousands of undergraduates who were involved with the club over the years as players or administrators and press reports on important matches are also posted on the website. The project began as part of the centenary celebrations under the auspices of a committee chaired by Ray McLoughlin, a legend in Irish and world rugby circles. Adrian Burke then engaged a UK-based company called Briconomics and architect Ciarán Ferrie designed the Wall. With the support of student centre manager, Dominic O’ Keeffe, and UCD’s director of buildings and estates, Aidan Grannell, as well as other sub-committee members – John Breslin, Finbar Costello, Peter Clarke, Shane Geraghty, Paul Howett and Mark Thorne – the project was underway. The cost was covered via contributions from club members – the Club has about 120 playing members and 500 graduate members – and sponsorship of €250 was sought for each inscribed brick. It’s still possible to sponsor a brick and the centenary stones that will be located on each side of the wall. As Adrian Burke notes, “There is an opportunity for any member to record a moment in the history of the Club.” The wall is unveiled this month. For more information, go to www.ucdrugby.com
UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
| SCHOLARSHIP | UCD Ad Astra Performing Arts Scholar, Pagan McGrath.
AD ASTRA ACADEMY THE TERM AD ASTRA - ‘TO THE STARS’ - IS PART OF THE UCD MOTTO AND SYMBOLISES THE UNIVERSITY’S QUEST FOR EXCELLENCE. The UCD Ad Astra Academy was launched during the academic year 2011/2012 with the goal of attracting the most talented students and graduates in Ireland, thereby contributing to the quality of Ireland’s human capital. The Academy is designed to offer unique opportunities to a diverse group of highachieving and highly talented students across the University.
Sarah Murphy, UCD Ad Astra Academic Scholar
The UCD Ad Astra Academy was funded in its first year by the Peter Gleeson Fund in partnership with the University. It has already delivered significant results with 75 members enrolled in the Academy – 39 academic scholars, 27 elite athletes and nine performing arts scholars. The University is now seeking additional benefactors to expand the Academy.
The UCD Ad Astra Academy has three strands:
UCD Ad Astra Academy, Elite Athlete Scholar, Tomás Boyle, pictured with his sister, UCD Ad Astra Academy Academic Scholar, Niamh Boyle. Tomás plays soccer for UCD and is studying Physiotherapy and Performance Science, and Niamh, who achieved 790 points in the Leaving Certificate, is
^ Ad Astra Academic Scholars: six A1s. ^ Ad Astra Elite Athlete Scholars: students with proven performance at national level with clear potential at international and Olympic level. ^ Ad Astra Performing Arts Scholars: high-potential performance students in drama, music and singing, identified by audition and interview. ^ Students in the Ad Astra Academy receive a financial bursary, subsidised on-campus accommodation, individual academic mentoring, peer support, team-building activities and access to specialist facilities, expertise and distinguished alumni. The UCD Ad Astra Academy Scholars are recognised by the University as an exceptional group of students, demonstrating the following qualities: outstanding scholarly achievement, commitment to excellence, integrity of character and leadership in their chosen field.
studying Medicine.
How To Make a Donation ONLINE - www.ucdfoundation.ie BY POST - using the donation envelope supplied within the magazine BY PHONE - +353 (0)1 716 1447 UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
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UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
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Take our SUDOKU CHALLENGE PROFESSOR GARY MC GUIRE, OF UCD’S SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES, SET THIS SUDOKU PUZZLE. SEE DETAILS OF HIS INTERESTING DISCOVERY IN A YEAR IN THE SPOTLIGHT, ON PAGE 8. COMPLETE THE SUDOKU PUZZLE BELOW AND BE IN WITH A CHANCE TO WIN A VODAFONE SMART TABLET.
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Name: ...................................................................... Degree: ................................................................. Year: ......................................................................... Email: ..................................................................... Phone: ................................................................... PLEASE SEND YOUR COMPLETED SUDOKU PUZZLE TO: UCD Alumni Relations, SUDOKU Competition, Room 102 Tierney Building, Belfield, Dublin 4 Entry is limited to UCD alumni and only one entry per person is permitted. The closing date is 31st October 2012.
A World-Class Conference & Events Venue
UCD, the natural setting for your conference or event We offer a wide range of adaptable conferencing facilities on our leafy Belfield campus, to cater for everything from 20-person meetings to 1000-person conferences. The O’Reilly Hall, with its imposing façade is one of Ireland’s largest and most prestigious venues, ideal for major conferences, meetings, product launches and exhibitions. Our dedicated events team provides friendly and professional advice making sure that your conference or event is a memorable one.
