Issue 19 October 2014 www.tcd.ie/alumni
Trinity
Today A publication for alumni and friends
Funny business with comedian Aisling Bea Trinity’s new five year plan Catch up with campus news Alumni interviews
Trinity Today welcome
The team Editor Patrick Gleeson Editorial Team Róisín Cody Brenda Cullen John Dillon Caoimhe Ní Lochlainn Sandra Rafter Nick Sparrow Dominique Twomey Cover Image Aisling Bea photo by Tom McCall Publisher Ashville Media Group www.ashville.com All information contained in this magazine is for informational purposes only and is to the best of our knowledge correct at the time of print. The opinions expressed in these pages are not necessarily shared by the Alumni Office or Trinity College Dublin.
contact Alumni & Development East Chapel Trinity College Dublin 2 Ireland t. +353 (0)1 896 2088 e. alumni@tcd.ie w. www.tcd.ie/alumni
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Provost’s Welcome Dear Fellow Alumni,
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he key to Trinity’s success over the last 400 years has been a willingness to change and adapt while always remaining true to the principles that have informed our growth and development as a University. We are now entering into an immensely exciting time for Trinity with our new strategic plan 2014 to 2019. I am proud of the role that our alumni, as part of the Trinity community, will play in this next chapter of our history. The new plan provides the framework for ensuring that the next five years will be Trinity’s most successful yet. Throughout the last year, feedback received from our worldwide alumni community, particularly the Trinity Global Graduate Forum held in November 2013, has contributed to identifying the priorities in the plan. We count on you for support, ideas, and expertise. Trinity could not operate in the way it does without the great support that many of you so freely give. Elsewhere in this issue, the Vice-Provost/Chief Academic Officer, Professor Linda Hogan outlines in greater detail the vital role alumni have played, and will continue to play, in delivering the plan. At Trinity, we prefer to lead by example rather than by preaching. Nowhere is this more evident than in the impact our alumni have had on the global stage since graduating. In this issue we are delighted to feature a diverse range of people from Jonathan Cloonan, whose inventive approach to marketing led to his dream job and a mention on the prestigious Forbes ‘30 under 30’, to Gary Gannon, a former Trinity Access Programmes student who was recently elected as councillor for Dublin’s north inner city. We chat to Pauline Turley, who went from Trinity to leading the development of the Irish Arts Center in New York, and we also meet Aoife McLysaght to discuss her passion for gene hunting and science communication. Elsewhere, we meet entrepreneur Stuart Coulson, who talks about the importance of not being afraid to take risks, while Aisling Bea introduces us to the serious world of stand-up comedy. There are also several full page advertisements outlining the wide range of services and benefits that Trinity offers to alumni. Alumni participation is of huge importance to us and we regard our relationship with you as lifelong and, we hope, mutually beneficial. We now have over 100,000 alumni living in 130 countries, and on all my trips abroad, I try and meet with our graduates – frequently at dinners and receptions organised by the excellent alumni branches. It is an experience that I greatly enjoy and I am looking forward to meeting many more of you throughout the year ahead.
Patrick Prendergast B.A.I., Ph.D., Sc.D. (1987) Provost
Trinity today is now available online at www.Tcd.ie/alumni /trinitytoday
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Trinity Today contents
Contents 04.
Campus News Find out what’s been happening on campus
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Empire State of Mind Ad man Jonathan Cloonan on the lure of life in the Big Apple
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The Gene Hunter Aoife McLysaght on gene hunting and promoting science to the public
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The Business of Reinvention Stuart Coulson’s journey to becoming an angel investor and grape grower
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Opening Trinity Up To The World Vice-Provost Linda Hogan on the global ambition of Trinity’s new five-year plan
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A Man for All Seasons Femi Williams and his mission to set up an African cancer centre
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Creating a 21st Century Library Helen Shenton, Trinity’s new Librarian and College Archivist, shares her vision
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C’est la Bea Comedian Aisling Bea sits down for a chat
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Local Hero Former TAP student Gary Gannon on his new role as an elected councillor
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Bringing it all Back Home Chris Morash on why it’s great to be back in Trinity as the Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Literature
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From Trinity to Tramp Lisa Coen talks about setting up her own publishing house
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On the Line Fionn McGorry’s insights into being a student caller
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Building the future Paul Johnston on the role of engineers in society A Mystic Dream of 4 I ggy McGovern on mathematician (and poet), William Rowan Hamilton Putting Arts Centre Stage Pauline Turley talks about promoting Irish arts in New York A Legacy of Imagination Trinity Library acquires a unique Beckett collection Path to Victory We meet Trinity’s Victory Scholars, Katie Ganser and Shelby Smith Sport at Trinity – Raising our Game Highlights and achievements from the past year
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Honorary Degrees Outstanding individuals recognised
Commencements Alumni around the world now total over 100,000 Reunion Weekend Photos from our annual Alumni Weekend Alumni Branches Find your local branch Photo Gallery Photos from our alumni events during the last year Gaeilgeoirí i gCéin Taking a look at our graduates working abroad Trinity Transformed Patrick Geoghegan looks at Trinity from 1912-1923 Class Notes News from graduates around the world
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One-on-One Trinity’s Director of Research and Innovation, Diarmuid O’Brien, tells us about himself
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Trinity Today Campus News
Campus
NEWS
It’s been a busy year in Trinity, with so much going on we’re only able to provide you with snapshots here. For more news visit www.tcd.ie
Trinity’s book sale is still going strong
Book sale Turns 25
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his year Trinity’s annual second-hand book sale celebrated its 25th year. In that time the event has raised almost half a million euro which has been used to purchase research materials in the Library and departmental libraries. The next book sale will take place from 5-7 March 2015 in the Exam Hall.
In SHORT
One of the many adorable pooches that helped students to relax
Trinity students win INTEL scholarship Last December three Trinity students – Ciara Maguire from Tipperary, Eleanor McSweeney from Dublin and Alison Hennessy from Cork – were among the recipients of Intel Ireland’s 2013 Women in Technology Scholarships.
Trinity Today Campus News
Pet Therapy at Trinity
New Freyne Library T
rinity is now home to a unique specialist library of biblical, archaeological and socio-historical studies on the Greco-Roman world, Jewish Hellenism and the Roman Near East. The Freyne Library was donated by the family of Seán Freyne (1935-2013), founding Professor of Theology in the original School of Hebrew, Biblical and Theological Studies. Professor Freyne, who served Trinity for almost 30 years, established the first non-denominational setting for the study of the Bible and theology within the humanities at an Irish university.
Freyne Library Opening
Photo: Kyran O’Brien, Independent Newspapers
In the midst of Trinity’s summer exam season students were given the chance to relieve their stress by popping into a special canine therapy room on campus. The event, which was organised in conjunction with the charity Peata, saw groups of up to 15 students entering the room every ten minutes to relieve their stress by petting over a dozen dogs of all The Dog ages, shapes Days Of Summer and sizes.
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Dr Gail Grossman Freyne signing the visitors’ book
“Students are armed with protest”
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he UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, addressed members of the Law Society and the College Historical Society in November. Her belief in activism, as well as the instrument of law, helped form her message of hope. “Students are armed with protest,” she said, “and the world outside gives a damn.”
Biodiversity in Trinity
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ictured are pupils from fifth class, St Mary’s Boys School, Rathfarnham, who visited a special workshop in Trinity on bee pollination. The workshop was part of a series of biodiversity events which also saw Trinity staff, students and alumni racing against the clock in a 24-hour period to see how many unique plants and animals could be discovered on campus. They recorded an impressive 346 species before the clock was up.
BEE On Time
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Trinity Today campus news
The Naked Lunch
New Children’s Book database D
r Pádraic Whyte, Assistant Professor in English and his colleague Dr Keith O’Sullivan, Church of Ireland College of Education, were awarded a major Irish Research Council grant of over €350,000 to develop a database of children’s books. “This is a really exciting time for the study of children’s literature in Ireland,” Dr Whyte said. “We have an M.Phil. programme in Children’s Literature…we have over 10,000 children’s books in The Pollard Collection of Children’s Books at Trinity Library, and now we have this project to create the National Collection of Children’s Books.”
“The Children of Lir” illustration ©PJ Lynch 2014 from “The Names Upon The Harp” by Marie Heaney, published by Faber
Trinity Today campus news
Scholars and Fellows bare almost all Last December saw Trinity Scholars and Fellows take part in a charity calendar to raise money for two causes, Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) and the Community After School Project (CASPr) “Scholars receive a huge amount from the College and the charity calendar is just one way we are trying to give back a little!” said Amy Worrall, Scholar’s secretary.
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In SHORT Success at Student Awards
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rinity scored big at the Student Achievement Awards Ireland (SAAI) in May. Social Science student Mark Walsh won Class Representative of the Year while Law and Business student Shauna Watson won SU Part-Time Officer of the Year. Jack Cantillon, Law, and Claire Cullen, Medicine, won the Charity Event of the Year for Jailbreak. The University Times won Publication of the Year and Psychology student Aisling Curtis won Journalist of the Year. TCDSU’s TCDtalks was the winner of the Mental Health Campaign of the Year while Irish Language Campaign of the Year went to An Cumann Gaelach.
AMBER LIGHTS THE WAY
I Trinity Gets its MOOC On
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Pictured are some of the brave participants including Jack Gleeson aka Game of Thrones’ Prince Joffrey
ver 15,000 people around the world signed up for Trinity’s first ever Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which started in September. The MOOC, ‘Irish Lives in War and Revolution: Exploring Ireland’s history 1912-1923’, was available to anyone with internet access across multiple devices including desktops, tablets and smartphones. The six-week course was a collaboration with FutureLearn.
t’s been a busy year for AMBER, Ireland’s national materials science centre based in Trinity. In April they announced a new method of producing industrial quantities of highquality grapheme, a discovery that will change the way many consumer and industrial products are made. In July researchers developed a new approach to measure Poisson’s Ratio on the nanoscale; a scale invisible to the human eye and 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair!
Professor Wins Humanitarian Award
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n December the American Psychological Association awarded Professor Malcolm MacLachlan of the Centre for Global Health and the School of Psychology in Trinity the International Humanitarian Award for 2014. Professor MacLachlan’s work focuses on applying psychology to global health, with a special focus on disabilities, and addressing the rights and potential of vulnerable and marginalised groups.
Massive Open Online Course Irish Lives in War and Revolution
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Trinity Today campus news
Robbie the Robot
A prototype is born
Robbie the Robot is unveiled at Trinity
Photo: Paul Sharp
Robbie the Robot, a prototype built to help teenager Joanne O’Riordan with everyday tasks, was unveiled in May. Joanne, from Millstreet in Cork, was born without any limbs. Assistant Professor Kevin Kelly from Trinity’s School of Engineering, along with a team of young engineers, built the robot in response to a challenge put forward to engineers by Joanne in April 2012 as she addressed an audience of delegates at the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) ‘Girls in ICT Day’ celebrations in New York.
Cobbling Together A
In SHORT
Front Square’s cobbles get their bedding replaced
Pen & Palette book launch
major maintenance programme took place during the year to upgrade Trinity’s famous cobbles. The limestone cobbles are river washed stones formed over thousands of years and are extremely durable. However, the bedding they rest on and the pointing that holds them in place deteriorates over time so each cobble was removed and cleaned before being replaced on new bedding.
Pen & Palette is a selection of artwork by NIID students
Pen & Palette, a selection of poetry and paintings by students of Trinity’s National Institute for Intellectual Disability (NIID), was launched in June. The book was published as part of the Margaret McLoughlin Art Project. Student participants worked with professional artists and held exhibitions in a number of galleries, including the Hunt Museum in Limerick, Poetry and Painting the National Gallery in Dublin and the Printing Project House and Atrium in Trinity College.
Trinity Today campus news
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Hollywood in Front Square In May movie stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill were at Trinity where they were presented with Bram Stoker medals from The Phil, the College’s philosophical society. The two Hollywood A-listers also participated in a Q&A with students to promote their movie, 22 Jump Street. Movie star glamour at Trinity
Jailbreakers raise over €36,000
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Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill in Front Square during their recent visit to Trinity
his year’s Jailbreak saw over 200 students blagging their way for free across the world, reaching as far as Bali, Singapore, Honolulu, New York and Seattle and raising over €36,000 for Amnesty International and St Vincent de Paul along the way. The student-organised event, previously based solely in Trinity, has become so successful that it’s now a national event involving other Irish universities.
Action packed year for Science Gallery
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isitors to Science Gallery during the year learned about the benefits of failing and the complexities of weather at two separate exhibitions. Fail Better, held in spring, was inspired by Samuel Beckett’s famous mantra ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better’. The exhibition explored how the process of failing is a crucial step on the way to finding solutions. Meanwhile Strange Weather, the summer exhibition, brought together meteorologists, artists, climate scientists, cloud enthusiasts and designers to explore how we model, predict, and even create weather.
Science Gallery never fails to inspire
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Trinity Today campus news
In SHORT New book traces 1,400 Years of Dublin
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avid Dickson, Professor in Modern History, recently published his book, Dublin: The Making of a Capital City. This fascinating volume provides the first comprehensive survey of the city’s history in more than 30 years. Bringing together the work of dozens of historians, geographers and archaeologists, the book traces the unfolding of 1,400 years and spans the lives of fifty generations of Dubliners.
The Hist presents President with Gold Medal ast November the College’s historical society, The Hist, presented President Michael D. Higgins with the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse. He was honoured for his commitment to the protection of human rights and promotion of the arts, education and the Irish language. For the occasion President Higgins delivered an address entitled ‘The Worthiness of the Arts in the 21st Century’.
Auditor of The Hist, Cormac McGuinness, presents President Higgins with his Gold Medal
Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast with Francois Pienaar, One Young World Counsellor and former South African rugby captain, and Bob Coggins, also of One Young World, at the unveiling of Joe Caslin’s mural
Dancing for Happiness Trinity Health and Sports Week celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with a week full of events focused on the theme of ‘Happiness’. It was a week packed full of events including free exercise classes, sports clubs and society activities, mindfulness and relaxation sessions, laughter yoga, healthy eating options, information sessions and health checks.
Health and Sports Week
Happiness was the name of the game during Health & Sports Week
Photo: Paul Sharp
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Trinity Today campus news
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One young world
The One Young World Summit, which recently took place in Dublin, was launched last April with the unveiling of an iconic mural above Trinity’s Nassau Street entrance. The mural, ‘Looking for Leadership’, by acclaimed young Irish artist, Joe Caslin, represents young Irish men pushed to the edges of society. This theme reflects the work of One Young World, the not-for-profit organisation that gathers together the brightest young people from around the world, empowering them to make lasting connections to create positive change.
Bringing physics to commuters Pictured below are Dr Shane Bergin, Dr Jessamyn Fairfield, Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain and Professor Colette Murphy at the launch of DARTofPhysics in Pearse Street Dart station. DARTofPhysics was an eight-week initiative that saw Trinity students introduce commuters to the joys of physics through a series of eye-catching demonstrations. DartofPhysics will return to Dublin in 2015 and it will be joined by ‘Underground Physics’ a sister campaign on the London Tube.
Engineering students know no bounds
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wo Trinity engineering students won the 2013 Irish James Dyson award for ‘Boundless’, an invention for snowboards that offers a 360 degree rotational attachment that goes between the board and its binding material. The system enables the user to quickly unlock, adjust and re-lock the bindings into another position without the need for a screwdriver. Boundless also prevents injuries by allowing snowboarders to sit comfortably on chairlifts so they do not have to hang their legs at awkward angles.
Keep up to date with the latest alumni news & events on WWW.tcd.ie/Alumni
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Trinity Today campus news
Trinity’s visual identity
One of the stories that attracted a great deal of attention during the last year was the Trinity identity project. The aim of the project was to look at Trinity’s identity to see if there are ways to make it stronger, particularly in a global context, and in line not only with our past, but also our future. The debate emphasised the strong connection that many people have with the name and the shield of this University. This connection is something that we are immensely proud of and consultation with the Trinity community will inform any changes that may be made in the future. The new visual identity proposals will take account of recommendations that emerged from the consultation process, including retention of the name as per the current logo, i.e. “Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin”, and the heraldic elements of the coat of arms. It is anticipated that amended proposals on the visual identity will be brought to Board during the coming academic year.
Using your head! Trinity’s Dr Danielle Green snapped up a prize in the British Ecological Society’s Centenary photographic competition for this photograph of an ecologist searching for cryptic infauna on intertidal mud-flats at Lough Swilly in County Donegal.
Diving in Headfirst
Student Managed Fund holds first discussion series ‘Leading Women: Building Presence at the Top’ was the theme of the first discussion of the Leadership Perspective Series hosted by Trinity’s Student Managed Fund (SMF). The SMF is Ireland’s first entirely student run investment fund. The event was opened by Chancellor of the University and former President of Ireland, Dr Mary Robinson and chaired by former Tánaiste Mary Harney. Speaking at the event Mary Harney said the SMF “is a fantastic educational resource, educating undergraduates in risk management, investment decisions and business analysis”.
Trinity Today campus news
Trinity launches admissions pilot scheme T
UN CLIMATE Change Envoy
Dr Mary Robinson appointed special envoy for climate change
Chancellor of Trinity, Dr Mary Robinson
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n October the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford gave a reading to Trinity’s New York alumni and friends at NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House. The evening was hosted by Trinity’s Vice President for Global Relations Jane Ohlmeyer. Ford has published six novels, including The Sportswriter and Independence Day and has taught creative writing at Trinity since 2008 as adjunct professor in the masters creative writing programme at the Oscar Wilde Centre.
In SHORT
nited Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Dr Mary Robinson, Chancellor of Trinity, as his Special Envoy for Climate Change. Building on her work on climate justice, Dr Robinson will engage governments around the world in order to mobilise political will and action. She will also provide strategic advice to the Secretary-General based on her consultations. In asking Dr Robinson to take on this mandate, Ban Ki-moon commended her for her work as Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, in particular for her efforts in bringing cohesion and international awareness to the challenges in the region. With her international stature, she was able to galvanise the international community to support the efforts of the Great Lakes region in conflict resolution, socio-economic development and mainstreaming of marginalised groups including women.
Richard Ford reading in NYC
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his year Trinity piloted a new admissions project which saw places offered to 25 students who did not get enough points in the Leaving Cert.The scheme, a holistic approach aimed at broadening entry routes to third-level education, allows students who got up to 150 points below the CAO entry requirement to qualify under alternative criteria. Speaking of the success of the first phase of the study, the project sponsor, Dr Patrick Geoghegan, said: “The feasibility study shows that it is possible to use additional factors when assessing applicants, and still maintain anonymity and transparency. The best students are not necessarily the ones with the highest points – they are the ones with the academic ability and potential needed to thrive at third-level, self-reflective and independent thinkers, who are the right fit for the right course.” The project, running for two years at Trinity, is being reviewed later this year by the Irish Universities’ Association with a view to rolling it out in other institutions.
Students at Trinity
Chinese Alumni Career Symposium Over 200 people attended Trinity’s Chinese Alumni Career Symposium in November. At the event Dr Tao Zhang, President of TCD Chinese Alumni Association, outlined the progress made by the association since its inception in 2009 and presented a very positive outlook for Chinese alumni. Mr Geoffrey Burne, sponsor of the event and Director of Chinabridge, said he hoped he could work with Trinity’s Chinese alumni and other Chinese groups or individuals in Ireland with a view to exploring opportunities in mainland China.
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Trinity Today Empire State of Mind
Empire State
ofMind
Jonathan Cloonan became a tall Irish leprechaun to kick start an advertising career that has since seen him appear on Forbes 30 under 30, writes Frieda Klotz B.A. (2000).
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onathan Cloonan’s B.A. M.A. (2007) knack for business was apparent at an early age. During his first week at Trinity, he remembers getting a phone call from his mother to tell him that his mark of 99.6 per cent in Leaving Cert business studies meant he had won a gold medal in the subject. He was invited to meet the Minister for Education alongside the winners of the accounting and economics medals. “That was really exciting and probably the achievement I’m most proud of to date,” the 29-year-old says, sitting in a meeting room on Seventh Avenue, a couple of blocks away from Times Square in New York. Cloonan says he earned the Leaving Cert grade by thinking outside the box. His business studies teacher at Belvedere, Ms Norma Shanahan, had been “incredible,” encouraging the class to “try thinking a bit differently rather than spouting out what was in the textbooks”. It’s a lesson that stuck. Cloonan is Director of Partnerships at Group M Entertainment, which is
part of WPP, one of the world’s biggest advertising agencies. Thinking creatively is part of the job, more than ever now that digital technologies have flooded the industry. “It’s an incredibly fragmented media [landscape],” Cloonan explains. “So to really grab consumers’ attention in the way that we did 30 or 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago, you have to think in a different way.”
Forbes 30 under 30 Throughout his career, Cloonan has demonstrated a willingness to go beyond the established norms. It’s a trait that earned him not only a fellowship and then a job at WPP, but a place on the Forbes 30 under 30 alongside Lady Gaga and Mark Zuckerberg in December 2012. His inclusion was largely due to his role in successfully brokering multimillion-dollar television show deals in Asia; he describes the honour as a surprise but “a nice Christmas present”. In 2007 he left Trinity, equipped with a B.A. in Economics and Social Studies and embarked on a Masters degree at the UCD Michael
Jonathan Cloonan
Smurfit Graduate Business School. Then, like thousands of other young Irish people, he graduated into one of the worst recessions the world had seen in decades. “A lot of people were losing jobs; a lot of companies were just not hiring in Ireland,” he notes. Finally he got a position with Diageo but the job was deferred. He decided to move to New York for the year, and that’s when he heard about the WPP fellowship – a prestigious and intensely competitive threeyear programme, which accepts only a handful out of its 2,000
Trinity Today Empire State of Mind
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effectively; companies can identify exactly who their audience is, where they are and whether they are following a campaign or not. Two aspects of advertising appealed to Cloonan when he began his career. It allowed him to express his artistic and creative side, and to apply business strategy and rigour. Brands are all around us, he notes. “Why did people vote for president Obama? They voted for him because he projected this brand of hope and ‘Yes we can.’”
applicants annually. To increase his chances of getting the fellowship he set up a blog called Tall Irish Leprechaun. An early post was entitled, “I’m a wannabe WPP Fellow, 2010,” and in it he wondered, “Am I a little odd for creating this blog almost a year before the application process begins?” But the blog helped him get an interview. And although the interviewers told him they were unsure whether he was “passionate or psychotic,” they offered him a place, giving Cloonan a ticket
Connected Generation At 29, Cloonan is a so-called millennial, part of the coveted 18 to 34-year-old demographic. Also known as Gen C, or the connected generation, its members spend much of their time online and using social media. While at WPP, Cloonan has worked with Vice.com, a media company self-described as “the voice of global youth culture.” Online video is Cloonan’s current focus. “It’s a huge platform that I believe is only going to get bigger,” he says. “There is a huge emphasis on YouTube right now, and on YouTubers.” Because many of the YouTubers – people who build followings by making and posting videos – and his entertainment clients are based in LA, Cloonan, Interviewers told him who lives in Brooklyn they were unsure whether Heights, finds himself flying he was passionate or frequently to the West Coast. His work takes him to psychotic other parts of North America too; the week after we spoke, he was heading for Detroit and then Toronto. Despite a busy to work for WPP in London, schedule, he stays in close touch Singapore and New York. with the friends he made at Trinity, though economic circumstances Math Men have flung them far and wide. “We’re Advertising today is rather all over the place. With the recession different from the world of Mad people are in Sydney, Toronto, Men and Don Draper, according London, New York, everywhere. But to Cloonan. “I always say we’re it’s great to check in with them.” Math Men,” he says. Advertisers Cloonan says he may return to still want to identify human Ireland sometime in the future, but desires and emotions but digital for now he calls New York home. and social technologies are now After so much travelling, both across central, rather than afterthoughts, the globe and in the US, he is glad to to campaigns. Big data lets have a base here. “It’s very, very, very advertisers use information fast-paced!” Cloonan says. “But I get and statistics about customers a kick out of it.”l to target their messages more
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Trinity Today The Gene Hunter
the
Gene Hunter Professor Aoife McLysaght tells Anthony King B.A. (1995) about genome duplication, teaching in California and knitting dinosaurs.
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eneticist Aoife McLysaght’s B.A. (1998) Ph.D. (2002) lab is a bit drab. No bubbling beakers or brimming jars of electric orange and no microscopes. The excitement happens when Aoife asks questions about DNA and evolution using her PC, software and genetics know-how. She recently embarked on a gene hunting project that could help diagnose autism, schizophrenia or cancers, funded by a prestigious European
Research Council (ERC) award. Aoife’s specialism is bioinformatics, which mixes computer science, statistics, data mining and biology in one pot. “I find memorising boring and what attracted me to genetics was that there is logic to it,” she recalls. It began as a summer job. Aoife was asked after her second year exams to design a course in bioinformatics. “I had never even heard of bioinformatics before, so first I had to teach myself. The only computer programming I
Professor Aoife McLysaght
knew was this tiny bit I taught myself as a child playing with a Commodore 64.” But combining molecular evolution, DNA and maths was something she got a kick out of and she completed a Ph.D. in the field in 2001.
Public engagement Increasingly she is recognised as a public face of science, with her boundless energy and ability to enthuse about her work to all. “Initially I thought public engagement meant explaining something to Anne Doyle [on RTÉ news] and that didn’t seem like fun,” says Aoife, who talked at TEDx and Ignite and guested on The Infinite Monkey Cage on BBC Radio 4 with Prof Brian Cox and
(Photo licensed under Creative Commons)
Trinity Today The Gene Hunter
the Electric Picnic festival. “I had a Robin Ince. A more recent gig was performer wrist band and talked a black tie evening discourse at about science. It had a real point – the Royal Institution in London, a that we are all related not only to tradition begun by the renowned each other but to everything else. Michael Faraday. I hadn’t realised that it would be Her first bit of limelight came such fun.” earlier, however. During her Ph.D., in the lab of Ken Wolfe, she looked at the genomes of man, Global Standard mice, and puffer fish. She was She is not crusading to convince fascinated by genome duplication people science is interesting, she – this is a doubling of the number emphasises. “People can make up of chromosomes – something their own minds so long as they scientists suspect gave early life are informed. And the only thing I plenty of DNA to play with. “I was try to do is inform them,” she constantly reading about it and explains. Science Gallery started Ken asked me to do an analysis out edgy and unconventional, and for the Human Genome Project. when it applied to the Wellcome We got our hands on the data Trust for funding Aoife remembers early,” she says, and she wrote a the puzzled brows. “We were this section on duplication in the final complete unknown. We change Human Genome paper in February our exhibitions really quickly. And 2001. we don’t know what they will After her Ph.D. Aoife landed a contain until we get submissions,” post-doc researcher position at she says. Now, Science Gallery is the University of California, Irving, described by Wellcome as a where she got stuck into the global standard to be compared puzzles of pox viruses, including against. smallpox. She was fascinated by Aoife’s research has now gene gain and gene loss. When returned to her “first love” of not studying poxes, she took the genome duplication and how it opportunity to camp and hike in impinges on human disease. Her Joshua Tree, Grand Canyon and ERC grant application kicked off Yosemite National Parks. “I when her lab found a puzzling thought I’d be on the beach all pattern of gene duplication. the time, but I ended up Certain genes were only getting an annual pass for the duplicated during whole national parks and making genome duplication I find memorising good use of it.” events. Aoife grasped boring and what She returned in September that these genes were attracted me to genetics 2003 to take up a position as was its logic a lecturer in genetics in Trinity. “Getting a different experience and seeing how you measure up, that can give you a lot of confidence,” she says. Also, she had begun presenting at conferences in California. “I’d done lots of stuff in school, like Model United Nations. I didn’t have a fear of speaking,” she says. But a road to Damascus moment came through Science Gallery in Trinity. “Science Gallery has such a fun attitude, and the place is so funky, that I felt they gave me license to have fun as well,” she says. One of her first talks was “Incest and Bestiality” at
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occurring as a set, with the set having to be in just the right proportion. “We found an idea that existed about dosage balance, that the genes needed to be in the correct relative amounts in order to work properly,” she explains. It’s a bit like gene Jenga; pull out one gene or add one too many and a complex the body needs won’t work. This is the most common kind of mutation, where people might differ by having one, two or three copies of a specific gene. “Certain genes seem sensitive to the amount and so far the tests suggest we are right,” says Aoife. Now her lab is investigating what role such genes play in Alzheimer’s, cancers, autism, Parkinson’s and heart disease through the ERC grant awarded in 2012. When not hunting genes or regaling the public, Aoife walks, goes to the cinema and is a big fan of knitting. “The most unusual thing I knitted was a Velociraptor,” she says. “It was for my son’s teacher. My son is mad into dinosaurs.” Aoife has no plans for resurrecting them. Progress in her lab instead could allow for improved diagnosis of various diseases and allow clinicians to better target treatments. Potentially it will allow scientists to correct the imbalance underlying specific diseases.l
Aoife McLysaght on stage at TEDxDublin 2012
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Trinity Today The Business of reinvention
the business
ofreinvention
Stuart Coulson has never been afraid to take a risk and as a result he’s been a successful programmer, director, investor, mentor, professor, philanthropist and even a grape-grower, writes Dave Molloy B.A. (2009).
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t’s 8am when I ring Stuart Coulson B.A. (1984) at his California home. He’s already up, waiting for my call, with a cup of coffee sitting on his desk. “Things on the West Coast seem to start earlier,” he tells me. Stuart’s a man comfortable wherever he goes. He has to be, having reinvented himself over and over since leaving Trinity. Today, he acts as a business angel investor and mentor for early-stage, high-tech start-ups from his Palo Alto home, with interests in the US and back home in Dublin, where he started out. Coulson was among the first computer science graduates to come from Trinity. It was a fortuitous time to enter the budding field of computing, but he wasn’t to know that at the time.
says. “The Computer Science department, in particular In fact, Stuart had never Professor John Byrne, were way even touched a computer ahead of their time”. before he arrived through And, with the benefit of Front Gate. He took the course hindsight, he knows what he’s on the recommendation of a talking about. school maths teacher. It was, essentially, jumping off a cliff. Luckily, he did just fine. It was Crossroads at Trinity, among the expected As a young graduate, Coulson hardware and software classes, began work as a software that he was introduced to the engineer, but eventually he idea of selling creativity. It was reached a crossroads and had a a hands-on field, and students decision to make – to continue were expected to understand making the same things or cross what to do with the programmes into something new.“I much they made – buying and selling prefer to throw myself into code among one another something I don’t understand,” as class projects, and he says. “It was time to developing commercialexpose myself to a lot of grade solutions to risk, and see if I could It was time to problems. take it on.” expose myself to a lot of “[It] was very early for At the time there risk, and see if I could take anybody to think that were four companies in was a good thing,” he the global distribution it on systems market – systems that allow travel agents to book flights, hotels, cars – and a company called Worldspan was the smallest. Coulson was very employable, having spent years as a programmer and at middle management in software firms, but chose to work for the underdog. He thought he’d learn more there and he was right. In three years at Worldspan he learned to manage large teams, fight for a piece of the market, Stuart teaching start-up and felt what it was like to spend entrepreneurs in Accra, Ghana a budget of $50 million a year.
Trinity Today The Business of reinvention
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Stuart with his wife Imelda receiving an award for D-Rev, a medical device company for the developing world
Big Breakthrough Stuart tinkered with ideas here and there, none of which he is particularly keen to talk about. “I didn’t make any money, but I didn’t lose any either,” is the most he has to say about his early business ideas. Yet his experience in the travel technology field would be the source of his big breakthrough. Around 1994, Coulson began to think that this ‘internet’ thing just might be useful for airline ticket reservations. He had a background in the systems and, despite his good job, he saw an opportunity to get in at the ground floor of something new. So he left stable employment and, in the mid-
1990s, Gradient Solutions was born. “This was really early on,” Coulson reminds me. “I did sales pitches to really large organisations, and the first thing I had to do was explain what the internet and a web browser was, before I could even get into showing them how they could sell their airline tickets online.” It went very well. Gradient had, by accident, jumped ahead of the game by approaching the problem as a software company rather than a travel agent. Instead of selling tickets to customers – the travel agent model – they sold the ability to sell tickets to any company that needed it – travel
agents, hotels, even airlines themselves. It worked. In the early 2000s, Gradient was acquired by Sabre, the global network started by American Airlines. And so, 16 years out from Trinity, Stuart found himself a Vice-President of Sabre Holdings – and a wealthy man. It had taken a lot of hard work to get there, but it was time for another clean break. He and his wife moved to Palo Alto, and, as many successful people do, Coulson started to contribute to good causes but wasn’t satisfied with the results. “I wanted to share my good luck,” he says. “I had given some people money, and I had been
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Trinity Today The Business of Reinvention
create indigenous innovation,” he says. “You can’t stop it from happening. There are always ideas within the university context that turn into something … and that is an opportunity not to be lost.” Before I finish talking with Stuart, there’s one last segue into a different world I have to ask about. In 2007, he took the Stuart (top right) with his Computer Science dramatic – and highly romantic – class after their last exam in 1984 step of buying a vineyard. “It was mostly an investment decision,” he laughs. “I had a in the year ahead of Stuart at taken to some black tie dinners need within my investment work school. He visited Stanford to ... [but] I couldn’t really see what to find a high-capital business – I see the d.school in action, and was happening,” he says. wanted to buy something with a to hear about Stuart’s passion He started to look for significant asset.” for the importance of innovation organisations that act for social Stuart assures me the goal of and entrepreneurial skills in good, but would feel more retiring to wine country wasn’t education. hands-on, like an early-stage involved. He almost bought a The result was that Coulson business investment. forest, with visions of lumberbecame involved in writing jacking his way through his olda white paper on a start-up Impact Investing growth trees. incubator in Trinity. It turned out there were quite a While considering these In 2013, Trinity’s own startfew companies in the area that options, he discovered that up incubator, LaunchBox, took took that approach – something Californian vineyards, unlike off. Coulson not only made a now known as impact investing. their European counterparts, financial contribution, but came Looking into it, Stuart found actually change hands quite to Ireland to spend time advising several came from the d.school, frequently, rather than being a the teams on business modelling, or Institute of Design, at Stanford family business. His interest was problem solving, and why they’re University. After calling them to piqued. headed down their chosen path find out more, he found himself a Four years later, the expert and not another. His advice to coach to the Design for Extreme who helped him purchase the young entrepreneurs? “Throw Affordability class and, after a vineyard, Mike Officer, was few years, a Consulting Associate yourself in front of a moving train buying grapes from Stuart’s old somewhere and get out of your Professor and co-founder of the vine Zinfandel vineyard, and Wine comfort zone.” Social E Lab incubator. Spectator magazine named one At the end of the day, he Without planning it, Coulson of his wines as the 19th best in reminds me, entrepreneurship was teaching the sociallythe world out of 15,000 tasted. is about the people, and not the conscious entrepreneurs of “This is never going to be the companies. tomorrow. highest-margin business I’ve “Turning out individuals, He wasn’t only working away ever been in,” Coulson as opposed to projects or in Stanford. Stuart had turned his says, “but it’s sort of a commercial entities, is a eye back to Ireland in the early retirement play as well.” really important part of the 2000s, “trying to get business Throw yourself in front “And I get to taste process,” he stresses. Angel-ing up and running”. of a moving train some good wine every Stuart doesn’t believe But at a time when the Irish somewhere and get out of so often.”l that entrepreneurs can be government was only bringing in manufactured. It takes an huge multinationals, and locals your comfort zone existing “spark”, he claims, were investing in “Tipperary but he does believe that housing estates”, Stuart was spark can be nurtured and frustrated. educated. “There was the gem of an “Honestly, for a country the indigenous high-tech start-up size of Ireland ... it’s vital for the environment and I wanted to higher education establishments, make sure it had a future,” he or some proportion of them, to says. be producing people who have a Vinnie Cahill – now Trinity’s Stuart with his wife Imelda and children Evie and Ben at Papera Ranch foundation in those skills and can Dean of Research – had been
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To find out how you can use this tremendous resource for further study or research visit www.tcd.ie/alumni/ library-access
The Ussher Library at Trinity College Dublin
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Trinity Today Opening Trinity Up to the world
Opening Trinity up to the
World As Trinity College embarks on an ambitious five year plan to achieve its vision of being a university of greater global consequence, the Vice-Provost reflects on the work of the past year that has led to the compilation of the Strategic Plan 2014-19, setting the next exciting phase of the University’s future direction, writes Louise Holden B.A. (1995).