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UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
To book your conference or event please contact: Mary-Beth Jennings Conference & Events Office UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4 Tel: + 353 1 716 2827 E-mail: oreilly.hall@ucd.ie www.ucd.ie/conferences
03/08/2012 16:43:55
WALK THE WALK Explore the lovely amenity that is the 133 hectares of green space on the Belfield campus UCD would like to invite all alumni, family and friends to the
ANNUAL WOODLAND WALK2012
ON SUNDAY 16TH SEPTEMBER Join us at O’Reilly Hall at 11am to pick up your T-shirt, water and map Take a stroll on one of five Woodland Walks of varying length (see below) 50,000 trees, 75 species, 9 hectares of woodland coverage Enjoy a post-walk cup of coffee or tea
MILLENNIUM WALK: 3.2km – duration 35-40 mins BELFIELD WALK: 2.4km – duration 30-35 mins GLENOMENA WALK: 1.9km – duration 20-25mins ROSEMOUNT WALK: 1.8km – duration 20-25 mins BOUNDARY WALK: 6.2km – duration 60-70 mins
JOIN UP ONLINE Register to attend on www.ucd.ie/alumni
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ALUMNI EVENTS at UCD
| EVENTS |
To view the full list of graduate awards from the University go to www.ucd.ie/alumni/awards
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MUSIC AND MEDALS
An Annual Award For A Distinguished Alumnus Each year the UCD Foundation Day Medal is awarded to a UCD graduate who demonstrates great achievement. Last November Bill Whelan was the honoured recipient, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Irish music worldwide. Whelan has been at the centre of Irish musical life for more than 30 years and is best known for composing the original seven-minute orchestral piece for Riverdance. UCD President, Dr Hugh Brady, presented the award to the musician and after his acceptance, Whelan gave a special performance alongside the UCD Ad Astra Scholars, UCD Choral Scholars, UCD Orchestral Scholars and the conductor Ciarán Crilly. Whelan has worked extensively in theatre, film and television and his album, Riverdance The Show, earned him a Grammy 14 Award, going platinum in the US, Australia and Ireland. His production and arranging credits include U2, Van Morrison, Kate Bush, Planxty and The Dubliners. The UCD Foundation Day Medal was inaugurated in 2004 to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the opening of UCD’s antecedent institution, the Catholic University of Ireland. The late Maeve Binchy and Brian O’Driscoll are among the former honorees.
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1: Adi Roche and Helen Faughnan. 2: Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin and Áine Gibbons. 3: Shay and Dympna Healy. 4: Marguerite McCabe and Barbara O’Dwyer. 5: Bill Whelan. 6: Breda Sweeney and Paul McGennis.
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7: Emilie Pine and Charae Deckard. 8: Minister RuairÍ Quinn and Councillor Gerry Ashe. 9: David Whelan and Charlie Sander. 10: John White, Liz O’Donnell and Paul O’Connor. 11: Julie and Cyril McGuire. 12: Marie Hennessey and Adrienne Shannon. 13: Professor Anthony Roche and Gerard Stembridge. 14: Sandra and Brendan Jennings. 15: Dr Hugh Brady, Bill Whelan; Marie and Seamus Heaney; Denise Whelan; Rosemary Roche and Noel Pearson.
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A GOLDEN JUBILEE
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The Class of 1961 – 50 Years On
Don’t miss out on your Golden Jubilee – update your details www.ucd.ie/alumni
The Class of 1961 celebrated their Golden Jubilee in September 2011 at O’Reilly Hall, UCD. It was a special day of reconnections as alumni – from Ireland and abroad – gathered on campus. UCD President, Dr Hugh Brady, welcomed the returning graduates and presented them with a commemorative scroll. The sun shone on the Class as group photos were taken on the lawn outside the Hall and they recollected their student days over lunch. Desmond Green, BE 1961, spoke on behalf of the class.
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1: BA. 2: BE. 3: BArch. 4: MB BCh BAO. 5: Rozenn Fouere-Barrett, BSocSc, and Dr Hugh Brady. 6. BArgSc. 7: BSc. 8: MVB. 9: Michael O’Maoileoin BCL and Dr Hugh Brady. 10: BDS. 11: BComm.
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UCD ENGINEERING: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE 1
Can Engineers Save The Irish Economy? More than 150 engineering alumni braved the bad weather last October to attend the Celebration of UCD Engineering: Past, Present and Future event and to hear Professor David O’Reilly, retired chairman and CEO of Chevron Corporation deliver the keynote address: “Can Engineers Save the Irish Economy?” In an engaging and thought-provoking address, Professor O’Reilly reminded the audience that engineers had built the foundations of the Irish economy in the first place, through bold moves such as the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric station and rural electrification. He also said, that in order to save the economy, engineers are going to have
to step outside their comfort zones and enter politics and management as it is in these two arenas that change and growth can be effected. Engineers should participate in their local communities, where their contribution can have a positive impact on society. During a lively question-and-answer session, Professor O’Reilly was asked by one of the undergraduate engineers in the audience what he had “done right” in his career. In his response, he gave the following advice: get out of the “safe zone” – be willing to take on roles and responsibilities that others are not; be open to continuous learning – developing yourself professionally in your own time will pay dividends;
don’t forget those at the lower levels of an organisation. As part of the evening’s celebrations, Professor O’Reilly was recognised by the Engineering Graduates Association and presented with the Distinguished Graduate Award 2011 by Michael Loughnane, President of the EGA. Guests then viewed the Building of the State exhibition.
1: Michael Loughnane, Dr Hugh Brady, Professor David O’Reilly and Professor Gerry Byrne. 2: Guests view the Building of the State exhibition. 3: Professor Gerry Byrne and David O’Reilly at the Building of the State exhibition.
UCD EGA ANNUAL LECTURE 2012 From Engineering to Dáil Éireann In April 2012, Independent TD Stephen Donnelly returned to his alma mater to give a lecture called “The Reflections of an Engineer in Dáil Éireann” to members of the UCD Engineering Graduates Association, in which he outlined the background to his decision to run for a seat in Dáil Éireann and recalled the very steep learning curve involved in the previous year. In a relaxed and candid talk, he observed that TDs are not what he had expected them to be and said the
system is “utterly dysfunctional” and “incredibly conservative”. He also gave his opinion on what’s needed to make the system work better and called for a wider mix of backgrounds and greater gender balance. The Q&A session after the lecture lasted for more than an hour as those in attendance were keen to draw out more opinions and observations on the current economic climate.
Update your details with UCD Engineering at www.ucd.ie/eacollege/enggrad
Michael Loughnane, Stephen Donnelly, TD, and Professor Gerry Byrne.
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A Gala To Celebrate A Milestone 2011 marked a key milestone for the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School as it celebrated 45 years of the MBA programme, the longest running executive MBA programme in Europe. To commemorate the occasion, more than 250 MBA alumni joined MBA teaching staff, past and present, for a gala dinner in the Conrad Hotel, Dublin, in November.
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1: John Grogan, Marie Kerby, Liam Fennelly, Sean McKeon. 2: Declan Bourke, Bill Hennessey, Christoph Mueller, Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, Kieran Duff and Orla Nugent. 3: Dr Anne O’Connor, MBA 1997, RTÉ, and Mary Larkin, MBA 1997, Mary Larkin Financial Services. 4: Dr Patrick Haren, MBA 1986, Viridian Group PLC, and Brian Mackle, MBA 1997, Mackle Rockfleet. 5: Fidelma Healy, Gilt Groupe, and Deirdre O’Shaughnessy, Resources Global Professionals. 6: R David Lawton and Davinia Anderson. 7: Harry Sheridan, MBA 1973, Maria Paola Vercesi, MBA 2002, Acciari Consulting Milano, and Bill Sheridan, MBA 2002, Kerry Group. 8. Michael McDonnell, Linda Kenny and Joe Kenny. 9: ProfessorJim Doolan, Brian Gregory, MBA 1966, Professor Tony Cunningham, Paul McKee, MBA 1966, Noel Donnellon, MBA 1966, and Joseph O’Loughlin, MBA 1966. 10: Pat O’Mahony, MBA 2001, Irish Medicines Board, and Aebhric McGibney, MBA 2001, Dublin Chamber of Commerce. 11: Nicola Palmer, MBA 2010, Bank of Ireland, and John Bruder, MBA 1986, Treasury Holdings. 12: Donnchadh Casey, Christine Liu and Frank Franke. 13: Mary Reid, MBA 1997, Adlerian Counselling & EAP Service, and Frank Kellett, MBA 1997, AIB.
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| EVENTS | 1: 2012 Newman Fellows with UCD President, Dr Hugh Brady, and UCD Registrar, Professor Mark Rogers. 2: Setting the scene.
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NEWMAN FELLOWSHIP DINNER Fostering Links And Funding World-Class Research
On April 24, UCD President, Dr Hugh Brady, welcomed over 20 corporate donors, Newman Fellows and their academic mentors to the annual Newman Fellowship Dinner. 9
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across the humanities and sciences. The donors, many from the pharmaceutical sector, each fund a two-year postdoctoral fellow who has the freedom to pursue a particular area of research. During the dinner, Dr Andrew Roy, the Actelion Pharmaceuticals Newman Fellow in Translational Medicine and Pulmonary Hypertension, and Dr Therese Murphy, the Craig Dobbin Newman Fellow in Mental Health, presented their research. The Newman Fellowship Programme is vital to UCD’s long-term commitment to support world-class research. It enables the University to expand the boundaries of existing knowledge and to benefit the Irish and global economy, while fostering valuable partnerships with industry and the wider community.
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3: Dr Conor Woods, sanofi-aventis Newman Fellow in Diabetes, Mary Dickens, General Manager, sanofi-aventis, Villy Valcheva, Medical Director, sanofi-aventis, and Professor Donal O’Shea. 4: Ciaran Murray, CEO, ICON, Dr Sean Ennis, Simon Holmes, ICON, and Professor Denis Shields. 5: Peter Cassidy, Abbott, Professor Diarmuid O’Donoghue, Dr Aoibhlinn O’Toole, Abbott Ireland Newman Fellow in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Dr Glen Doherty. 6: Dr Karen Power, Danone Newman Fellow in Food Safety, Niall Mullane, Danone, and Professor Séamus Fanning. 7: Alan Bass, Managing Director, Ipsen and Dr Gadintshware Gaoatswe, Ipsen Newman Fellow in Gut Neuroendocrine Tumours. 8: Dr Cheryl Sweeney, Janssen-Cilag Newman Fellow in Dermatology, and Dr Brian Kirby. 9: Dr Cara Dunne, Darren Gibbons Newman Fellow in Colorectal Disease, and Dr Monika Biniecka, MSD Newman Fellow in Inflammatory Arthritis. 10: Dr Therese Murphy, Craig Dobbin Newman Fellow in Mental Health. 11: Dr Ruben Giorgino, Director of Drug Development, Helsinn, Dr Elizabeth Ryan and Padraig Somers, General Manager, Helsinn Ireland. 12: Dr Hugh Brady and Dr Catherine McGorrian, Edwards Lifesciences Newman Fellow in Epidemiology and Treatment of Valvular Heart Disease in Ireland.