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especially in the context of the rofessor Linda Hogan’s developing world. We must research expertise is in pursue those values through the field of ethics and education and ensure that our interculturalism. The Vicegraduates are excited and Provost has spent her career engaged by global issues.” to date working at the intersection between religion, politics, human Extending Trinity’s rights and gender. global reach We all have a role to play in Intercultural ethics is Trinity is poised now to promoting and pursuing an area of particular extend its global reach shared values across the interest. and many elements University Linda Hogan started of the new five year her research career at strategy are informed by Trinity where she became this priority. a Fellow in 2007. She was “We have nine goals in appointed Vice-Provost and the strategy,” says Professor Chief Academic Officer in 2011, Hogan. “Global outreach assuming overall responsibility and alumni participation are for education and research at the embedded throughout. Trinity University. people all over the world will play “We all have a role to play in a critical role in the next phase of promoting and pursuing shared the University’s development.” values across the University,” The goals are wideshe says. “I’m very interested in ranging, including a commitment the concept of global citizenship to ‘strengthen the community’, and our ethical responsibilities in all its manifestations, from the as educators and researchers, local to the global.
“We want to further internationalise our student body,” Professor Hogan explains. “We have a very ambitious target, to move from an international student cohort of 7.8 per cent in 2012 to 18 per cent by 2019. Why? Because we are Ireland’s leading university, and we are in a position to be a cosmopolitan hub for learning and research.” In the same spirit is a strategic commitment to ’build valuable partnerships’ in the research domain with leading universities internationally, with enterprise and industry and also through relations with the cultural and creative community. In tandem with this comes a commitment to ‘engage wider society’. “We must demonstrate institutional leadership, and strive to be more outward-facing in our engagements, promoting real collaboration with the city,” says Professor Hogan.
Trinity Today Opening Trinity Up to the world
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Linda Hogan, Vice-Provost of Trinity
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Trinity Today Opening Trinity Up to the world
The Alumni Network Significant elements of the five year plan were forged as a result of an unprecedented consultation process: the Trinity Global Graduate Forum (TGGF) held last November. The TGGF provided a forum for many alumni from around the world, renowned and respected in their field of expertise, to share their views on the direction of Trinity College Dublin. It was the first time any university has invited its global graduates back in such a way to formulate plans around funding, reputation, growth, technology and education. One of the themes that featured strongly at the TGGF was the ‘Trinity experience’. “Trinity offers so much more than academic programmes,” says Professor Hogan. “The experience is different. This is the aspect that graduates and alumni remember most. We plan to enhance that by reconfiguring some of our space to better support the kinds of environments that students want. We want to engage students in Trinity traditions from the very beginning.” It is this sense of being part of a singular tradition that elicits such loyalty from Trinity’s alumni, no matter how far flung. It is essential to the future health and success of the University that the alumni community remains engaged and is given every opportunity to inform Trinity’s development. “The more engagement we can foster between current students and alumni the better equipped we will be to safeguard the University for future generations,” she says. “Trinity has a reputation as an institution that gives students an excellent education in their discipline. We want to enhance that by also providing a broader base of skills including innovation and entrepreneurship, internship programmes, and a transformed experience of learning through technology. To make this a reality, we are building more synergies between Schools, the Careers Advisory Service and alumni. We
really want to engage our alumni plan is a600m. Already in this collaboration.” alumni have contributed to This process is already the development of the Trinity underway, as evidenced School of Business and there by initiatives such as is major new infrastructure Trinity Angels and the underway for Trinity’s GradLink Mentoring Engineering, Energy and We need to promote the Programme. Trinity the Environment Institute kind of vision and mission Angels are supporting (E3). for the College that will a student start-up “A priority for us incubator project called will be appointing the encourage and excite all LaunchBox. Alumni best people with a view our stakeholders have provided funding to lowering our staff/ for LaunchBox and, more student ratio. This is a importantly, a great deal really important marker of of mentoring support for the the quality of our education. students as they work through the Over the last ten years we have incubation phase. GradLink is a been able to offset the effect of programme that links the current public funding cuts by drawing on students with graduates in their non-exchequer funding, including discipline to provide mentoring philanthropy, to support new and early career advice. posts across the University.”
Trinity’s Financial Future Global Endeavour The strategy must be built on a Alumni at the TGGF spoke secure financial base, and state frequently about the importance funding is a diminishing portion of demonstrating Trinity’s of the funding mix. A critical goal international research impact. That for Trinity’s leadership is to secure sentiment has translated into one the University’s future. of the cornerstones, and perhaps “We are setting ourselves the most ambitious, of the five on a course that will leave the year strategy. institution enhanced after the “We are already global leaders in next five years,” says Professor a number of key areas of research, Hogan. “It’s an ambitious such as nanotechnology, cancer course in difficult financial research, sustainability, and in the circumstances. Financial security humanities. One of the big new will be achieved through a ideas in the strategy, inspired by combination of new income our alumni, is to identify a global generation and increased research question that Trinity efficiency and cost reductions. can take a lead on. Taking our We have had huge successes strengths into consideration, we in research funding in the last plan to identify one major area year. We are also earning income where Trinity, in partnership with through commercial activity. other universities internationally We hope that philanthropic and with NGOs, alumni contributions will form an and business, could increasing proportion make a significant global One of the big new ideas in of our finances in the contribution. the strategy, inspired by our coming years and “Next year we will alumni, is to identify a global we are changing decide what that research question that our structures to question should be accommodate that. If and identify partners to Trinity can take a lead on we are to achieve our help us work towards ambitions our financial a long-term contribution future must be in our own to an issue of major global hands. We need to promote importance. It’s a very exciting the kind of vision and mission for prospect that will draw together the College that will encourage the widest definition of the Trinity and excite all our stakeholders.” community in a truly global The full cost of the strategic endeavour.”l
Trinity Today A Man for All Seasons
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Man Seasons A for All
Inspired by Trinity graduates working in Lagos, Femi Williams came from Nigeria to study medicine at Trinity in 1955 and is now working to establish Africa’s first ever cancer treatment centre, writes Anthony King B.A. (1995).
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ow an eminent medical scientist, Olufemi (Femi) Williams B.A., M.B., B.Ch., Olufemi (Femi) Williams B.A.O., M.D., M.A. (1960) recalls his childhood in Nigeria fondly. Music was his first love. “I remember my father and mother in 1955 to study medicine. He was arguing over whether I should do impressed that so many eminent medicine or music. My mother professors taught him, including said I would starve if I did James Bronte Gatenby in music and as a child I was zoology, WB Fearon in very much influenced by biochemistry and Nobel I did private practice at that,” Femi remembers. laureate John Walton. night to keep body and soul He was also influenced He was posted to the together and did pathology Meath Hospital, which gave by stories of his grandfather, a physician him great pleasure due to during the day who qualified in Glasgow its association with giants in 1901. such as Dr Robert Graves What tipped the scale and Dr William Stokes. “Trinity was “seeing Trinity graduates had just 60 students a year and working in Lagos. They were real there were ten teaching hospitals, role models in the 1950s”. He so the ratio of students to patients went to Dundee to do his A levels and the amount of individual and then to Trinity College Dublin teaching time in the clinic
prepared one well for practice later,” says Femi. He made many lifelong friends in Trinity and proudly recounts his election as Correspondence Secretary of the Dublin University Biological Association. Given his interest in pathology, he was advised to train at the Royal Victoria in Belfast. He was accepted, but in an unpaid role: “I did private practice at night to keep body and soul together and did pathology during the day,” he remembers. A heated disagreement with Prof Graham Bull over a patient impressed the senior physician and led to
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Trinity Today A Man for All Seasons
“There is an urgent need for Africa to have a centre devoted to the treatment of cancer,” Femi explains. He hopes that Trinity medical scientists will support this world-class facility and has identified areas they can contribute to such as statistics, radiation physics and molecular biology. His vision has received support from colleagues in the US, Canada and Ireland. “There is no one single oncologist in Nigeria as I speak, yet there are 220 Nigerians certified in oncology in the United States and the UK,” Femi Williams, front row second from says Femi, who hopes He put pathology in Africa right, with his fellow students in Trinity many would come back on the world map but his to staff the centre. “We mission now is to set up an most prominent cause have a beautiful waterside Femi looking after his patients African cancer centre of death in men was liver location and built the fence over weekends for almost three disease and particularly just last week but we need years, banking him a great deal of liver cancer. I came to the $45 million to complete the experience in internal medicine. conclusion that hepatitis B centre.” An African centre could He earned a Ph.D. from Trinity was the most likely cause of focus on Burkitt’s lymphoma, in 1964 and later that year passed liver cancer and wrote a paper prevalent in the south but relatively the membership examinations about it and gave a presentation absent in the north of Nigeria; the in Internal Medicine of the Royal in Washington. There were many effect of malaria on cancers; and Colleges of Medicine of London eminent pathologists there and AIDS patients who survive due to and Ireland. The London exam they asked me how I could stick treatment and later develop cancer. was infamously difficult; just 61 my head out like this.” He was Clinical trials of anti-cancer drugs passed out of 810 that year. Prof proved right and a sample he could also be carried out. John Henry Biggart decided it took from a Nigerian soldier was unconscionable for Femi to Femi has long had an interest yielded so much hepatitis B that continue working without pay and in HIV and he suggested in a BBC it assisted in advances towards he was made a research fellow interview in 1987 that the virus one of the vaccines now available. and tutor at Queen’s University, may have been transmitted from Liver cancer is still a huge issue Belfast. However, Femi was monkey to man. “I remember and Femi argues that hepatitis B soon drawn back to Trinity where crossing the Zaire River and vaccination should be considered he was appointed lecturer in seeing people with barbequed in more countries. pathology. monkey,” he says. In 1990 Femi Femi’s brilliant insight has seen anticipated the recent discovery him chalk up many prestigious that HIV could be transmitted Twist of Fate positions. He has been a visiting in breast milk. His interest A twist of fate saw him return to scientist to the National Cancer continues; he recently pushed Nigeria. The Nigerian ambassador Institute in Maryland; visiting for the sequencing of banana from London visited Senior professor to Johns Hopkins mosaic virus, because he believes Commons with the Provost. “He College of Medicine in Baltimore; this may have given rise to SIV in saw me at the high table, made and visiting professor to the primates. Fragments could prove enquiries and thought I should be Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, among useful as a patentable HIV test. recruited by Nigeria,” says Femi. others. He was an expert Throughout all his medical He was offered a position at the reviewer for the Food and Drug work, however, Femi never left University of Ibadan, becoming Administration in the US. He behind his love of music. He professor of pathology. There was put pathology in Africa on the recently completed an oratario a possibility that he could have world map through over 100 of African folk music and plans been offered a chair in pathology peer-reviewed publications and to harmonise these melodies in Trinity but he opted to leave for described tropical diseases for Western ears by using a Ibadan, escaping some campus unknown in Western literature. background of movements by politics. “It was a very painful But his mission now is to set up classical composers such as decision to take,” he says. an African cancer centre. Mozart, Beethoven and Handel.l “When I got to Nigeria, the
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for your alumni visitor card AND for more details visit www.tcd.ie/alumni/ book-of-kells
DID YOU KNOW? Alumni can visit the Book of Kells and the Old Library, along with three friends, for free. Just drop into the Alumni Office (East Chapel, Front Square) for a visitor card The Book of Kells exhibition at Trinity College Dublin
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Trinity Today Creating a 21st Century Library
Creating a
21st
Century
Library
Helen Shenton tells Louise Holden B.A. (1995) about her plans to re-imagine Trinity’s library network for students, academics and visitors.
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he Berkeley on an August afternoon is far busier than a typical university library in summer. There is no ‘off season’ for the family of libraries at Trinity College. The library network, which also includes the Lecky, Ussher and Hamilton libraries, is a year round resource for people of all ages from all over the world. Helen Shenton is acutely aware of this as she takes over leadership of the Trinity library network as new Librarian and College Archivist. She has come from Harvard where she oversaw the bringing together of the services of the 73 separate libraries. Prior to Harvard, she worked at the British Library where she “looked after the national memory” as part of the senior leadership team. That job came after the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum in London, where she had responsibility for the conservation of paper, book, textiles and paintings collections and was deeply involved with major exhibitions at home and abroad. Coincidentally, Helen’s career started with a brief period at Trinity’s Old Library when she was in her early twenties and learning fine book binding and conservation. “There’s a lovely circularity to
my return,” she says. “All that I have done in the meantime, at the V&A, the British Library and Harvard, has been building to this role which encompasses the museum, the university, the cultural space, informatics and the library all in one.”
Engine of Transition Helen comes to Trinity at a time when every university library in the world is grappling with rapid change and a necessary re-imagining of what libraries are for. She is determined that the library should be an engine of transition at Trinity, rather than a carriage pulled along by the changes. “I have been given a clear mandate. Fill the role. Be visible, be vocal and take the Trinity library network to the next level,” she says. So what does that involve? “A very sophisticated exercise in 3-D modelling,” says Helen. “Trinity is at the centre of a cultural cross that reaches out into the city in all directions. It’s a powerful visual representation of the role of the Trinity library in Ireland. It’s a learning space for the students, it’s at the cultural heart of the city and it’s a draw for people from all over the world. It is also midway on the axis between
Helen Shenton
the ‘silicon docks’ and the ‘cultural and knowledge quarter’. Any new plan for the library has to take in all these dimensions.”
Digitisation The virtual profile of the library is the primary focus, as it is a central concern of every major library in the world – what e-content to connect to, what to store online, how to preserve it, how to make it accessible, how to make it dynamic. Helen was an early identifier of the need to care for digital items. She was a founding director of the Digital Preservation Coalition in the UK and championed the Centre for Conservation at the British Library, where she advocated for public access and established a foundation degree in this field. During her time at the British Library, she was involved in the digitisation of the earliest copy of the New Testament. Parts of this
Trinity Today Creating a 21st Century Library
I want each and every one of our 600,000 annual visitors to come away from the experience a more interesting person
manuscript are located in Mount Sinai, Leipzig, St Petersburg and London. “I was one of two or three people in the world who had seen all four elements. Twentyfour hours after we put it online, it had been viewed by 20 million people around the world. That is the power of digital accessibility. Digitising these manuscripts means we can learn so much more, zoom in and out, gain information about inks and parchment which can indicate the locations of production. We’re not just creating online copies of physical documents, we are creating new digital entities.” Another key element of her strategy will be to enhance the experience of the library user, from students and academics to tourists and armchair researchers. “We are looking at what constitutes the visitor experience in the 21st century. We are a
university, not a museum, but we look after iconic world heritage items on behalf of the nation. Where do we find the balance between overt pedagogy and entertainment? We need to re-imagine the Book of Kells exhibition. I want each one of our 600,000 annual visitors to come away from the experience a more interesting person.” “I’ve seen people moved to tears by the beauty of the Long Room. Early one morning in my first week here I walked in there and I had to take a moment. Last week, I saw the exquisite beauty of the Book of Kells as the pages were turned. It was a privilege to be up that close. So I ask myself, how can we ensure that all visitors to the library have that experience?”
Visitor Experience Through technology it should be possible for visitors to see more of this book, she says, to virtually
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turn its pages and look at it up close. A new visitor experience and interpretive centre is in the pipeline. For students and other users of the library, the goal for Helen is to create spaces that reflect the diversity of learning styles in the 21st century. “Some students want a quiet, self-contained space. Research has shown that others prefer a more dynamic environment with activity. And increasingly, students are being called upon to work collaboratively. We need to provide for that too.” She is also ushering in 24-hour opening across part of the Trinity library network. Trinity, famously among alumni, is a legal deposit library and therefore entitled to request a free copy of every book published in the UK and Ireland within one year of publication. Choosing which publications to take is an important part of the librarian’s work. “Storage is a very significant problem. When I was at the British Library we built a highbay, high-density robotic storage facility for stock that stretched to 272 kilometres. We need a major new storage facility here which will require major funding. We need to prioritise. What are the areas of specialism for the University and new areas of cross-disciplinary research; do we have the relevant material for our researchers when they go looking?” She points to the strong network between Irish university libraries as an important part of the storage strategy. This collaborative approach is critical, and not just between libraries, she says. “The first line of the new library strategic plan currently reads: ‘We have a moral responsibility to future generations in Ireland’. Which other university holds the kind of iconic world heritage items that we have here? To fulfil that responsibility we have to reach out in every direction, form cultural and global alliances, to respect that cross-sectoral dimension that is unique to Trinity’s library.”l
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Trinity Today C’est la Bea
la Bea C’est
Aisling Bea B.A. (2006) is an Irish actor, award-winning stand-up comedian and writer. The French and Philosophy graduate, who was also the first woman in 20 years to win Edinburgh’s prestigious So You Think You’re Funny? award, gives Trinity Today the lowdown on rolling with the punchlines.
Ehhhh, maybe subconsciously, but not really (desolé French department). I spent 99 per cent (rough estimate) of my time in Players. The stuff I did with the drama society, my sketch group included, was probably the most important thing I took from university. I was in a different play or show every three weeks for four years, wrote everything from terrible pantos to sketches and characters. I even managed the box Make your friends laugh office on my own for a and then try to make a whole summer and was Why did you study business out of how you convinced a ghost was French and Philosophy? watching me. Players To secure a solid future did that gave me a foundation in as an actor and stand-up theatre, especially comedy comedian. and writing, that I would never have had otherwise. Does anything from your studies in these areas influence your comedy and writing? You are an established actress, why did you start all over again as a stand-up comedian? Well it’s an old-fashioned performer’s mentality to be able to do more than just one thing. Up until the seventies, most actors were expected to sing, dance, act, write, teach, play an instrument, MC, tell jokes and jump around for the organ grinder. It’s a very fickle job, so if you think you might have another basket worth sticking an egg into, bloody do, just in case. I don’t know many performers who
only do one thing, well I do, but they are very, very poor or very, very lucky. Quicker answer: “I just thought F%@k it! I’m mildly amusing at times. Why not?”