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The UCD Choral Scholars had sell-out success on both nights of their December show in 2011. They were joined by Denise Kelly on harp and Gael Winds, a quintet of Irish woodwind instrumentalists. Guests enjoyed a mulled wine reception in Newman House prior to the concert next door in Newman University Church. That fantastic show was only a prelude to their success in April 2012, as they were awarded two secondplace medals and a special jury prize at the twelfth International Choir Competition in Italy.
Book your ticket for December 2012 Choral Scholars Christmas Concert nights at www.ucd.ie/alumni/events
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1: Rory and Anne Broderick and Michael Brophy. 2: The church. 3: Diarmuid and Mary Finan. 4: Aideen and John Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Leary. 5: Eoin Bairead, Dr Paul Williams and Janet Williams. 6: Geraldine Guiry and Therese Houlihan. 7: John and Mary Therese Lacy. 8: Deirdre and Kevin Whyms. 9: Deirdre, Fiona and Monica McGillicuddy and Declan Murphy. 10: Paudie Mercer, Renagh Holohan, Robert and Sean Murphy. 11: Karen Hennessy and Matthew Enright. 12: Iseult Kennedy and Eileen Cassidy. 13: Anne White and Patrick Coffey.
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BSc Chemistry class. Front row: Joe Wrafter, David Butler, Peter Gunning, Bob Mackey and Robert Fitzpatrick. Back row: Kevin O’Loughlin, Eamonn de Valera, Denis O’Shaughnessy, Bridget O’Dwyer and Daniel O’Sullivan.
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Forty Years On, The Class Of 1972 Celebrate
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In June, the Class of 1972 gathered in the UCD John Hume Institute for Don’t miss Global Irish Studies, to celebrate their 40-year reunion. After a welcome out on your Ruby Jubilee – update your address by the President of UCD, Dr Hugh Brady, Building Planning details at Manager, Elizabeth Dunne, gave a short presentation on campus www.ucd.ie/alumni developments followed by a tour of the new Student Centre which houses an Olympic-size pool as well as a debating chamber and theatre. The evening concluded with a wine and canapés reception, and Judge Adrian Hardiman, BA 1972, spoke on behalf of the class. Hardiman’s humorous speech evoked many happy memories, and the Class of 1972 re-lived their student days through his recollections of classes and lecturers. 1: Patrick O’Connor and Pat Riordan. 2: Grace Doyle Hughes and Liam Hughes. 3: Rosemary Ryan and Margaret Price. 4: Patricia Casey and Ken Langan. 5: Benig Fouere Mauger and Margaret Carey. 6: Greg Byrne, James Morrissey and Pat Kehoe. 7: Vincent and Sheila Canny. 8: Ruth Barror and Pauline Curtin. 9: Esther Murphy and Yvonne MacBride. 10: Tony O’Connor and Paul Lambert. 11: Margaret Friel and Mary Rose Felle. 12: Cliona Buckley, Judge Adrian Hardiman and Elizabeth Senior. 13: Trevor Storey, Blaise Brosnan, Patrick McGrath and Finbarr O’Neill. 14: Elizabeth Mallow, Paul Turpin and Anne Hughes.
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BUSINESS ALUMNI AWARDS DINNER Outstanding Business Alumni Honoured
Since 1991, the UCD School of Business has celebrated and recognised the business achievements and success of its graduates through the Alumnus of the Year award. On Friday, April 27, more than 350 guests gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin for a special black1 tie fundraising dinner. This year the honoured recipients were Colm Lyon and Niall FitzGerald. Lyon is the founder and CEO of Realex Payments, one of Europe’s largest and most successful online payments businesses. He graduated from UCD with a BComm in 1984 and an MMangtSc in 1985. Speaking about his award, he said: “I am honoured and delighted to receive this medal. UCD has given me many things – among them a real appreciation of business and the role it plays in building welfare. The UCD Smurfit School is the leading business school in the country and will continue to give a world-class education to the 4 2 5 3 upcoming generation of Irish business people.” Niall FitzGerald graduated from UCD with a 7 8 6 BComm in 1969. Until the end of May 2011, he was the deputy co-chairman of Thomson Reuters, following the creation of the new company in April 2008. Prior to this he was chairman of Reuters from October 2004, having spent more than 30 years with Unilever in a variety of commercial and financial roles in several countries. Acknowledging the accolade and the importance of his time at UCD, he said: “The lessons I learned in UCD gave me the confidence to succeed in business. Through my education, I had the skills I needed to make my 1: Ciarán O’hÓgartaigh, Dean of the School of Business, Colm Lyon, BComm 1984, MMangtSc 1985, Emma Farrell, BComm Int 2011, Niall FitzGerald KBE, BComm 1969, Rob Downes, MBA ambitions a reality.” 2011. 2: Niamh and Colm Lyon. 3: Liudmila Sorgassi and Suzanne Cashin. 4: Isabelle Kelly and 9
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Jordan Collins. 5: Mark Cahill and Jennifer Bradish. 6: Niall FitzGerald KBE, Ingrid FitzGerald and Laurence Crowley. 7: Tony Condon and Tom Codd. 8: Sinead O’Connell and Brendan Lyon. 9: Shaun Hayden, MBA 2001, and Niamh Boyle, MBS 1997. 10: Christine Heffernan and Erica Roseingrave. 11: Josephine Eviston and Sandra Thorpe. 12: Shane Power, BComm 1997, MA 1999, MAcc 2000, and Sue Duke. 13: Niall Byrne and Jane Murphy.
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LIFE STORIES
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Ardmore House was the setting for Life Stories, a new Alumni Relations initiative, which started with the Life Story of alumnus John Teeling, BComm, MEconSc, which gave guests a personal insight into John’s early years growing up on the northside of Dublin, student days and lecturing in UCD, and Cooley whiskey distillery. The evening started with a tutored whiskey tasting from John Cashman, the Global Brand Ambassador for Cooley Distillery. After that, Curator of Newman House, Ruth Ferguson, introduced guests to Ardmore House and the history. But the man of the night, John Teeling, really stole the show with the engaging and inspirational story of his life. Teeling founded Cooley Distillery in 1987 with an aim to rebuilding the Don’t miss golden age of Irish whiskey.
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out on the next UCD Alumni Relations event – update your details with us at www.ucd.ie/alumni
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1: Setting the scene. 2: Ruth Ferguson. 3: John Cashman. 4: Jacinta and Paddy Quigley. 5: Lionel Fifeld and John Corcoran. 6: Stephen Murphy and Billy McCarthy. 7: John and Emma Teeling, Áine Gibbons and Dr Hugh Brady. 8: Whiskey tasting. 9: Guests listen to John Teeling. 10: Gary Ryan and Tom Hogan. 11: Declan and Ignatius Byrne. 12: Daragh Mulcahy, Eduardo and David Moffitt. 13: John Teeling.
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A CENTURY ON UCD School of Architecture’s Centenary Celebrations
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Minister Ruairí Quinn, BArch 1969, launched the UCD School of Architecture’s centenary celebrations with the unveiling of the centenary art installation in the Red Room at Richview, Belfield in September 2011. The 65-square-metre ceiling installation was designed by students and is a floating carpet of names recording every graduate of the School in its first one hundred years. Three lecture series – “Portraits”, “First Encounters”, and “Lunchtime Lectures” – were hosted during the academic year, reflecting on the work of graduates of the School and invited guest critics. In “First Encounters”, former and current graduates and staff members each spoke about a particular piece of architecture. Projects of significance discussed included Dublin Airport, the Royal National Theatre London and the Barcelona Pavilion. The lectures explored the designs and why they made such an impact on each lecturer personally. A special edition of UCD Architecture 100 records and reflects on all of the events that have taken place in this special year. This book is available through the School at events@ucdarchitecture.ie At a wonderful closing event, in June 2012, a time capsule was revealed marking the end of the UCD School of Architecture Centenary.
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1: Fiona Hughes and Professor Cathal O’Neill discuss their first encounter with architecture. 2: Simon Walker. 3: Centenary ceiling installation. 4: Time capsule. 5: The Red Room at the centenary launch party. 6: “Window to Practice” exhibition. 7: UCD Architecture 100, a centenary publication. 8: Memorial Hall exhibition at the launch party. 9: The ceiling installation in production.
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Don’t miss out on the next event – update your details with us at www.ucd.ie/alumni
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WHITE COAT CEREMONY From Undergrad to Doctor-In-Training
240 medical students gathered at O’Reilly Hall for the UCD School of Medicine’s annual White Coat Ceremony in January 2012. Professor Bill Powderly, UCD Dean of Medicine, remarked in his opening address that “the white coat in this ceremony symbolises the responsibilities that go with becoming
1: Professor Bill Powderly and the group of medical students. 2: Students are presented with white coats.
a doctor and particularly the responsibility of doctors to put the interests of their patients first.” At the White Coat Ceremony, medical students are presented with a white doctor’s coat, by a UCD medical faculty member, to mark their progression into the hospital-based portion of their medical training.
GALA DINNER/ SCIENTIFIC MEETING Celebrating Success, Progression and Friendship at UCD Medicine Alumni Reunion 2012 Don’t miss
The School recently invited graduates of 1952, 1962, 1972, 1982, 1987, 1992, and 2002 back to their alma mater for the annual medical alumni reunion. This important event celebrates the lifelong personal and professional bonds that begin with life as a medical student. The 2012 reunion began with a scientific meeting and culminated in a special reunion dinner at O’Reilly Hall. Speaking at the event, Professor Bill Powderly, Dean of Medicine, said “The tradition of this medical school in producing superb doctors, who make great contributions not just in this country but on a worldwide basis is one that we are proud of …The long hours in medical school and in hospitals learning clinical medicine really forms such strong friendships that last right through someone’s life. This annual event is important to the School and represents a unique opportunity to look back on and celebrate friendships and achievements to date.”
out on the next event – update your details with us at www.ucd.ie/alumni
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1: UCD Medicine Class of 2002. 2: Doctors Brian McCann and Seamus MacSuibhne. 3: Doctors Marguerite Doyle, Martina Reichert, Deirdre Hegarty and Marie Moran. 4: Doctors John Cunningham, Joe Duggan and Frank Kinsella. 5: Doctors Karina Butler, Pauline O’Connell and Penny O’Connell. 6: Doctors Flan and Joe McGlinchey. 7: Doctors Therese O’Neill and Eileen Forrestal. 8: Doctor Mary Randles and Professor James Devlin.