What is your writing process? Jot idea, stress, chew, walk, paint walls, reply to emails from five years ago, tweet, facebook, gig, feel bad I didn’t write more, write more, stress, chew, walk, hot whisky, gig, bit better, drop bits, lose bits, hope, hope, hope, repeat x 20. What or who makes you laugh? Do you laugh at your own jokes? My sister Sinéad really makes me laugh. Neither she nor I laugh at my own jokes, but we both nod solemnly in agreement that someone might. She also went to Trinity, did Drama, majored in costume, went to RADA to do costume and now works on the biggest movies in Hollywood. If I were you, I’d go talk to her. She’s younger, funnier and doing better. What was the worst reaction you have received from a joke that you told? Silence, when I was onstage at a late night corporate gig in the north of England at 1am for a pretty much all-male shopkeeper’s convention. “Sounds great,” you think? They’d had free drink, a little
Photos by Karla Gowlett
What was the comedy scene in Dublin like when you were at Trinity? I can’t really say how the Dublin comedy scene was, my comedy world was a far more incestuous beast. I was in a sketch group [in Trinity] and we played mainly to fellow drunk students. That said, we brought shows to Edinburgh a couple of times and didn’t do half badly. I’d like to think that’s where we all began to sharpen our chops.
Trinity Today C’est la Bea
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Aisling Bea
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Trinity Today C’est la Bea
Which do you like best – writing, stand-up, or acting? None of them. I wanted to be a professional American roller-skater. Seeing as you are a writer and an actress, is it tempting to write, direct, and act in your own film? Yep, that’d fit in with the ole plan, except for directing myself. That strikes me as a terrible idea. I’d direct something I wasn’t in, but if I was in it myself, I’d make a movie full of bad acting and beautiful soft focus shots of me with the wind blowing through my hair. If someone was making a film about your life, who would you want to play you? I think that Gabriel Byrne would best capture my frankly overlooked depth. food, watched Dara O’Brien host excellently for an hour and then had to put up with me telling jokes with my clothes on.
Critics have praised your ability to touch on serious topics in your stand-up such as women’s self-image and the recession. Is this intentional and do you feel that comedians have a responsibility in this regard? I think that comedians have a responsibility over the words that they use, as our words are our business. However, I think they have absolutely no responsibility to have a goal any bigger than making people laugh. If you do work that also has a message, great, but people look to entertainment for different reasons. Not everything has to be groundbreaking, some of it is just good entertainment whether it’s Panorama or The Great British Bake-off. Do you think any topic is fair game to joke about or are some simply off limits? I read an interview with Dylan Moran where he talked about the popularity in modern stand-up of seemingly substituting gasps for laughs. It’s not that using
shocking words or themes can’t be of value, I’ve seen comics tackle everything from suicide, rape, feminism and torture excellently, but if the end goal is an “Oh no they didn’t!” over a laugh, then I feel it’s just too easy, a bit lazy and frankly boring. The laugh is the harder work. I hate laziness, in myself and others, but when you see someone tackle something big and scary with the right angle that also makes people laugh, it’s exciting as hell.
What would you like your epitaph to be? “She lived as she died, not arsed to pick the bones out of her fish.” Is there anything more that you would like to add? Don’t take Berocca, it’s a giant lie that it is good for you.l
With film and TV projects, writing, gigging, Radio 4, and publishing online you are ridiculously productive, how do you manage it all? I’m grand. I don’t have any children and I live in the first world, these ain’t problems. Have you any advice for budding comedians? Make your friends laugh and then try to make a business out of how you did that. If you think you’re funny, go for it, watch lots of stuff, make friends with other comics, help each other get better, gig as much as you can. DON’T READ REVIEWS!
I wanted to be a professional American roller-skater
Trinity Today feature name
DID YOU KNOW? There are art exhibitions, plays and performances held in Trinity throughout the year
Installation photograph, Francis Upritchard exhibition, The Douglas Hyde Gallery, September 2013
For more details visit www.thelir.ie, www.douglashydegallery.com, www.tcd.ie/beckett-theatre
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Trinity Today Local Hero
Local
Hero
Gary Gannon came to Trinity as a TAP student. Now he is a local councillor for Dublin’s north inner city and wants to give a voice to people who are too often ignored, writes Elaine McCahill B.A. (2013).
around to different universities and further education training centres. I wanted to expose them to the attitude that just because you were born in a certain area of Dublin, or are from a working class background, you shouldn’t be predisposed to being disadvantaged.”
Trinity Access ProgrammeS Gary entered Trinity as part of the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP). I see politics as a fight to TAP forms a central improve the lives of people. part of Trinity’s plan I look around the area to encourage young given an opportunity adults, mature and where I grew up and I think that other people in ethnic minority there’s a lot to fight for their community don’t students who come necessarily get, which is from socio-economic to go on to study at third groups under-represented level. Having gone through in higher education, to go TAP, there is a sense that we to university. As a result, he is have to give something back and hugely supportive of TAP and you want to make sure that the the influence it has, both on opportunities you were given young people and their local mean something and resonate communities. “Everything I am at with your community.” this moment in time is as a result TAP also increases the diversity of TAP and the opportunities it of students attending Trinity and gave me. I know how passionate has been instrumental in breaking everyone involved in TAP is down barriers to education. and I think young people who According to Gary, “TAP is one go through the programme of the most important education understand that they’ve been
Photograph: David Sleator/The Irish Times
E
ver since he first walked through Front Gate as a History and Political Science student, Gary Gannon B.A. (2012) knew he wanted eventually to work in an area that would enable him to make a difference. He particularly wanted to have a positive impact in his local area where many young people are disenfranchised and in need of education support systems. Now that he has been elected as an independent councillor, Gary intends to use the opportunity to help as many people as possible. Gary knows that there are a lot of young people out there who never got a chance to succeed. Following his graduation in 2012, he worked as a career guidance advocate with Lourdes Youth and Community Services in Dublin. He helped young people, in particular early school leavers, to find employment or return to education: “I was working with early school leavers who were aged between 17 and 21. They were very talented, very affable people who never got opportunities in life. What I tried to do was just have conversations with them about education. I brought them
Trinity Today Local Hero
Newly elected councillor and former TAP student Gary Gannon
initiatives in the country. I know that approximately 19 per cent of students in Trinity were accepted through non-traditional means and that’s an incredible figure. That affects not only the students but their families and their communities.”
Local Elections When Gary’s contract with Lourdes Youth and Community Services ended, nominations for the local elections were open so he put himself forward as an independent candidate. He went on to get elected as a local councillor for the north
inner city. “My job with the community service was to instil confidence in young people and I had a fantastic time working there. So when my contract ended, I wanted to continue as an advocate and that’s probably what led me to getting involved in politics and running for local election.” There are various reasons why people decide to become involved in politics and Gary is motivated by the impact he can have in his local community: “I became involved in politics because I wanted to present a different way of doing things;
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I’m not a politician who is only focused on my own interests. We have serious issues in this country and I want to be out there organising and giving people a voice. I want to improve the lives of my constituents; I see politics as a fight to improve the lives of people. I look around the area where I grew up and I think there’s a lot to fight for.” Gary also believes that many people are unable to identify with the current political system and feel alienated from it. “Trust is a huge issue. I come from a community that is largely apathetic and I want to re-instil confidence in the political system within my community. However, I also want to address issues such as inadequate levels of social housing, waste management, as well as high levels of unemployment and access to education. I really want to try and enact as much change as I can while I’m in office.” When it comes to his plans for the future, Gary wants to learn his trade as a councillor before even considering running for government. “I’d love to be re-elected as a local councillor in five years and I’d see that as a validation of the work I’ve done. If the opportunity arose to take it to the next level and run for general election after that I would certainly consider it.”l
Gary’s election poster
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Trinity Today BRINGING it all Back Home
Bringingitall
Back Home Chris Morash, the inaugural Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Literature, tells Anna Carey B.A. (1997) why he’s excited about the role.
being on a human scale. I still love it. When I come into work I get excited. It sounds sad, but I get off the train in Pearse or Tara or Connolly and I love that walk [into college]. I love the buzz.”
Irish Famine Writing But it was another unique aspect of Trinity that really won him over. “When I think about why I stayed in Ireland I say I fell in love twice, once with my wife and the University, where, in 2003, he set other time with the library,” he up the college’s hugely successful says. Morash’s Ph.D. was on Irish Centre for Media Studies, which famine writing, an area that had offers students a mixture of long been ignored by researchers. academic study and practical “I would go to the library and call hands-on experience courtesy a novel from the 19th century,” of Kairos Communications, a he says. “It would come from production company with a studio stacks with its pages uncut, next to the campus. Now which meant it had been that he’s left Maynooth, deposited in the stacks Morash is keeping up in 1850 and no one had I remember going to the his connection to the read it since. There was media with his role as a [famine] literature but wonderfully named ‘aliens’ chair of the compliance nobody had read it. office and they looked at committee of the It was tremendously me like I was some sort of National Broadcasting exciting, being in the sad and demented Authority. He’s always early printed books creature been interested in the room and realising that relationship between nobody had read this creative work and the reader quite harrowing account or viewer, a relationship which of the famine. At that time has changed dramatically over the in the 80s the general wisdom last 20 years. was that there had been silence about the famine. And there wasn’t a silence at all, it was just that Revolution nobody had found the books.” “When I started in Maynooth As soon as he finished his in 1990 there was no e-mail,” Ph.D., Morash landed a job in the he says. “We’ve lived through English department in Maynooth a revolution. We now take it for
photo: www.maxwellphotography.ie
I
t’s over 20 years since Chris Morash M.Phil., Ph.D. (1988) left Trinity after completing his Ph.D., and the inaugural Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Literature has found settling back in to life in the Arts Block a slightly bizarre experience. “It took a while to get used to the fact that this was my office,” he laughs. “I kept expecting someone else to be in it.” Some things, however, haven’t changed. “It smells the same and looks the same coming up the stairwell. It is kind of strange, but nice strange.” Morash arrived in Trinity in 1985 to do an M.Phil. in Anglo-Irish Literature. He chose Trinity partly because at the time there were very few places that taught Irish studies, and partly because “you should never underestimate the alumni effect. The fact that Beckett had gone here was relevant”. Once here, he decided to stay on and pursue a Ph.D. “Staying in Ireland in 1986 when you came from Canada was a bit counter-intuitive,” he says. “I remember going to the wonderfully named ‘aliens’ office and they looked at me like I was some sort of sad and demented creature because nobody wanted to come to Ireland, everyone wanted to go to Canada.” Morash, however, felt at home in Trinity. “I had a circle of friends and I just loved being here in the heart of the city,” he says. “You get that sense of Dublin [that] you get in something like Ulysses, of the city
Trinity Today BRINGING it all Back Home
Professor Chris Morash, Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing
granted that you have a screen with which you can communicate all around the world, so our sense of space has been profoundly transformed.” There have been other huge changes in communication before – cinema and telephone in the 1890s, the telegraph and cheaper printing 50 years earlier. “But I think the one we’ve lived through is the most profound. So it seems to me, as a person interested in culture, that you have to reflect on that in some way.” This interest in how communication technology affects how we experience the world influenced his book Mapping Irish Theatre: Theories of Space and Place. “I think the effect of this is quite complex,” he says. “One way to think of it is in terms of nostalgia. We still think of the culture as one with a profound sense of place. When you read Heaney’s poetry quite carefully it’s actually about the loss of a sense of place.
And I think a lot of Irish theatre is grappling with that. We’re a culture that remembers insularity, remembers what it feels like to be home, but home has become dispersed. Because theatre is live and happens in real space, not a virtual space, it fulfils a role in the culture that allows us to compensate.” Now that he’s back in Trinity, he’s looking forward to getting to grips with his new job. “What attracted me to it was that it’s not just a ceremonial role, it’s a real job,” he says. “I’m going to teach first year undergraduates, I‘m going to be head of discipline next year which involves looking at things like curriculum development across the English department. I like doing that sort of stuff. It’s a proper hands-on job. There are high profile posts [in other colleges] where they don’t see a student from one end of the year to the next. But I love teaching, I love being in the Davis Theatre and seeing 150 students. I love the buzz.”
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Heaney Professorship The Seamus Heaney professorship was the brainchild of Mark Pigott, an Irish-American businessman with a passion for the arts who wanted to honour the Nobel laureate, who sadly died a few months before Morash’s appointment. Following Mark’s generous donation, other donors also got involved, including Martin and Carmel Naughton. Morash says philanthropy is “phenomenally important and I think Trinity’s really well placed to do that”. He recently represented the College at an alumni ball in New York, where he saw how important the Trinity connection still is to many successful graduates. Morash’s inaugural lecture was entitled ‘What are poets for in a destitute time?’, and he feels very strongly that the arts should not be ignored when money is tight. “The values of our culture have become instrumentalist,” he says. “And the dominant way of thinking is economic – what can I make money from?...We have to say that there are things in our culture that have value for their own sake. And it’s not how we can monetise these, it’s that they have intrinsic value. In some ways I think it’s the job of universities to say that… It’s also the role of somebody who holds a job like mine to say it’s important. Poets are going to do [their work] anyway, but they also need somebody who will wave the flag.” And Morash is waving that flag in a place that still feels like home. “There are so many jobs where employers look at employees as expendable units, but this is a place you really belong to,” he says. “Most people are told to expect two or three careers when they leave university, and it’s because if you’re working for a global multinational you can go anywhere or they can shut up tent and go somewhere else. So to have a place where you work where you actually feel at home, is increasingly a rarity and a rare privilege.”l
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Trinity Today From Trinity to Tramp
Trinity Tramp
From to
Lisa Coen
Lisa Coen’s plan to co-found her own publishing company was inspired by her doctorate on risk-takers in Irish theatre, writes Anna Carey B.A. (1997).
I
t all began with a lunchtime conversation in 2012. Lisa Coen Ph.D. (2011) was nearing the end of an internship with the Lilliput Press in Dublin
when she and her colleague Sarah Davis-Goff started talking about what they’d do if they had their own publishing house. Nearly two years and many
conversations later, in April 2014, Coen and Davis-Goff’s Tramp Press published its first book, Oona Frawley’s novel Flight. Since then, they’ve published the successful Dubliners 100, a collection edited by Thomas Morris of “cover versions” of Joyce’s short stories by acclaimed Irish writers. Tramp Press’s third book, a reissue of Charlotte Riddell’s 19th-century novel A Struggle for Fame, will be published later this year. A desire to work in literary publishing had fueled Coen’s decision to pursue an M.Phil. in Anglo-Irish Literature at Trinity back in 2006. Before this she had graduated from NUI Galway with a degree in English and French in 2003. She then worked in the production department of Hot Press magazine for three years. This experience prepared her for the future demands of her postgrad studies. “It was a very heavy workload but it was just about manageable,” she says. “I found the work very stimulating – which is kind of why I fell down the rabbit hole of pursuing a Ph.D.”
Abbey Theatre Her doctorate was on Irish theatre, looking at Abbey Theatre productions on international stages from the 1970s to the 21st century. “On the M.Phil. I had worked with Professor Nicholas Grene on Irish theatre – I did my dissertation on Tom Murphy,” she says. “Nicky is involved in a research collective called the Irish Theatrical Diaspora and they had funding for an interinstitutional research project [in which] one person would do a Ph.D. on the Abbey, someone else would do one on the Druid Theatre Company and another person would do one on the Dublin Theatre Festival. It was an unusual Ph.D. in that I sort of had colleagues so we weren’t as isolated as students usually are.” She found the Ph.D. more challenging than her M.Phil. “There isn’t a lot of pastoral
Trinity Today From Trinity to Tramp
care,” she explains. “But they do an excellent group based mindfulness meditation course which was absolutely brilliant. I was really lucky that Nicky Grene was my supervisor. I consider him a very important mentor and he’s now on our board of advisors [at Tramp Press]. I’m really grateful I got to work with him.” She also had a group of fellow Ph.D. students who were “sort of a support group”. But while she enjoyed working for her Ph.D., Coen soon realised that she didn’t want to be an academic. “I kept being drawn to the risk-taking projects that the Abbey did,” she says. When reading arguments for and against the staging of various projects, she found herself wanting to get “involved with the people who actually put the work out there”. This desire was further fuelled by reading other academics’ defences of unfairly ignored or neglected work. “These calls to action… really inspired me.” Coen knew she wanted to work in publishing, and began her internship at Lilliput just a few days after her Ph.D. commencement ceremony. The experience of working with publisher Antony Farrell was invaluable. “It’s a very good internship because [Farrell] would get you to read manuscripts and give feedback on your reports,” says Coen. “He’d talk to you about how to read contracts. You’re not just doing the photocopying. I learned a lot.” And of course she also met Sarah Davis-Goff.