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SPORTS DAY
The New UCD Student Centre Opens On June 24, more than 800 alumni, friends and families attended the open day at the new Student Centre, which houses UCD Sport & Fitness â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an Olympic-size pool and a state-of-the-art gym â&#x20AC;&#x201C; as well as a debating chamber, cinema and theatre. The facilities were showcased with the help of UCD Student Ambassadors who brought alumni on tours of the facilities and offered an insight into all activities that will be available for current students when the centre officially opens.
Join UCD Sport and Fitness at www.ucd.ie/sportandfitness
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1: Heather, Martha and Julie McCutcheon. 2: The gym. 3: Christian and Conor Murphy. 4: Matthew, Brendan and Daniel Ryan. 5: Mark, Fiona and Anna Henry. 6: Ann and Bill Kavanagh and Ruth Lennon. 7: Eamonn, Jennifer and Emily Richardson. 8: Edward, Gretta, Connie and Geraldine Mitchell. 9: The studios. 10: Sean and Oisin Greene. 11: Student Ambassadors led tours. 12: James and Jane Devitt. 13: Colm, Elaine, Owen and Peter Lynch. 14: Fiona Hegerty and Emmanuel Leonard. 15: May Curtain and Brendan and Ann Scully. 16: Leila, Fergus, Najwa and Eamonn McGuinn. 17: Roseanna Conny, Sile Decourcy and Jessie Hayden. 18: Siofra, Mark and Caiomhe MacMahon.
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EAST MEETS WEST
Alumni Events In Hong Kong And Singapore 8
On Friday May 11, 2011, UCD School of Business hosted a gathering for alumni living in Hong Kong. This relaxed get-together provided alumni with the opportunity to exchange news, catch up with old friends, network and make new connections in their local area. Two days later, the annual UCD Alumni Cocktail Reception took place at the Irish Ambassador’s residence in Singapore. The event was a great success and UCD is grateful to His Excellency Joseph Hayes, Irish Ambassador to Singapore, for his support in hosting the gathering.
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1: Elliot Liew, Amos Tan, David Tan and Janice Seah. 2: Dilruk Jayasekera, Ang Kok How Keith, Mison Fong and Frankie Yee. 3: Professor Ciarán O’hÓgartaigh, Peter Lewis, Erin Gale, Professor Damien McLoughlin, Professor Aidan Kelly, Cormac Hynes, Rhys Johnson and HE Joseph Hayes. 4: Anthony Low, Rahmawati Tekad and Evelyn Cheong. 5: HE Joseph Hayes. 6: Djon Manuhutu, Professor Jim Jackson, Femmy Lais and Professor Aidan Kelly. 7: Peter Lewis. 8: Jeaninne Eggel and Ciara Hayes. 9: Felishya Yusa, Alex Quek and Jeremy Chan.
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10: Anthony Low, Rahmawati Tekad, Evelyn Cheong. 11: Tara Collins. 12: Peter Chun Chau Chan and Ka Ki Sally. 13: Chan Wing Sze Tam and Ming Ha Ng. 14: Lisa Yip. 15: Tina Pahilmani. 16: Alumni gather in Hong Kong.
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BLOOMSDAY HONOURS
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UCD Awards Ulysses Medal And Honorary Degrees 3
This year on Bloomsday, the University conferred honorary degrees on Daniel Day-Lewis, Jim Sheridan, Brenda Fricker, Joan Bergin and Laura Mulvey for their contribution to art through film. Dr Tony Scott, founder of the BT Young Scientist Exhibition, was honoured with the Ulysses Medal. In her official citation for Daniel Day-Lewis, Dr Fionnuala Dillane from the UCD School of English, Drama and Film, spoke of the actor’s commitment and a matchless talent that shaped so many unforgettable, complex and challenging stories. Jim Sheridan graduated from UCD in 1972 and, with his adaption of Christy Brown’s memoirs in My Left Foot, he changed how Ireland was seen on film at home and abroad. His career continued with Brothers (2009) and Dreamhouse (2011). Brenda Fricker received an Oscar for her portrayal of Christy Brown’s mother in My Left Foot and has graced our screen many times since then – in The Field, Veronica Guerin and most recently in Albert Nobbs and Cloudburst, with Olympia Dukakis. The Oscar-winning costume designer Joan Bergin began her career at the Focus Theatre in Dublin and has worked alongside Brenda Fricker, Jim Sheridan and Noel Pearson on many film productions. The breadth of her design reaches from Riverdance to The Tudors, taking in Ibsen, Chekhov, Pinter and John
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B Keane en route. Laura Mulvey, professor of Film Theory at Birkbeck, University of London is one of a generation of “activist academics” who combine scholarly thought with social justice, challenging society to think clearly about popular culture. UCD graduate and former UCD lecturer Dr Tony Scott (BSc 1961, MSc 1962, PhD 1966) was presented with the Ulysses Medal with special mention of his passion for teaching – taking time and care with his students. “Long before there were such things as President’s Teaching Awards, Tony was recognised as a gifted teacher,” Dr Brady said. Delivering the Ulysses citation, journalist Dick Ahlstrom said, “I can think of very few who have had a bigger impact on the life of UCD, on the communication of science, and on the youth of the nation, than Tony Scott.” The Young Scientist Exhibition, founded in 1965 by Dr Scott, has grown from 230 participants to over 1,600. 6