Modern Publishing Publishing today is in a state of flux. Big publishers are growing even bigger, while e-books and self-publishing challenge the traditional model. Tramp Press are not producing e-books for now, but they make sure their physical books are beautiful objects. “All authors aspire to physical books,” says Coen. “We’ve got a great type setter and we make sure they look beautiful.” She says
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that self-publishing can serve as a wake-up call to publishers. “It forces publishing houses to ask themselves what they’re really offering writers…You’re bringing expertise, marketing and more importantly you’re adding your brand to it… It forces publishers to show their value.” She believes publishers of all sizes need to work closely with writers and help them develop, and that larger publishers need to stop throwing dozens of books onto the market in the hope that one or two will make money. “They need to [publish] fewer books and do one thing really well rather than 100 things badly.” She also believes publishers should be treated by the state as arts organisations in the same way that noncommercial art forms such as theatre and opera are. “If an art form has integrity it doesn’t necessarily have to have huge popular appeal,” she says. “If we are able to frontload with funding from a variety of sources, it takes Dubliners 100, published by Tramp Press pressure off the artist to be an obvious commercial hit and we can just do what we think is brilliant fiction.” Tramp Press technology may have transformed received funding from the Arts the landscape, Coen learned Council and Dublin City Council. some of her most useful lessons “We didn’t have to worry about in more traditional environments. book sales. We could afford Her time at Hot Press, where to produce the books and she had to input the then market them.” The changes made on paper by Marketing is where latter, she says, is crucial. the various editors, gave “Marketing is where her “a brilliant insight into the work should really the work should really copyediting and proof begin… You need to begin… You need to reading”. match people with match people with the And her Ph.D. helped the book book.” develop her analytical Social media is a crucial skills. “It made me a better part of this. Tramp Press editor. But I think that the sells directly to readers as Master’s was probably even well as through shops, and more valuable because you get a Coen discovered that most really good sense of the lineage direct customers were coming of what you’re reading,” she says. through Twitter. Twitter has also “It’s worth knowing everyone helped Coen develop ties with who went before, so you know booksellers both in Ireland and whether an author is responding the UK. “We’ve established some to them, avoiding them or good relationships with important successfully engaging with them. people through Twitter,” Because whether you like it or she says. But while modern not, writing is a dialogue.”l
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Trinity Today On the line
Line On the
Fionn McGorry gives us an insight into what it’s like being a student caller for Trinity’s Alumni Appeal phone campaigns.
Why do you call alumni? Firstly, to continue their link with Trinity and to keep them involved in the College community, long after they’ve put down the pen in their last exams. We keep them informed about events that alumni can attend, services that are there for alumni such as the Library Reader’s Card, and gauge their views on the College as a whole. We also call to discuss various projects that are ongoing in
Trinity, and encourage them to support things such as the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP), the Student Hardship Fund, and a host of scholarships, which help to create the College environment we have today.
Can you take us through a regular shift in the call room? The shift starts with a chat about how things are going. We always have games that we play during the shift, such as the ever-popular ‘caller bingo’. Our breaks are very interesting, as we swap stories about some of the more peculiar things we have heard about College on the phones that day. What is your favourite part of the job? My favourite part of the job has to be hearing about some of the more curious personalities Trinity has played host to, such as the professor who locked her boyfriend in a cupboard until he would agree to marry her, or the Junior Dean who went to break up a party and was silenced by being hung up on the coat peg. It’s hilarious to envisage some of these wonderful characters.
Fionn McGorry
What else do you like about it? As a History and Politics student
it’s interesting to hear about what people in my course ended up doing. This year I am the Senior Member of Council of the Phil, and I’m so interested to hear what the Society was like in previous generations – the topics they debated and the craic they had. I also like telling them what we’ve been up to recently.
What is the toughest part of the job? It’s pretty tough to hear that people have died recently, or talk to parents who are missing their children who have emigrated, even if they are so proud of their kids! What has been the most memorable conversation that you have had? This is a tough one, as I’m inclined to remember bits and pieces. I think, though, that it has to be the conversation I had with the man who had rowed for Ireland in the 1948 Olympics while still an undergraduate, and gone on to work all over the world. But there are so many interesting lives and careers. What has been the weirdest call that you’ve made? I have reached an answering machine which had a message that rhymed perfectly. It was great fun, and really brightened up the shift. I also called someone who lived around the corner from my parents, which is a greater coincidence than it sounds as they live in Australia. Do you feel that the work you do is worthwhile? Absolutely, aside from having learnt a lot about College, I think incredibly highly of the projects the campaign supports. TAP, the Student Hardship Fund, the Library and postgraduate research are all so fundamental to life at the College and have really helped make the College a much more diverse and stronger community.l
Trinity Today Making The Link
I feel closer to the College having completed GradLink. It’s nice to give something back as I got a lot out of Trinity I am now gaining great experience from an enjoyable and interesting internship as a result of GradLink. Thank you! Student Participant
As an Art History graduate, my career path suddenly makes more sense and I feel part of a very diverse and interesting group of people Alumni Mentor
Through GradLink I have been able to explore my options through real people with real advice; I can see myself carrying on into a career I want outside the Trinity walls
Alumni Mentor
T
he GradLink Mentoring Programme, now in its third year, is co-ordinated by the Trinity Alumni Office and the Careers Advisory Service, in collaboration with eight partner Schools. The programme aims to develop current students’ knowledge of the labour market and career paths by nurturing career learning relationships with alumni mentors working in a range of career areas.
Link Trinity’s GradLink Mentoring Programme enables alumni to use their workplace experience and knowledge to help current students.
Benefits for Alumni For their part, alumni often feel that as well as giving something back to their home School or Department and keeping in touch with College, they benefit on a personal level.
I have learned how some career paths may be more useful than others and the importance of gaining work experience as well as education Student Participant
MAking The
Benefits for Students Students benefit enormously from the exchange of ideas with alumni and gain useful insights into how they can best manage their career development.
Student Participant
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Thank you so much for inviting me to participate in GradLink. It is brilliantly organised and really is a worthwhile programme. I wish this programme was available when I was a student
What’s Involved? Volunteering as a mentor involves attending your School’s launch event and meeting with a small group of students (up to three per mentor) on approximately three occasions during the academic year. The focus of these meetings is generally professional development and other careerrelated topics. The time commitment of the programme for mentors is approximately 10 hours.
I loved hearing so many different career paths taken by real graduates! The programme made me think about the uncountable opportunities that are open to me Student Participant
Alumni Mentor
To find out more about the GradLink Mentoring Programme please visit www.tcd.ie/alumni/mentoring
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Trinity Today Building the Future
Building The
Future Paul Johnston tells Dave Molloy B.A. (2009) about the crucial role engineering can play in creating a better society.
A
s CEO of Exponent, one of the world’s largest consulting groups for scientific disciplines, Paul Johnston B.A.I. (1976) knows what life is like at the cutting edge of engineering. It’s a discipline that is defined by constant change and Johnston has seen plenty of that since he first started in Trinity in 1972. Back then engineering was, he says, much more about the fundamentals. “That type of degree… has fallen out of favour. Students prefer to have degrees that are more hands-on rather than science-based. I understand that need, but real advancements come from being able to connect the fundamentals of science to practical solutions in engineering. I really believe in that.” After Trinity, Paul went to Stanford to pursue his Masters and a Ph.D. So how does one go from a Ph.D. in civil engineering to becoming the CEO of a publiclytraded company with more than 700 consulting staff in 26 offices on three continents? “It takes a while,” Johnston laughs. “I was never what I’d call a
‘business school’ kind of guy,” When Exponent gets retained he says. “I never set out to it’s usually confidential, but become the CEO of a company with front-page stories it can be … I was always very focused on different. They’re brought in to get engineering investigations.” to the bottom of things. In 1981, following his Ph.D., Consulting on prototypes, he got a job at Exponent, based particularly in the consumer in California’s Silicon Valley, and electronics space, is another spent years consulting before story. Exponent might consult on becoming a principal at the firm. materials in the construction of a In 2003 he began working device or the chemical aspects closely with the former CEO of battery technology. and was appointed chief Johnston is keen to I was never what I’d operating officer. Cutting point out that Exponent’s back on his consulting success is down to the call a ‘business school’ kind work, he became more quality of people that of guy. I never set out to involved in senior work for the company become the CEO of a management and then with the majority of its company became CEO when his professionals holding predecessor retired. Ph.Ds. “Our human talent, that’s our resource. They go home Disaster Situations every night, and we want them to “We tend to work on what come back every morning.” are called big disaster-type situations,” Paul explains, referring to the reactive work Competing Globally Exponent does when something “The world is becoming a more goes terribly wrong. Clients competitive place,” Johnston might include BP when an oil says. “It’s no longer enough just rig malfunctions in the Gulf of to be what I’d call ‘locally good’ Mexico, or work for automotive at what you do – you need to clients like Toyota on a car recall compete on a world stage.” that could affect millions of And that’s where top talentvehicles. making universities come in.
Trinity Today Building the Future
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oriented – they are inclined to want to get hold of data about a problem before they figure out what the right solution is. And that approach, according to Johnston, is why engineers can have a crucial role to play in building a better future. “I’m not here to predict what the earth will look like 100 years from now, but I believe we need to use the knowledge we keep advancing for the betterment of society,” he says.
Paul Johnston
“Trinity is putting a stake in the ground and saying: here in Ireland, we may be a small country, but we can have, truly, a top university – a top worldwide university.” “You need to have people who have the right kind of skillset for the future,” he says. “[Engineering] is largely responsible for the improvement and increase in the standard of living for people over many, many generations.” “Civil engineers built the first buildings, water supply works, waste water treatment, roads, bridges – they created a physical
E3 Working to create a better society is one of the driving forces behind another of Johnston’s roles as a member of the development board of Trinity’s Engineering, Energy, and the Environment Institute. The institute, otherwise known as E3, is a joint initiative between engineering and the natural sciences. E3, which will be housed in a new building in the southeast corner of Trinity, aims to propose and implement optimal technological and human interventions that will enhance our planet and our relationship with it. “One way of looking at [the future] is actually the name of this building – Engineering, Energy and the Environment,” he says. “It’s a recognition that we need to find ways of building things that create a sustainable society and don’t end up polluting Trinity is putting a stake in the environment.” Yet that’s only one the ground and saying: we side of the coin. There’s environment that you may be a small country, another good reason could live in.” but we can have a top to bring the different “[Then] mechanical worldwide university schools together. engineers allowed you to According to Johnston the be able to move from one fundamentals of engineering place to another through “are very much in the physical trains and automobiles… sciences”. electronic engineers get all the “Energy storage, new way down to where we have materials, nanotechnology – it’s smartphones.” really important to connect the Engineers, according to physics department and the Johnston, seek to understand chemistry department back into the problem first by gathering engineering,” Johnston says. information, “rather than just “In some ways, engineering is instinctively jumping to some sort where all the sciences, in a sense, of conclusion”. come together to find a practical “Engineers are problem-solvers solution to societal needs.”l that are somewhat process-
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Trinity Today A Mystic Dream of 4
A Mystic Dream of 4
Iggy McGovern talks about his new book which explores the life of William Rowan Hamilton through a series of 64 sonnets.
A
William Rowan Hamilton
to narrative. These individual ‘talking heads’ collectively tell the story of Hamilton’s life, and naturally cannot resist putting themselves at the centre of the story. And the number of sonnets was also obvious, a power of four, of course 16 too few, 256 too many, 64 just right! Hamilton’s 60-year life divides near-evenly into four parts and the book is divided into four sections labelled for the quaternion parents; indeed, the opening sonnet of each section is in the ‘voice’ of the appropriate parent. Thus, the ‘Poetry’ sonnet contains a mini-quiz about poets of Hamilton’s acquaintance: Whose heart was dancing with the daffodils? Whose villain of the piece was Ralph The Rover? Whose gardens that were bright with sinuous rills? Whose note of sadness on the beach at Dover? There then follows 14 personsonnets, who, with two
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
ccording to the 19th century mathematician (and poet) William Rowan Hamilton, “The quaternion [was] born, as a curious offspring of a quaternion of parents, say of geometry, algebra, Buzz Aldrin is reported to metaphysics, and poetry.” Hamilton with getting have credited Hamilton To myself, a scientist who him home from the with getting him home is also (in the words of a moon! colleague) “a bit of a poet”, In his sonnet The from the moon! this is affirmation of a high Tetractys, the classicist order. Hamilton, arguably Hamilton views his the premier mathematician discovery in a direct line of his day, had no difficulty to the sacred Pythagorean placing poetry at the heart of four-sided array, with the closing his scientific exploration, and he quatrain: numbered William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Gently He smiled to mark revive among his close friends. I have again, written a sonnet sequence based In later age, and occidental on the life of this remarkable clime, Irishman. A dimly traced Pythagorean lore; Hamilton considered his A westward floating, mystic multi-parented quaternion dream of FOUR. to be his greatest discovery. However, even in his lifetime, Talking Heads it was becoming clear that its And thus, before writing a component parts of scalar and single line, I had fixed on my vector would hold greater sway. title, A Mystic Dream of 4. The ‘vector man’ Oliver Heaviside And I had a clear idea of the quipped that quaternions were format, a sequence of sonnets the perfect way of dealing with… in the voices (mostly) of his quaternions! Today, quaternions contemporaries, relatives, do find applications in computer colleagues and friends. Hamilton gaming and spacecraft guidance. favoured the Petrachan form The astronaut Buzz Aldrin of the sonnet but I find the is reported to have credited Shakespearean form more suited
Trinity Today A Mystic Dream of 4
exceptions, are people who knew Hamilton personally. The exceptions are Erwin Schrödinger and Éamon de Valera. Schrödinger enshrined Hamilton’s name via the symbol H in his famous wave equation, recognising Hamilton’s formulation of energy, his optical-mechanical analogy and his introduction of non-commutatativity. De Valera earns his place for his devotion to quaternion mathematics – he is reputed to have on occasion telephoned Trinity College from the Áras in this regard. Moreover, the dedicated reader will find a related historical gem in Appendix 2. The final sonnet in each section is in the ‘voice’ of Death. It is the job of this suitably ironic figure to tally Hamilton’s significant losses in that 15-year period. Perhaps the hardest of these is 1835-50, when Hamilton lost four father figures (his own father had died when Hamilton was aged 14). These were his uncle James, who schooled him in Trim; his father’s cousin Arthur Hamilton, who was subsequently his effective guardian; his college tutor Boyton, who secured for him the post of Professor of Astronomy; and Wordsworth, his friend and mentor. But perhaps the greatest grief was reserved for Hamilton’s rival, the Professor of Mathematics James MacCullagh. MacCullagh had claimed to have anticipated Hamilton’s discoveries but he was prone to depression (as was Hamilton) and took his own life: He mourned these and moved on, as if by rote; The fourth, though, haunts him like Old Marley’s ghost: The vision of MacCullagh’s bloodied throat, So much alike, affecting him the most. One of the discoveries claimed by MacCullagh was conical refraction, an early success for Hamilton. This was his prediction that a ray of light entering a bi-axial crystal at a certain direction would emerge as a
cone of light. The poet Aubrey de Vere labeled this phenomenon ‘the radiant stranger’. Hamilton pestered his colleague Humphrey Lloyd to confirm the prediction, which he did, a considerable experimental feat. The prediction won Hamilton the Gold Medal of The Royal Society and a knighthood! In his sonnet, Lloyd meditates on the difference between theory and experiment:
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was too frequently absent from home, through illness among other reasons. Moreover, she had reason to believe that she faced competition in the romantic stakes. Prior to their marriage Hamilton had courted Ellen de Vere but he had retreated when the poet’s sister told him she couldn’t live anywhere except her home at Curraghchase (her own sonnet chides him for being too literal!). Moreover, as a student, Hamilton had earlier fallen in love with Catherine Disney but she was promised elsewhere; Hamilton remained obsessed with Catherine for the rest of his life. In this excerpt Lady Hamilton marks the cards of both women:
Immediately he’s tugging at my sleeve Demanding that I do the measurement: These theorists mistakenly believe That pen and paper makes experiment!
Broom Bridge Discovery MacCullagh also claimed priority in quaternions. Hamilton had spent ten years working on ‘triples’, three-membered groupings of numbers as an extension of the two-membered pairing of complex numbers. On 16 October 1843, while walking with his wife Helen along the Royal Canal, he realised that the difficulties with triples would vanish for quadruples, that is quaternions. According to Hamilton he immediately scratched the formula i² = j² = k² = ijk = −1 on the wall of Broom (or Brougham) Bridge. The discovery is commemorated each year with a walk from Dunsink Observatory (the Hamilton home of 35 years) to Broom Bridge. Lady Helen Hamilton recalls the moment of discovery in her sonnet but she also has other issues: Hamilton’s friends did not much approve of his choice of wife, complaining that she
A Lady, yes, but still without a carriage, Long treks to Dublin at a walking pace And there were always three souls in our marriage Or four, if you count Missy Curraghchase! Finally, it was Wordsworth who advised Hamilton to concentrate on mathematics rather than poetry, convinced that one can only succeed in one or the other. How very non-Hamiltonian!l
Iggy McGovern M.A. (j.o.) (1983)
The Hamilton Scholars The School of Mathematics has developed the Hamilton Scholars programme, with the aim of producing a cohort of exceptional Ph.D. students who will pursue the study of scientific and technological problems by mathematical methods and undertake research in various branches of the subject.
We are now seeking investment from supporters for this exciting initiative. To find out more about supporting Hamilton Scholars please contact: Sinéad Pentony, Associate Director, Trinity Foundation Email: sinead.pentony@tcd.ie Tel: +353 (0) 1 896 4564
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Trinity Today Putting Arts Centre Stage
Pauline Turley with talk show host Jimmy Fallon (left) and actor Gabriel Byrne (right)
Putting Arts
Centre Stage Pauline Turley tells Niall McKay B.A. (1989) about how she fell in love with promoting Irish arts in New York.
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auline Turley B.A. (1996) has been involved with the Irish Arts Center in New York since 1997. Shortly after she graduated from Trinity in 1996 with a degree in Drama, she won a green card. Within a few months, she became the Center’s administrator before taking the helm when the artistic director Nye Heron left to produce The Boxer for Jim Sheridan. Since then, she’s been an integral part of the Center which for 41 years has produced award-winning plays and staged an eclectic mix of musical collaborations. The Center is now in the middle of a major capital campaign, which has raised over $42 million for a new building that is scheduled to break ground
next year. “In the early days,” says Pauline, “I lived around the corner and I would set my alarm for four in the morning to come to the Center and empty the buckets when it was raining.”