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A Joycean Conversation For Bloomsday More than 500 UCD alumni and friends celebrated Bloomsday 2012 in UCD with a Characters in Conversation event with UCD honorees, Dr Brenda Fricker and Dr Jim Sheridan (BA 1972), and host Ryan Tubridy (BA 1994). The pair delighted the audience with tales of working on My Left Foot, In America, the Oscars and their love of Dublin. As the event drew to a close, talented UCD students took to the stage to perform Two Gallants – this performance marked the culmination of a creative collaboration between UCD Ad Astra Scholarship recipients from Drama and Music, members of the UCD Drama Society and UCD Ad Astra director in residence, Kellie Hughes, and was adapted from the short story of the same name from James Joyce’s Dubliners. Two Gallants – which was completed when Joyce was just 24 – offered a glimpse of the artistic heights Joyce would eventually scale and featured the characters Corley and Lenehan, who go on to people the world of Ulysses. See film clips at ucd.ie/alumni/past-events
Don’t miss out on the next UCD Alumni Relations event – update your details with us at www.ucd.ie/alumni
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1: Jim Sheridan, Áine Gibbons, Vice-President for Development & Alumni Relations, Brenda Fricker and Ryan Tubridy. 2: Brenda Fricker and Jim Sheridan in conversation. 3: Looking through old photographs – Fran Sheridan, Jim Sheridan, Brenda Fricker and Ryan Tubridy. 4: Jim Sheridan. 5: Karen and Dell Ward. 6: Brenda Fricker. 7: Noreen Kane and Kajia Zukowska.
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JOHN M KELLY MEMORIAL LECTURE A Distinguished Graduate Revisits UCD
In May 2012, the annual John M Kelly Memorial Lecture was presented by Professor Gráinne De Búrca, BCL 1986, who spoke on the subject “Appraising the EU Experiment after 60 years”. De Búrca is currently Florence Ellinwood Allen Professor of Law at New York University Law School and previously held positions as Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Fordham Law School, and at the European University Institute in Florence. She is an internationally renowned expert in in European Human Rights Law, EU Law and Transitional Law. The lecture, held in the Quinn School of Business, had a great turnout as students and academics gathered to hear one of UCD Law’s most successful graduates.
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1: John O’Dowd, UCD School of Law, Sinéad Rooney, auditor, UCD Law Society; Professor Gráinne de Búrca; and Professor Colin Scott, Dean of Law. 2: Nick Kelly and Professor Gráinne de Búrca. 3: Professor Gráinne de Búrca addressing the audience. 4: The Hon Mr Justice Nial Fennelly, Supreme Court of Ireland, Professor Gráinne de Búrca and Professor Imelda Maher, UCD School of Law.
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The Sutherland School of Law is Underway
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1: Inspecting the plans for the new building at the site were Dr Hugh Brady, Minister Ruairí Quinn, Peter Sutherland, Theo Cullinane and Professor Colin Scott. 2: Dr Hugh Brady signs the contract with Theo Cullinane and Professor Imelda Maher. Back row: Professor Colin Scott, Minister Quinn, Peter Sutherland and Declan McCourt. 3: Dr Hugh Brady and Peter Sutherland look out over the site of the new building where work has commenced. 4: Minister Ruairí Quinn. 5: Dr Suzanne Kingston, lecturer, UCD School of Law.
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The contract for the new UCD Sutherland School of Law Building was signed by the President of UCD, Dr Hugh Brady, and Mr Theo Cullinane, CEO of BAM Contractors, at a ceremony at Belfield in May. Also present were the Honourable Peter Sutherland KCMG, SC, the principal donor for the project, and Ruairí Quinn, TD, Minister for Education and Skills – as well as Professor Colin Scott, Dean of UCD School of Law; Mr Declan McCourt, Chairman of the UCD School of Law Development Council; and Professor Imelda Maher, Academic Director of the law school building project. Representatives of the major law firms contributing to the project and other invited guests from the legal profession and the wider community also attended the event.
Update your details with UCD School of Law at www.ucd.ie/law/alumni
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BUDGET BRIEFING Christmas Drinks With Extra Economics
1: Paul Haran, Liam Farrelly, Gerard Cavanagh and Ciarán O’hÓgartaigh. 2: Eamonn Walsh. 3: Jessica Crowley, Edel Farrelly and Lauren Sharpe. 4: Moira Murphy and Robert Gleeson. 5: Declan O’Brian and Cillian MacDomhnaill 6: Christine Heffernan and Darina Sexton. 7: Conor Horgan and Andrew Cree. 8: Caroline Kinsella, Eileen Murray and Gerardine Doyle. 9: Orla Benson and Eddie Walsh. 10: Lisa Flynn, Iarla Mongey and Grainne Walsh. 11: Robert Marshall, Niamh Boyle, Catriona Hennessy and Shane Hayden. 12: Natalie McGuinness and Tara Collins.