Student Days Pauline began studying Drama at Trinity in 1992. “It was the last season in the old Players Theatre,” Pauline remembers. “We were the first year in the new Samuel Becket Theatre.” Although Pauline hated acting and much preferred producing and directing she landed a small part in a Japanese play and was the first student ever to set foot on the Samuel Beckett Stage. “I loved the Drama
Trinity Today Putting Arts Centre Stage
department and Players as well,” says Pauline fondly. “I got a lot of training.” She studied with actors like Hugh O’Connor, Jason O’Mara, and Justine Mitchell. In her thesis on the history of Players, she “interviewed Jim Culleton (artistic director of Fishamble) and playwright Gavin Kostick who were both here at the Irish Arts Center a couple months ago with Swing and Beowulf”, says Pauline. “That night David Horan, who was also at Trinity, and Will O’Connell came to the dress rehearsal so we had a mini reunion!” An NYC Institution Brian Heron founded the Irish Arts Center in 1972 in a tenement building. A much loved institution in New York, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held one of the Center’s first fundraisers. Jim Sheridan was artistic director there in the 1980s and the Center was later depicted in his Oscar nominated film, In America. It was at the Center that Jim Sheridan met Terry George, who wrote In The Name Of The Father. Other performers and visitors to the 99-seat theater have included Gabriel Byrne, Richard Harris and Peter O’Toole. Ronnie Drew played his last US show there. More recently Paul Brady, Bill Whelan, Julie Feeney, Eamon Morrissey, Mark Geary, and Declan O’Rourke have performed there. Although the Center is a wonderful and historic venue, the current building is very dingy. “In about 2000, I met Gabriel Byrne and we both clicked on the notion that as you walk down Park Avenue you’ve got the Asian Society, the Scandinavian Center, Alliance Francaise. All these amazing cultural institutions and [this building] is our cultural home in New York?” says Pauline. “We have four Nobel prizes for literature and this is what we are projecting to the world? It
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was kind of embarrassing. We married those two needs.” decided that we can do better.” A number of Irish artists, Gabriel Byrne got Liam Neeson including famed Galway singer involved and now they are both Julie Feeney, have received Honorary Patrons of the Center rave reviews in The New York whose fundraisers have become Times. This season, the Arts a staple on the New York highCenter will partner with some society calendar. Celebrities such of New York’s top cultural as Jimmy Fallon and Daniel Day organisations and present Lewis have all been guests and some major new productions strongly support the Center. with the Brooklyn Academy “The nice thing about New of Music (BAM), Abrons Arts York is that people do give Center, 92Y, and Symphony back,” says Pauline. “Gabriel Space. Byrne, Terry George and Liam The transition from a Neeson come by to support small folksy organisation us. I remember one night, to a major NYC arts John Lennon and Yoko Glen Hansard jumped organisation has been Ono held one of the up on stage to support rewarding for Pauline. singer-songwriter Mark “It’s just doing what Center’s first Geary. The community you love,” she says. fundraisers in New York is very, very “I’ve friends who work supportive.” in business and make three times what I do and are always saying ‘you Diverse Cultural could make so much more Landscape In 2007, the board recruited Connecticut native Aidan Connolly as executive director after he worked for a decade in government, politics and nonprofits. Connolly developed a strategic plan that repositioned the Center as a multi-disciplinary organisation engaged more deeply with New York’s diverse cultural landscape. Now, it not only presents theatre and music but also visual arts and dance as well as literary and film events. It also holds over 40 classes per week in Irish dance, music and language. Connolly and Turley have forged a close partnership, with Pauline Julie Feeney in her capacity as Vice-Chair and key member of the fundraising team for the new building. The Center also moved from doing something else’, but I producing – where it found and feel very blessed to have made put on new theatre – to producing the friends that I’ve made, seen and presenting. It now often the art that I’ve seen and the hosts and promotes the work of art that I’ve played a part in Irish artists and, with the help of producing! And now this new Culture Ireland, brings the best of building [which] will be around Irish arts and culture to New York. for generations to come.”l “We all realised there was a huge opportunity because there For more information on was amazing talent in Ireland the Irish Arts Center, visit but it needed a platform in New www.irishartscenter.org York,” says Pauline. “So we really
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Trinity Today a legacy of imagination
A Legacy of
Imagination
A unique Beckett collection has been acquired by Trinity College Library thanks to gifts left by alumni and friends, writes Brenda Cullen B.A. (1982).
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very year Trinity is fortunate to receive legacies from alumni and friends. These gifts play a pivotal role in Trinity’s development and have a real and lasting impact in all areas of College. Trinity’s magnificent library has benefited enormously from legacies over the years and many generous legacies of books, manuscripts and funding have allowed it to expand collections and deepen scholarship in Trinity. In March of 2014, thanks to legacy gifts from Professor R.B. McDowell M.A., Ph.D., Litt.D., F.T.C.D. (1936) and former Keeper of Manuscripts William O’Sullivan, Trinity College Library was able to acquire the Gontarski Beckett Collection, the manuscripts and
been among only a handful of world destinations for Beckett research and the Gontarski Collection opens up a wealth of exciting research possibilities. It includes signed first editions of Beckett’s work, including a copy of his first published book, Proust (1931), all four drafts of the ‘playlet’ Ohio Impromptu, correspondence between Gontarski and Beckett and the proofs of Gontarski’s critical edition of Endgame. “Having access to this range of material will inspire and support new Beckett scholarship and will open up new opportunities to share these collections with researchers across the globe,” said Head of Research Collections & Keeper of Manuscripts Dr Bernard Meehan, announcing the acquisition in March. ABOVE LEFT: First page of earliest draft of Ohio Impromptu ABOVE RIGHT: An early draft of a page from Endgame
working library of renowned Beckett scholar Stanley E. Gontarski. Professor Gontarski is one of the greatest living Beckett scholars and was one of Beckett’s closest theatrical associates. He stands head and shoulders above the crowded field of Beckett research and is much in demand as a speaker and visiting academic in educational institutions around the world. Having recently turned 71, Professor Gontarski wished to plan his retirement and to make provisions for the future of his professional papers. When it came to finding a home for his very full library of Beckett books and manuscripts he turned to Trinity College Library. Trinity College Library has long
Beckett and Trinity Samuel Beckett entered Trinity College in 1923. He specialised in French and Italian and graduated in 1927. Beckett was expected to continue in an academic career and was appointed assistant lecturer in French literature in Trinity in 1930. However, he disliked teaching, principally because he was determined to become a writer. Beckett always showed himself a friend to Trinity College Library. In 1959, as part of a fundraising campaign to build what is now the Berkeley Library, Beckett was asked to write a play with a library theme. He agreed to attempt it but, as he expected, could not comply and instead granted the royalties from a year’s productions of Krapp’s Last Tape.
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Trinity Remembers For their generosity we will always remember: R.B. McDowell, M.A., Ph.D., Litt.D., F.T.C.D. (1936 - 2011) was one of the most active and productive historians of his generation. He spent his teaching career at Trinity College Dublin, where as Junior Dean he acquired the reputation of being one of College’s great eccentrics. William O’Sullivan, B.A. (1942 - 2000) was the first Keeper of Manuscripts in Trinity College, Dublin, who preserved, made more accessible and elucidated the documents in his care. He passed away in 2000.
The collection includes signed first editions of Beckett’s work, including his first published book, Proust
In 1969, the author generously presented four literary notebooks to Trinity College Library. These notebooks contain drafts of works, translations and abandoned prose and drama. The Library has continued to build on this collection. One of its major literary pieces is a notebook in which Beckett started writing what became his late great work
Imagination Dead Imagine. It also contains a first edition of Waiting for Godot which was used in the rehearsal for its first performance. At the event announcing the acquisition, Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast paid tribute to Professor R.B. McDowell and William O’Sullivan, whose generosity and foresight made the acquisition of these manuscripts possible.l
Samuel Beckett
Mary ‘Paul’ Pollard, M.A., (j.o.), (1965 – 2005) was a member of Trinity College Library staff and the former Keeper of Early Printed Books in Trinity. She bequeathed her superb personal collection of children’s books to the Library in 2005. With over 10,000 items ranging from the 17th to the early 20th centuries, the collection is a unique insight into the reading life of the child, and a treasure trove for researchers and readers alike. Treasures from the Pollard collection will be featured in an exhibition in the Long Room entitled ‘Upon the Wild Waves –Journey to Myth in Children’s Books’ from October 2014 to April 2015. Contact Information For more information about leaving a legacy to Trinity please contact Eileen Punch T: +353 (0) 1 896 1714 E: eileen.punch@tcd.ie
For more information about contributing to Trinity College Library please contact Brenda Cullen E: brenda.cullen@tcd.ie T: +353 (0) 1 896 4572
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Trinity Today Path to victory
Path to Victory Trinity’s participation in an international sports programme has benefitted not only the American Scholars involved but also the local Dublin community, writes Dominique Twomey B.A. (2014).
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his year, for the first time, Trinity became home to two Victory Scholars, student athletes with a high academic performance and a desire to be active in the local community. The Scholars, Katie Ganser from Needham, Massachusetts and Shelby Smith from Ames, Iowa have spent the past year living on campus in Botany Bay, “inside the gate,” Katie says smiling. Alongside coaching the Kubs U17s girls’ team in Kilbarrack, playing for their club teams and DU Basketball, and working in schools in Dublin promoting sport and active lifestyles; Shelby undertook an M.Sc. in Finance and Katie did an M.Sc. in Business
and Management. Having balanced all of these commitments, it is hard not to be impressed by the Americans’ enthusiasm, especially as Katie exclaims, “we had so much free time here!”
Sport Changes Life The Victory Scholars are funded by the University of Dublin Fund (a USA-based trust supported by Trinity alumni) and the Sport Changes Life (SCL) Foundation. With offices in America and Belfast, SCL aims to change the lives of disadvantaged young people through sport. The scholars must balance studying with playing in their local team and working in the
wider community. “I didn’t really appreciate the influence that basketball had on my life until I applied to med school last year,” Katie says. “I didn’t get in but I had to reflect so much on my life and what I had done. I played basketball my whole life and I never questioned it. It has taught me innumerable skills, like time management, being active, being disciplined, and working in a team. Once I could appreciate that, I was like, holy cow, imagine the influence that sports can have on anyone else’s life!” Growing up, basketball was Katie’s family’s sport. “Everyone, all my cousins and parents play!” When asked did she ever feel pressure to be good at basketball,
Trinity Today Path to Victory
Katie Ganser & Shelby Smith
she laughs, “because my sisters and I were doing it together, we were never forced; we were encouraged to do other things”. Her younger sister, Christine, is Trinity’s newest Victory Scholar and will be undertaking the same programme. “My parents are joking about retiring in Dublin,” she laughs. Although Shelby says she felt quite at home in Ireland as “the feel of it is very much like home”, both of them found it tough to adapt to the Irish lifestyle. Living here, they found it necessary to become, “more laid-back”. When it came to juggling all of their commitments, it comes as no surprise that they had little trouble; they put it down to the superb time management skills that they gained in college in the States. Both captains of their college basketball teams, Katie nods in agreement as Shelby explains: “In college, basketball gets to be such a job. It’s 40-plus hours a week between your trainings, your [weights], your film sessions, your game prep, your shoot arounds, your gains.
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stronger. We’re hoping to It’s really excessive, it is a fullopen a Dublin office with time commitment, and then SCL. The programme is you’re supposed to go going places and Trinity to class on top of that.” Basketball is just the is going to be a huge It’s no wonder they mechanism they use to help part of that,” says Katie. felt exhausted after inspire these children...but One of the aims of graduating. Coming to they are not teaching SCL is for participants Trinity and playing with to achieve a more DU Basketball, Shelby basketball, they are globalised perspective says, “rekindled our teaching passion of the world. Speaking of love of the game. It was her undergraduate degree fun; there wasn’t so much in St Joseph’s, Philadelphia, pressure on us”. Shelby says, “my class wasn’t even spread across the US in Teaching Passion terms of diversity!” Both praise the Before the Scholars arrived, the diversity that Trinity offers as one U17 Kubs team “played for fun” of their main reasons for coming as Katie puts it. But with Shelby here. Shelby continues: “In my and Katie as their mentors they class here, I have kids from China, not only made it all the way to kids from Cork, kids from Belfast, the Dublin Cup final for the first kids from Turkey, they’re from all time, they won. “I was talking to over the place. And I’m going to the junior counsellors and they have those connections all around were like, ‘Katie, we had nothing the world now. Trinity has that kind before you guys came and now of environment; it attracts people we have a cup!’ In our eyes a from all over.” For the foreseeable cup is nothing, but to them it’s future Shelby and Katie are staying like ‘holy cow, we did this and put. “We have our own little family we beat the three top teams in here,” says Katie. Shelby adds, our league to get this.’ I think, “that’s what this has been all even now, we don’t appreciate about – the friends I have made, the impact we’ve had”. Katie the relationships that I’ve forged – emphasises that basketball is just across nationalities, across clubs, the mechanism they use to help across sports. It’s been kind of inspire these children, but it is crazy”.l passion in something, anything, that helps build self-belief and raises aspirations. They are not teaching basketball, they are teaching passion. Shelby smiles as she recounts the day of the finals: “When they won that cup and they were all bawling crying because they were so excited, that was great. That was one of the best days we’ve had.” The Kubs girls will be moving into the U18s league next year, which means they are allowed to compete for the national cup. According to Katie they just won’t stop talking about it, she sighs, “they’re gonna kill me if I don’t coach them this year”. This is the first year that Trinity has been part of the SCL programme. “We were the guinea pigs. But we have thrived in this environment and next year The Kilbarrack Kubs in action the relationship will be even
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Trinity Today Raising our Game
RAISING OUR GAME
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he Commonwealth Games, World University Championships, national competitions – these are just some of the sporting arenas where Trinity was represented during the year as the College continues to develop support structures for talented student athletes. With over 10,000 students participating in sport and recreation, each visiting the Sports Centre on average 24 times a year, sport is playing a vital role in Trinity’s firstclass student experience. The College’s sporting programme, ‘Raising Our Game’, is being developed within the context of a new strategy for sport and will ensure students continue to benefit from Trinity’s will to win at the highest level.
Scholarship Programme The Trinity Sports Scholarship Programme recognised the achievements and potential of 18 high performing students, across 13 sports, including the number one South African badminton player, Prakash Vijayanath. There were a significant number of notable performances by Sports Scholarship recipients including Maria O’Sullivan (4th Year Molecular Medicine) who won the 5000m and
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1. The Provost congratulating 3rd Year B.E.S.S. student and DU GAA player Danny Sutcliffe (Dublin) on his 2013 All Star Hurling Award 2. Recipients of the 18 Sports Scholarships that were awarded across 13 sports in 2013/14 3. Head of Sport, Michelle Tanner, with Trinity students selected for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Prakash Vijayanath (South Africa, Badminton) and Victoria Mullin (England, Air Pistol Shooting) 4. Ph.D. Genetics student and Sports
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Membership of the Sports Centre is open to all graduates at a reduced rate. www.tcd.ie/sport
3000m Intervarsity titles in Cross Country; Tom Brennan (4th Year Medicine) set a new Irish record in the K1 200m at the World U23 Championships; Avril DooleyO’Carroll (2nd Year Engineering with Management) was selected for the Irish U21 Women’s Hockey Squad; and Victoria Mullin (Air Pistol) and Prakash Vijayanath were selected for England and South Africa respectively to compete in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
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Scholarship recipient Victoria Mullin was announced as Sportsperson of the Year at the inaugural Trinity Sports Awards. Victoria is pictured with the Awards guest presenter, Leinster and Ireland Rugby Player, Jamie Heaslip 5. Almost 200 people took part in the 3rd Annual Campus 5k run in Trinity in April 2014 6. DU Ladies Boat Club Senior Women’s VIII, competing at the Trinity Regatta
All Star Hurler Third year B.E.S.S. student and DU GAA player Danny Sutcliffe received an All Star Hurling Award for 2013 due to his key role in Dublin’s historic Leinster Championship victory following their promotion to Division 1 of the National League earlier in the year. Trinity Sports Awards There was an exciting addition to the sporting calendar this year with the inaugural Trinity Sports Awards, organised as part of the traditional DUCAC Sporting Commons. The introduction of the Sports Awards are a fitting tribute to the accolades and contribution of students and volunteers, all of whom make sport such a vital part of Trinity’s student experience. The list of winners included 3rd Year Ph.D. student and captain of the DU Trampoline Club, Aideen Ni Choilean (Student Club Administrator of the Year), DU Harriers & Athletics Ladies Cross Country Team (Team of the Year), Elvy da Costa from DU Squash Club (Coach of the Year). Trevor West posthumously
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Trinity Today Raising our Game
received the Contribution to Sport at Trinity award, accepted on the night by his brother, John West, while the Trinity Sportsperson of the Year was awarded to Victoria Mullin. All of the presentations were made by Irish rugby international, Jamie Heaslip.
Pinks During the year, six students were awarded Pinks, a recognition by the DUCAC Captains Committee of reaching high standards in their respective sports; Aisling Smith (Kayak), Sam Mehigan (Ultimate Frisbee), Ciaran O’Neill (Trampoline), Rebecca Woods (Athletics), Brian Du Toit and Patrick Lavelle (Rugby).
7 7. A reunion of DU Men’s Boat Club Senior VIII at the Trinity Regatta 2014 8. Top of the Class – DU Harriers & Athletics Women’s Cross Country team defended their Intervarsity title in fine style in 2014. Sports Scholarship student Maria O’Sullivan (back row, 3rd from left) also won the individual title
8 It was another busy year for DU clubs. Some of the highlights include: ● Boat Club and Ladies Boat Club won the overall Intervarsities ● Boxing Club are the IUABA Junior Intervarsity Champions ● Fencing Club won their 7th consecutive Intervarsity title ● The Harriers & Athletics Women’s Cross Country team retained their Intervarsity title
● Orienteering Club recorded Intervarsity victories in the Team Female Duo and the Team Male Duo ● Squash Men’s A Team won the Intervarsity title ● Members of the Trampoline Club won at the Irish Student Trampoline Open and the Scottish Student Trampoline Open ● Members of the Rifle Club had victories in national and Intervarsity competitions
Trinity Regatta The Annual Trinity Regatta at Islandbridge took place on 19 April and was another sporting success in this year’s College calendar, bolstered further by the coming together of Boat Club alumni from as far as Australia, USA and Canada. A total of 136 races were safely organised, marshalled and umpired by the student-led committee, attracting 23 clubs from Ireland and the UK. Top Class Facilities Providing top-class, fit-for-purpose and accessible sports facilities for students continues to be a key priority for the Department of Sport. Trinity faces stiff competition in this area from other thirdlevel institutions and plans are underway to address this including: • An upgraded rugby pitch will open for the 2014/15 season in College Park with floodlights due to be installed in the New Year • Phase 1a of the development at Santry is complete and our hockey teams will now play on a state-of-theart water-based pitch • Phase 1b will get underway in September and will produce a full size floodlit sand carpet natural grass GAA pitch, 5-a-side areas for community usage and upgraded entrance/parking • A funding model is currently being formulated to complete the remainder of the works to include a 3G/4G pitch and a new pavilion For more information on sport at Trinity visit www.tcd.ie/sport
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DID YOU KNOW? Alumni can avail of Trinity’s Sports Centre membership at a discounted rate and children U16 are free with parent/guardian membership
For more details visit www.tcd.ie/ sport/membership
The climbing wall at Trinity’s Sports Centre
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Trinity Today honorary degrees
Honorary Degrees Between Winter 2013 and Summer 2014, Trinity awarded nine honorary degrees to outstanding individuals at two separate ceremonies. Among them were footballer Johnny Giles, chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall and scientist Atsuo Fukuda.
December 2013 The notable producer and theatre director as well as film maker, journalist, writer, teacher, community activist and commentator on social justice, Lelia Doolan, was conferred with a Doctor in Letters (Litt. D). Dr Doolan began acting and presenting in the newly established RTÉ in 1961, moving soon to producer/director. She was responsible for the establishment of The Riordans and was artistic director of the Abbey Theatre for two years before completing a Ph.D. in anthropology at Queen’s University where she also worked in community video and adult education in Belfast. Between 1979 and 1988 she taught at the College of Commerce, Rathmines. She was chairperson of the Irish Film Board between 1993 and 1996, was a founder and Director of the Galway Film Fleadh, and is currently Chairperson of Solas Galway’s Picture Palace Teoranta.
Former international footballer Johnny Giles entertaining his fellow Honorary Degree recipients
Back row: Johnny Giles, David Went, Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, Professor John Laver Front Row: Lelia Doolan, Chancellor, Mary Robinson and Jane Goodall
Michael John ‘Johnny’ Giles (LL.D.)
John Laver (Litt.D.)
Johnny Giles, one of Ireland’s best known and most popular sports figures, was conferred with a Doctor in Laws (LL.D). He is a former professional footballer, playing first for Manchester United and then for the very successful Leeds United side in the 1960s and 70s. He also played 59 times for Ireland. Since retiring from professional soccer, Giles managed several teams, including the Republic of Ireland, and subsequently served as an analyst and commentator for RTÉ and other media. He has made very significant and sustained endeavours to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds develop their sporting and life skills, culminating in the establishment in 2011 of the John Giles Foundation.
One of the outstanding phoneticians of his day, John Laver, was conferred with a Doctor in Letters (Litt.D). Currently Emeritus Professor at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, he holds many distinctions and awards for his scholarship. His book, Principles of Phonetics, is an essential reference work for phoneticians and for all who work in the area of speech communication. His research on voice quality has intersected with, and had a major impact on, the research of Trinity’s Phonetics and Speech Laboratory. He has also been a tireless and eloquent advocate for the arts and humanities across all disciplines. Professor Laver has made a significant contribution to Trinity, initially as Chair of the 2006 external review of arts and humanities research which led to the creation of the Trinity Long Room Hub, and subsequently as inaugural Chair of its Board.
Photographs: www.maxwellphotography.ie
Lelia Doolan (Litt.D.)
Trinity Today honorary degrees
Jane Goodall (Sc.D.)
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Amos Oz, Chancellor, Dr Mary Robinson, Professor Atsuo Fukuda, Craig Barrett, Mary Redmond, and Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast
Ethologist Jane Goodall, Ph.D., D.B.E., was conferred with a Doctor in Science (Sc.D). Considered to be the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 54-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania. Her groundbreaking research redefined our understanding of the great apes and made her ‘the woman who redefined man’. She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and of Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, a humanitarian, conservation and education programme for young people. She was made a UN Messenger of Peace by Kofi Annan in 2002 and re-appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
David Went (LL.D.) David Went, who was conferred with a Doctor in Laws (LL.D), graduated as the Sir John Brooke scholar of his year from Kings Inns as a Barrister at Law. He is one of the foremost voluntary contributors to the College in recent decades and gave freely of his time and expertise over 11 years as Chairman of the Trinity Foundation Board. During his tenure the Foundation, through its board and staff, was tremendously successful. He has also been personally involved in supporting the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) and the National Institute for Intellectual Disability (NIID). He has had a distinguished career in banking and insurance, serving in many senior positions in Ireland and abroad. In 2009 he was appointed by the Minister for Finance as Chairman of the Consultative Industry Panel to the Financial Regulator. He was Chairman of the Board of The Irish Times Limited from 2007 to 2013.
June 2014 Atsuo Fukuda (Sc.D.) Atsuo Fukuda, formerly Professor of Organic Materials (Physics) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, was conferred with a Doctor in Science (Sc.D). With more than 300 research papers to his name, he is one of the most distinguished leaders internationally in the field of organic materials. He has won a number of professional awards and from 1996 to 2000 he was President of the prestigious International Liquid Crystal Society. His fundamental discoveries have had an enormous impact on the new generation of displays and in electro-optic and spatial light modulators in information and communication engineering. Professor Fukuda was a Science Foundation Ireland Walton Professor from 2002-04 and since 2004, as a Trinity Visiting Professor, he has published (jointly with researchers in Trinity) 30 papers in significant research journals.
Craig Barrett (Sc.D.)
Amos Oz (Litt.D.)
Craig Barrett, former Associate Professor of Materials Science at Stanford University, was conferred with a Doctor in Science (Sc.D). He was CEO of Intel Corporation from 19982005, and chairman until 2009. Dr Barrett is one of the leading commentators on the importance of education in society and for sustained economic success. He previously served as Chairman of the United Nations Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development. Dr Barrett was part of the government’s Farmleigh Initiative and is Honorary Chairman of the Irish Technology Leadership Group.
Professor of Hebrew Literature at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Amos Oz, was conferred with a Doctor in Letters (Litt.D). He is the author of 35 books as well as collections of stories, novellas and books of articles and essays. Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war Amos Oz has published numerous articles and essays about the Arab-Israeli conflict, campaigning for an IsraeliPalestinian compromise. Since 1967 he has been one of the leading figures in the Israeli peace movement. The recipient of numerous awards for both his literature and for his peace activism, his autobiographical novel A Tale of Love and Darkness is an international bestseller.
Mary Redmond (LL.D.) Mary Redmond, one of the leading lawyers in Irish employment law, was conferred with a Doctor in Laws (LL.D). Her publication on employment law was the bible for fellow lawyers and practitioners for many years. She subsequently became known for her social entrepreneurship. In 1985 she set up the Irish Hospice Foundation which established the modern hospice movement in Ireland and is now the leader of the voluntary sector in hospice care. In 1999 she established the Wheel, a support and representative body connecting community and voluntary organisations and charities across Ireland which has evolved to become a resource centre and forum for the community and voluntary sector.
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Trinity Today Commencements
Trinity congratulates our new graduates
Over 3,600 graduates were conferred during commencements in 2013/14, bringing the total number of alumni around the world to over 100,000! And remember, just because you’ve graduated doesn’t mean your link with Trinity has been broken – your alumni connection is for life. You will always be part of the Trinity community and the Alumni Office is here to help you stay connected with the College and with each other through regular communications, events, regional branches and affinity groups. To find out more about the benefits and services available to you as a graduate please visit www.tcd.ie/alumni
Trinity Today Commencements
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Trinity Today Events
Alumni Weekend 2014
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1. Janet Dorman, Clare Smiley, Dr Niamh McGoldrick 2. Alumni on a guided tour of Trinity’s campus 3. Alumni on a tour of Science Gallery 4. Richard Dorman M.B. (1974), Anne Robinson M.B., M.A., F.F.R., F.R.C.R. (1974), Henry Stevenson M.B. (1974) 5. David Kostick, Evan Kostick M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O. (1951), Melissa Webb B.A. (1965) 6. Stella Durand B.A., B.Th. (1964), Claire Treacy B.A. (2009) with tour guides from the Zoological Museum 7. Peter Asplin M.A. (1965), Trevor Green B.A. (Mod), M.A., Dip.Ed. (1964), David Cuffe M.V.B., M.A., M.R.C.V.S. (1974), Margaret-Ann De Courcy-Bayley, Robin McCutley, Ewan Simmonds B.A. (1964), Jock Houston B.A., F.E.I.S., (1965) 8. Ann Walker, Edward McParland M.A. (ad eundem Cantab) (1977), Brenda Sheil LL.B. (1966) 9. Alan Yorke M.B., F.R.C.P.C. (1974), Niall Collen B.A.I., (1971) 10. Annette Brydone, B.A. (1974), Gavin Brydone, Lorna Hogg M.A. (1974)
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Trinity Today events
Reunion banquet, Alumni Weekend 2014
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1. B.SC.(PHARM.) (1989) 2. Michael Clarkson M.B. (1994), Fionnuala O’Connell M.B. (1994), Carolin Forkin M.B. (1994), Annemarie Scallon M.B. (1994) 3. Carolin Forkin M.B. (1994), Douglas Hamilton M.Sc. (2002) 4. Barry Heelan B.Sc.(Pharm.), Ph.D. (1989), Martin Henman B.PHARM., PH.D. (BRAD.) (1984), Rhona Mary Murray B.SC.(PHARM.) (1989), Michelle Anderson B.A., B.Sc. (Pharm.), M.P.S.I. (1980) 5. William Gray M.B. (1971), Liz Gray, Clive Russell M.B., F.R.C.P. (1970); Judith Russell M.B. (1972) 6. Elizabeth McLaughlin, John Mulhern B.DENT.SC. (1974)
Trinity Today events
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13 7. LL.B. (1989) 8. Brian Ferguson M.A. (1995), Christian Sirven, Claude Roussel 9. Dorothy Lavery B.A. (1975), Ann Sheppard B.A., M.Sc. (1974), Noelle Tracey B.A. (1975), Patricia Boyd B.A. (1974) 10. Margaret Molloy, Jim O’Sullivan B.A. (1986) 11. Ann Hensman B.A. (1994), Bridget McDonagh 12. Claire Besnyoe B.A. (1956) 13. B.B.S. (1994)
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Trinity Today Alumni branches
Trinity
Alumni
Devon & Cornwall Mr Michael Clapham linacre101@yahoo.co.uk
branches
Gloucestershire Mr Jonathan Moffitt jonathan_moffitt@ blueyonder.co.uk
Europe
London Peadar O’Mórdha secretary@TCDLondon. co.uk
From Sydney to Southern California, Norway to North of England, wherever life takes you, there is a Trinity Alumni Branch for you.
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ranches organise activities and social events on behalf of alumni within their region. They also provide a channel of communication between their members and the University, keeping you up to date with College news. Branch events range from casual pub get-togethers to black-tie events, from cultural excursions to networking lectures by visiting academics. For graduates new to a region, joining a branch is a great way to make new friends while maintaining the link with your alma mater. Our branches always welcome new members. Please see the named contact in your region. @
If there is no branch in your area and you would like to set one up, please contact alumni@tcd.ie
Ireland & Northern Ireland Antrim & Derry Mr Stanley & Mrs Joy White The Old Rectory Macosquin, Coleraine BT51 4PN, Co. Derry
TCD Dining Club, London Peadar O’Mórdha secretary@ TCDDiningClubLondon.co.uk Midlands (East) Mrs Sydney Davies sydney.davies@ ntlworld.com
Munich Mr Dominic Epsom Dominic.Epsom@bmw.de North of England Ms Suzanne Temperley david.temperley@talk21.com Oxford Mr Martin Gaughan martinigaughan@ yahoo.co.uk
Italy Ms Pamela Maguire pamela.maguire@tiscali.it
South East UK Ms Nick Beard beardm@tcd.ie
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Yorkshire Mr Peter Fisher phfisher1@virginmedia.com
Great Britain Cambridge Brian Bromwich brianbromwich@ googlemail.com
France Ms Pamela Boutin-Bird pamela.boutin @free.fr
Erlangen – Nuremberg Elisabeth Mayer elisabeth.mayer@ zuv.uni-erlangen.de
Fermanagh Ms Janet Goodall janetgoodall@aol.com
Northern Ireland Mark Conlon conlonmj@yahoo.co.uk
Belgium George Gandon trinityalumnibrussels@ gmail.com
Germany Berlin Mr James Löll loellj@gmail.com
Cork Mr Gerry Donovan donov@eircom.net
Kildare & Wicklow Mr Michael J McCann tcd-kildare@infomarex.com
Austria Eudes Brophy brophyandhand@ netscape.net
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UK West Country Douglas Henderson tcdwest@yahoo.co.uk
Scotland Mr Christopher Haviland c.p.haviland@btinternet.com
Norway (Oslo) Roger Strevens Roger.Strevens@ 2wglobal.com
Portugal Ben Power benpower@sapo.pt Switzerland Mr Malcolm Ferguson malcolm.ferguson@ ieee.org
Trinity Today alumni branches
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Singapore Paul Clarke pclarke_ireland@hotmail.com
New York Ms Fiona Stafford tcdalumninyc@gmail.com
Africa
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South Korea Gaya Nadarajan gaya.nadarajan@gmail.com
New York – Upstate Mr Ronald Ferguson fergusonrng@gmail.com
East Africa Mr Gerard Cunningham gerard.cunningham@ unep.org
Australia & New Zealand
KwaZulu-Natal Mr John Conyngham lyric@mweb.co.za
NEW SOUTH WALES Mr Dylan Carroll dylancarroll@gmail.com
HONG KONG Laura Kidd kiddl@tcd.ie India Bangalore Mr Sai Prakash saierin@hotmail.com
Libya Dr Mohamed Daw mohameddaw@gmail.com Republic of South Africa (Cape Town) Mr Anthony G Marshall Smith marsmith@iafrica.com
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Uganda Henry Tumwebaze tumwebah@tcd.ie
Rest of World
Pacific North West Graduates tcdalumnipnw@gmail.com Philadelphia Mr Paul Maguire pmaguire@maguirehegarty. com San Diego Mr Rob Mullally robmullally1@gmail.com
USA Atlanta Julie Jones julie@juliejonesconsulting. com Boston Mr Tomas John Ryan tcdbostonalumni@gmail.com South Florida Ronald Ferguson fergusonrng@gmail.com Southern California Kevin Elliott kelliott@tcd.ie Mid-Atlantic Jackie Hoysted tcdmidatlanticalumni@ gmail.com
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San Francisco Dr Thomas G Browne thomas.browne@tcd-ussf.com
QUEENSLAND Mr Kieran O’Brien kieranob@mac.com SOUTH AUSTRALIA Mr Patrick Bourke p.mbourke@bigpond.com VICTORIA Mr Ciaran Horgan chorgan@internode.on.net WESTERN AUSTRALIA Mr Alex O’Neil alexoneil@bigpond.com
Canada ALBERTA Graham Wynne gw17@telus.net ONTARIO Mr John G Payne trinitydublin@rogers.com
CHRISTCHURCH Bernadette Farrell tcdalumninz@gmail.com
Gulf Region Jessica Pakenham-Money, pakenhaj@tcd.ie
DELHI Mr Rahul P. Dave rpdave@yahoo.com
Israel David Rivlin tcd.alumni.il@gmail.com
Japan Mr Leo Glynn lglynn@hotmail.com Malaysia Malaysian Irish Alumni Association miaa.info@gmail.com Pakistan Tia Noon tahianoon@gmail.com Singapore Irish Graduates’ Assoc. of Singapore irelandsingapore@gmail.com
Mexico Mr Stephen TL Murray s.murray@carlyleinstitute.ie
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Moscow Bulat Kubeyev kubeyevb@tcd.ie Argentina maddendw@tcd.ie
Asia
VANCOUVER ISLAND Dr Timothy Brownlow timbrownlow2@gmail.com
China Chinese Alumni Association Tao Zhang info@tcdchinesealumni.org
GREATER VANCOUVER Mr Eoin Bates eoinbates1@gmail.com
BEIJING Xusheng Hou houx@tcd.ie
OTTAWA Deirdre O’Connell deirdreocon@gmail.com
SHANGHAI Nick McIlroy mcilroyn@tcd.ie
For further information ON BRANCHES visit www.tcd.ie/alumni/ groups
*New Branches
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Trinity Today events
NYC Ball, June 2014
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1. Raffle winner David Mooney B.A. (1985), with Katherine Sheane B.A. (2007) 2. Aileen Denne-Bolton B.A. (1982), Fiona Stafford B.A. (1994), Orla Power B.A. (2006), Katherine Sheane B.A. (2007) 3. Annie Galvin, Brian Rossi, Kim Rossi, Elizabeth Eaton M.Phil. (2011) 4. Aileen Denne-Bolton B.A. (1982), Eileen Punch B.A. (1988), Roz Zuger M.A. (1952), Mary Apied, President, Trinity Foundation, Val Kennedy 5. Emma Giles, Margaret Molloy, Cara Gorey B.B.S. (Lang.) (2002), Naomi McMahon B.B.S., M.A. (2005) 6. Ultan Guilfoyle B.A. (1979), Jill Donoghue, Christopher Morash (guest speaker) M.Phil., Ph.D. (1988), Ann Morash
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DID YOU KNOW? the Alumni Office, in conjunction with Trinity’s Careers Office, is focused on supporting alumni and students to plan and manage their professional career options To find out how Trinity can help your career visit www.tcd.ie/alumni/ alumnicareers
Brian Martin B.B.S. (2009) attending an event in Trinity
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I would suggest another pic for here
DID YOU KNOW? Trinity hosts a wide range of events for alumni throughout the year
For more details visit www.tcd.ie/ alumni/events
Joseph O’ Gorman giving a walking tour in Trinity
Trinity Today Events
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Christmas homecoming, December 2013
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2 1. Heli Ghandehari, Kieran Saul B.A. (1995) 2. Claudia Murray, Alma Collins B.Sc. (Clin. Lang.), (1992), Paul Moloney B.A. (1993), Angela Cotter B.A. (1993), Chris Murray B.A. M.Sc. (1991) 3. Eimear O’Hanrahan LL.B. (Ling.Germ.) (2009), Karen McLaughlin LL.B. (Ling. Germ.) (2009) Maria McGoldrick LL.B. (Ling.Germ.) (2009) 4. Gerard Keyes, Michele Keyes, Aaron Keyes B.A. (2005)
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Christmas Commons, December 2013
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Make sure to visit www.tcd.ie/alumni for more updates
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1. Robert Galway B.A.I., C.ENG., M.I.E.I. (1948), Fiona Galway M.Ed., M.A., Ph.D. (1980) 2. Susanne Schmitz Ph.D. (2013), Clare Walsh, Brian Reddy B.A. (2006) Susan Spillane 3. Shane O’Meachair B.A. (2008) Cathal Walsh M.A., Ph.D. (1996) 4. Brian Pickering B.A. (1984), Erica Pickering B.A. (1983) Dr Robert Willis M.A., LL.D. (h.c.) (1945), Kate Willis, Neil Willis
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Trinity Today Gaeilgeoirí i gCéin
Gaeilgeoirí i gCéin