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On December 6, the UCD Business Alumni organisation hosted its annual Christmas drinks and budget briefing at the Merrion Hotel. More than 140 guests attended, including UCD business graduates, members of the UCD Smurfit School Advisory Board, as well as staff, academics and friends of the School. The evening commenced with a welcome by Lochlann Quinn, Chairman of the National Gallery of Ireland and the ESB. This was followed by an insightful and comprehensive briefing by Professor of Accounting, Eamonn Walsh, on the main highlights and implications of the Budget.
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CONNECTING IN NORTH AMERICA
UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School Annual Benefit Dinner
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In October 2011, the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School hosted its annual findraising dinner in the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan. The event honoured Desmond McIntyre, president and CEO, Standish Mellon Asset Management, and was attended by 250 business people, including members of the School’s North American Advisory Board, UCD alumni and friends of the School.
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1: Michael Dowling, Chairman of the North American Advisory Board, Linda McIntyre, Dean of UCD School of Business, Ciarán O’hÓgartaigh, honoree Desmond McIntyre and Paul Haran, chairman of UCD Smurfit School. 2: The dining room at the Metropolitan Club. 3: Ciarán O’hÓgartaigh, Adrian Flannelly, Kieran McLaughlin, director of the Ireland Funds, John Fitzpatrick, Fitzpatrick Hotels, and Anthony Condon, director of development at UCD Smurfit School. 4: Ciarán O’hÓgartaigh and Tony Condon. 5: Michael Dowling with colleagues from North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System. 6: Irish Consul General Noel Kilkenny, Rob Reid, Hanora O’Dea Kilkenny, Tony Condon, Patricia Harty and Kieran McLaughlin. 7: Michael Dowling addresses the gathering. 8: Guests gather in the foyer. 9: The alumnus award. 10: The Metropolitan Club on East 60th Street.
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DOING THE BUSINESS IN NEW YORK Alumni Gather to Network
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Also in October, on the eve of the Benefit Dinner, UCD Business Alumni hosted an informal drinks reception and networking event for over 70 alumni living and working in New York. Attending the event were Ciarán O’ hÓgartaigh, Dean of UCD School of Business, Paul Haran, chairman of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, members of the School’s board of management team and Update your details with members of the School’s UCD School of Business at www.ucd.ie/businessalumni North American Advisory Board. 4
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1: New York City. 2: Jenny Gurvich, Tony Condon and Paulina Zukowska. 3: Guests listen to the address. 4: Molly Dineen. 5: Ciarán O’hÓgartaigh. 6: Grace Smith, Maeve Judge, Amie Walsh and Eimear Murphy. 7: Cornelius Clarke and Tony Condon. 8: Alex Cosgrove. 9: Gillian O’Rourke, Diana Donnelly, Helma Larkin, Bronagh Jennings. 10: Lara Nangle, Ann Murtagh and Natalia Lynch. 11: Siobhan Reynolds.
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UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
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LOOKING BACK
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GROUND BREAKING 1962: A Momentous Occasion – The Move to Belfield Commences
IN 1910, THE STUDENT POPULATION of UCD was 530; by 1946, it was 3,362. Growth continued apace into the 1950s, forcing the University to address the issue of overcrowding of the city centre premises it occupied, and the separation of Schools – medical students were based in packed-to-the-rafters Earlsfort Terrace, for instance, while engineering students were in Merrion Street, in what are today known as Government Buildings. A suburban site seemed to be the best way forward, the aim to unite all the different facilities on one purpose-built campus. A special meeting of the governing body of the University in 1951 unanimously decided that “new University College buildings be erected on the lands at Stillorgan.” This referred to Merville House, which, along with 60 acres, was the first parcel of land to be acquired. Other plots of land around Belfield were purchased throughout the 1950s but it was 1962 before work
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commenced on its first building, the science block. President Eamon de Valera turned the sod, as the President of UCD Dr Michael Tierney looked on. Science’s move to Belfield relieved the situation in Earlsfort Terrace but numbers were still increasing. With the student population at over 10,000 in 1970, Arts, Commerce and Law moved to Belfield.
TOP: PRESIDENT EAMON DE VALERA TURNS THE SOD AT A CEREMONY IN 1962, OVERSEEN BY UCD PRESIDENT MICHAEL TIERNEY. IN THE BACKGROUND ARE JIM RYAN AND PATRICK HILLERY. ABOVE DE VALERA INSPECTS THE GUARD OF HONOUR.
UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Administration followed in 1972. Years later, Dr Tierney’s dream was fully realised, when Medicine moved from Earlsfort Terrace to the Health Sciences building in 2006. Since the idea of moving from Earlsfort Terrace was first mooted, 50 years had passed. One person who witnessed the move in its entirety is Paddy O’Flynn, wrote Quinton O’Reilly in the University Observer. Having worked in UCD since 1959, he is possibly the longest-serving staff member at UCD and when the move began, was a junior lecturer in chemical engineering, in Merrion Street. He recalls the ceremony for the turning of the sod for the science building, saying he “can remember [de Valera] out there with a shovel: he looked like he was going to dig the whole site”. The momentous nature of the move even warranted a guard of honour from the Irish Army, which was duly inspected by the top-hatted de Valera. n
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