riamh in ollscoil Mheiriceánach ina measc. Deir Lisa gur chuidigh a cuid ama i gColáiste na Tríonóide go mór léi leis an ról sin a fháil agus a dhéanamh. Mar shampla, bhí sí ina Oifigeach Siamsaíochta leis an Chumann Gaelach agus ina Ionadaí Ranga le hAontas na Alumni Choláiste na Tríonóide ag obair leis an Mac Léinn, mar sin bhí an-taithí aici cheana ar imeachtaí sóisialta Ghaeilge thar lear. a eagrú i suíomh ollscoile. Tá Lisa ag obair go lánaimseartha le Fulbright Éireann anois, agus tá seó seachtainiúil aici ar Raidió í minic a shamhlaítear slí teanga a mhúineadh.” na Life a phleánn le cúrsaí bheatha idirnáisiúnta le Bhain Lisa céim amach sa idirnáisiúnta na Gaeilge. céim sa Ghaeilge, ach tá Ghaeilge agus san Fhealsúnacht Molann Lisa agus Mícheál beirt go leor de chéimithe Choláiste na i gColáiste na Tríonóide i 2010, Roinn na Gaeilge, Coláiste na Tríonóide ag obair leis an Ghaeilge agus d’oibrigh sí mar theagascóir Tríonóide as iad a spreagadh agus thar lear inniu – san oideachas, i Roinn na Gaeilge ar feadh cúpla a ullmhú chun tabhairt faoi na san aistriúchán, sna meáin, agus a bliain chomh maith, sula bhfuair heachtraí seo. Is léir óna scéalta thuilleadh eile. sí scoláireacht Fulbright le bliain go bhfuil an domhan mór oscailte Tá An Dr Mícheál Hoyne, a a chaitheamh sna Stáit Aontaithe do chéimithe le Gaeilge a bhfuil tháinig go Coláiste na Tríonóide i mar chuntóir teanga Gaeilge suim acu eispéireas ar leith a 2006 le Gaeilge agus Stair a agus mar ambasadóir cultúrtha ar bheith acu. dhéanamh, agus a bhain Éirinn. Fuair Eibhlín Breathnach, Glacfar le hiarratais do dochtúireacht i bhfilíocht na scol céimí eile de chuid Choláiste na Dhuaiseanna Fulbright 2015-2016 amach i 2013, ag obair sa Tríonóide, scoláireacht Fulbright go dtí 12 Samhain 2014. Tá Philipps-Universität in Marburg na sa bhliain chéanna. Chuaigh eolas le haghaidh céimithe Gearmáine. Tá sé ag cuidiú le Eibhlín go Nua-Eabhrac agus ionchasacha TCD ar fáil tionscadal taighde ina ndéantar chuaigh Lisa go hOllscoil ag www.fulbright.ie. Le comparáid idir teangacha éagsúla, Connecticut, áit a mhúin Fuair Eibhlín Breathnach, haghaidh tuilleadh eolais an Ghaeilge ina measc, le sí an Ghaeilge agus céimí eile de chuid ar chúrsaí Gaeilge i catagóirí uilíocha teanga a aimsiú. a chuir sí imeachtaí gColáiste na Tríonóide, Chomh maith leis sin, tugann sé sóisialta Gaelacha Choláiste na Tríonóide, téigh go ranganna ar Ghaeilge na ar siúl, an chéad scoláireacht Fulbright sa www.tcd.ie/gaeloifig meánaoise, agus deir sé go “Seachtain na Gaeilge” l bhliain chéanna dtaitníonn sé sin go mór leis, toisc go mbíonn na mic léinn an-spreagtha faoin ábhar. Dar le Mícheál, ní hé go bhfuil suim ag tromlach mhuintir na Gearmáine sa Ghaeilge, ach glactar le suim sa Ghaeilge mar rud nádúrtha ansin – ní chuirfeadh Gearmánach ceist ar nós ‘cén fáth a mbeadh suim agat sa Ghaeilge?!’ Nuair a théann Mícheál go ciorcal comhrá uair sa tseachtain, Gearmánaigh ar fad a bhíonn i láthair. Thug Lisa Nic an Bhreithimh an meon dearfach céanna faoi deara agus í ag múineadh na Gaeilge sna Stáit Aontaithe – deir sí, “níl an oiread céanna aitheantais ag an teanga thar lear, ach bíonn daoine i bhfad níos dearfaí i leith chúrsaí cultúir ‘s teanga, mar sin tá sé, Cuntóirí Gaeilge Fulbright 2012/13 – Beirt chéimí Choláiste na Tríonóide sa lár ar bhealaí, níos taitneamhaí an
Photograph: Fullbright Ireland
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Trinity Affinity Credit Card
Funds raised by the Affinity Credit Card are used in College by the TCD Association & Trust to support a range of student and staff projects
You get, we give
You must be over 18 to apply for a credit card and lending criteria terms and conditions apply.
You get a unique credit card and we give a little back to the College every time you spend on your Trinity Affinity Credit Card.
Visit our Trinity Campus Branch www.bankofireland.com/alumni or call 076 623 9274
Credit Cards are liable for annual Government Stamp Duty, currently â‚Ź30, per account. Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.
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DID YOU KNOW? Science Gallery ignites creativity and discovery through interactive exhibitions, educational workshops, training programmes and public events
For more details visit www. sciencegallery.com
A Science Gallery exhibition featuring Beau Lotto’s Bee Blocks
Trinity Today Trinity Transformed
D
uring the Easter Rising in 1916 a rumour raced around Dublin that Patrick Pearse’s real ambition was not to become President of an independent Irish Republic, but Provost of Trinity College Dublin. Steps were taken to protect Trinity from such an outcome, with the chief steward distributing ‘Fenian pikes’ – weapons which had been confiscated during the last rebellion in 1867 – so that College would be able to defend itself from any attack. No attack came, but Trinity still became a site of battle during the week of the fighting. Life went on. Examinations were even held in the Public Theatre, despite the noise and uncertainty, and one Junior Sophister student, Ellen Corrigan, said afterwards that they got so used to the sniper fire they “did not even lift [their] pens from the paper” when it resumed. The women passed their exams, but most of the men failed and had to take supplementals when the rebellion was over.
De Valera in Trinity Afterwards, John Henry Bernard, a future Provost, blamed the rising on Éamon de Valera’s failure in the scholarship exam in Trinity, and wondered what might have happened if de Valera had been successful at his mathematic studies when ‘on books’ in 190506. Instead he came last in his class, and the history of Ireland was transformed forever. Trinity, too, was transformed forever during this period. The First World War had a profound and tragic influence on the future of Trinity, with just over 3,500 members of the Trinity community – men and women – involved in the conflict. Some 15 per cent of them never came home. Despite the dark times, alumni dinners were held by soldiers in locations as disparate as Cairo, Jerusalem, and Baghdad. To remember all these events, and as part of Trinity’s contribution to the ‘decade of commemorations’, the Provost has commissioned a new history
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Troops in Trinity during the 1916 Rising
Trinity
Transformed A new book explores Trinity’s history from 1912-23, a decade that included the First World War and the Easter Rising, writes Professor Patrick Geoghegan.
of the College, covering the key years of 1912 to 1923. To tell the story of this remarkable period, we asked Dr Tomás Irish, a gold medallist in History who has completed a groundbreaking Ph.D. on universities in time of war and conflict, to investigate how Trinity changed in this period, and also how Trinity itself changed the world around it. The book will be published in the autumn of 2015, and will be accompanied by a major conference, an exhibition, and a series of public lectures and events. This was a time when Trinity was caught up in the most dramatic events in Irish history, and was transformed beyond recognition by them. It is a story that will change forever how alumni view their College.l
Professor Patrick Geoghegan teaches in the Department of History at Trinity College Dublin.
Special offer: signed copies A limited number of copies of this new history of Trinity, signed by the author, Dr Tomás Irish, are available for advance purchase by alumni for the special price of €50. Subscribers will get the book sent to them on publication, as well as VIP passes to all the special decade of commemoration events planned in 2015/16. The money raised will contribute to the publication of the book and the series of events being planned. To avail of this special offer email: trinity.history@tcd.ie
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Trinity Today feature name
DID YOU KNOW? Trinity offers many opportunities for further study including public lectures, evening and short courses and free online courses
For more details visit www.tcd.ie/ prospectivestudents or your School of interest
Students attending a lecture in Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute
Trinity Today CLASS NOTES
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Eoin O’Liathain B.A. (2013) After graduating, Eoin worked on a nonprofit organisation that he set up called ShoutOut (www.shoutout.ie). Partly inspired by the progressive culture of Trinity, ShoutOut works to make Irish secondary schools a more welcoming place for LGBT youth. Earlier this year, Eoin joined the team at Dropbox and can be found working at their European HQ in Dublin. Eoin is very grateful for all the fond memories of his student days and occasionally indulges in a nostalgic evening drink at the Pav.
CLASS notes
Catarina Marvão Ph.D. (2013) Catarina is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Stockholm School of Economics, supported by a scholarship from the Irish Research Council. She is also a Fulbright-Schuman alumna and was a speaker at TEDxFulbright Dublin in 2014. Catarina previously worked at the Portuguese Water Regulator and the Italian Competition Authority and was a lecturer in Economics at Trinity in 2012/13. She regularly presents her research on EU and US cartel regulation at the top industrial organisation conferences. Following 18 years of ballet training, Catarina began salsa dancing and, in 2011, she was awarded the Irish National Champion of Salsa 2011 at amateur level.
2010s
News from Trinity alumni around the world.
Cillian Fahy B.A. (2014) While at Trinity, Cillian developed a passion for education. He has appeared in all major national media discussing second-level education, including a year spent writing for The Irish Times. Excited particularly by the potential for online education, he was involved in establishing onlinegrinds.ie. Recently, Cillian was awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. This prestigious international scholarship is awarded to academically excellent students who are committed to improving the lives of others. In November, he will attend the IUCN World Parks Congress in Australia as a Global Youth Ambassador.
Poppy O’Sullivan B.A. (2014) and Julia Wilhite L.L.B. Bus. (2014) Since leaving Trinity in May 2014, Poppy (‘Pops’) and Julia (‘Jules’) have together created and launched a new range of artisan cookies aimed at the increasingly “foodie” population of Dublin. Curveball Cookies was formed when Pops and Jules, both keen bakers and aspiring businesswomen, noticed that cookies have not yet developed into something exciting and versatile. They want to change this. Each flavour in the range has its own story and identity – for example the “Rummmy” combines rum, raisin and coconut – and is inspired by the girls’ travels abroad.
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Trinity Today CLASS NOTES
2000s
Louise O’Neill B.A. (2008) After graduating Louise moved to New York to work for the then Senior Style Director of ELLE magazine, Kate Lanphear. Returning to Ireland in 2011, she began working on her first novel Only Ever Yours, a feminist dystopian tale for young adults. Described as ‘The Handmaid’s Tale meets Heat magazine’, her work has also received a glowing endorsement from Jeanette Winterson, who said Louise “writes with a scalpel”. Louise signed a two book deal with Quercus and Only Ever Yours was released in the UK and Ireland in July with publication in the USA to follow in spring 2015. To submit or view She is currently working class notes visit www.tcd.ie/alumni as a freelance journalist /class-notes for a variety of national newspapers and magazines.
Clare Gavigan B.A. (1996), Ph.D. (2000) Rachel Kavanagh B.E.S.S. (2008) Graduating in 2008, Rachel created beauty brand Rockstar Tan, securing distribution through leading retailers such as Debenhams and Boots. The brand won 10 beauty awards within the first two years of launching. Rachel was listed as one of the ‘Top 40 under 40 entrepreneurs’ by Business Plus magazine, gracing their January 2011 cover. After being headhunted at the tender age of 29, Rachel joined GLOSSYBOX, the global monthly beauty subscription service, as the Managing Director responsible for the UK and Irish operations. She is based in their London office and in her first six months she increased growth by 14 per cent, tripled Irish sales and sold out every monthly box. She also pioneered partnerships with notable brands including Net-a-Porter, Harvey Nichols and fashion brand Karen Millen.
Clare Gavigan, originally from Dublin, has worked as a Technical Specialist with Abbott Diagnostics in Sligo since 2004 after completing a Ph.D. and subsequent postdoctoral research in biochemical parasitology in Trinity College Dublin. Clare is specifically interested in malaria research and tropical medicine, so was delighted to participate in a recent five-week volunteering partnership in Tanzania with the Abbott Fund, Abbott’s philanthropic organisation.
1990s
Trinity Today CLASS NOTES
1980s
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Patrick Joy M.B.A. (1988) Patrick Joy founded Suretank Group in 1995 and he is the current Irish EY Entrepreneur of the Year. A chartered mechanical engineer (University College Dublin, 1974), he also has an M.B.A. from Trinity. Suretank is a global business employing over 750 people in seven countries manufacturing products for the offshore oil industry. Patrick spends considerable time each year visiting these manufacturing sites and all those other countries where there is exploration and production of offshore oil. He is a member of Engineers Ireland, the Institute of Directors, Boyne RFC, Seapoint and Co. Louth golf clubs. He is married to Mary and they have five children and two grandchildren and live in Baltray in Louth.
Stéphane Hogan B.A. (1985), M.SC. (1987) Stéphane graduated in genetics and biotechnology. During his studies, he was captain of the Judo Club for three years and also represented Trinity and Ireland in Olympic handball. After graduation Stéphane briefly pursued his work in research. Then he went into science communication in France before joining the European Commission in Brussels to manage EU funds for health research. In parallel he also obtained an M.B.A. through the Open University. In 2012 he moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to work as EU Science Counsellor to the African Union where his role is to foster co-operation in research between Europe and Africa. Stéphane is married to Doris (from Austria) and has four children, two of whom (so far) have graduated from Trinity.
Peter Heseltine, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O. (1971) Since Trinity, Peter has been an academic, tenured Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California, where he taught medicine and conducted research on surgical infections, vaccines, HIV/AIDS, stroke and neurocognitive disorders. At the Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center he co-founded and was Director of the Rand Schrader HIV/AIDS clinic. After a career in academic medicine, Peter moved into industry responsible for supervising high-volume molecular tests and a team of research scientists developing new esoteric tests for infectious diseases. From 2005 to 2011, he was VP and Medical Director of Global Businesses at Beckman Coulter. Today he is newly arrived in the San Francisco bay area as Chief Medical Officer of Singulex. Earlier this year Peter (finally) tracked down all his Trinity classmates and sent them the edited video of the 30 years of reunions they have had together!
1970s
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Trinity Today CLASS NOTES
Jeremy Lewis B.A. (1965) While at Trinity Jeremy edited TCD and Icarus. He started work in the publicity department of Collins in 1967; he was then an Editor at Andre Deutsch and Oxford University Press, a Literary Agent with A.P. Watt, and – for ten years – an Editorial Director at Chatto & Windus. A freelance editor and writer since 1989, he has written three volumes of memoirs – Playing for Time, Kindred Spirits, Grub Street Irregular – and biographies of Cyril Connolly, Tobias Smollett, Allen Lane and the Greene family. His biography of David Astor will be published next year by Jonathan Cape.
Charles Edwards B.A. (1965) On leaving Trinity in 1965, Charles Edwards became an antiques dealer in London. In 1992 he started a lighting manufacturing business replicating antique lighting that he bought in the UK, France and the USA. The business is based in two shops in the King’s Road in London. He is presently involved with Anne Leonard and Daniel Corbett in publishing a high-quality book about the Trinity of fifty years ago entitled Portrait of an Era – Trinity College Dublin in the 1960s. This fascinating book, which includes hundreds of wonderful contemporary photographs, many never seen before, is available from dasc@danielcorbettco.com
1960s Martin Bennett M.A. (1963) By the end of his first year in Trinity, Martin had established The Trinity College Jazz Band. They often played public concerts to raise money for the then Library Extension Appeal Fund. He has continued organising bands all his life and has played many times in Canada, the US and regularly in the Bahamas – where he lived for four years – Europe and Australia. He is still very active as a touring musician, covering clubs and festivals all over the UK and abroad and has many albums to his name. For more information visit www.reverbnation.com/ martinbennettsoldgreenriverband
Pamela Bradley née Coldicott D.S.S. (1956)
1950s
In the 1950s, Social Science was a diploma course and after Trinity Pamela completed a further year with the London-based Institute of Almoners to qualify as a Medical Social Worker, subsequently working in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, and Hillingdon Hospital in Middlesex. In 1959 she married Brendan Bradley (Mod. B.A. 1956) and they returned to Ireland in 1961. Their three children were all at Trinity in the 1980s. Pamela switched careers and became a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland. Elected to the Council of APGI she served as President from 2003 to 2006.
To submit or view class notes visit www.tcd.ie/alumni /class-notes
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Join the Trinity Business Alumni The Trinity Business Alumni (TBA) is the global association of graduates of Trinity College Dublin from all academic disciplines, who are engaged in business activities. The TBA is a forum for alumni to connect and network, to learn, and to contribute to the development of business, College and wider society.
If you would like to join, please access the TBA website at www.tba.ie for details about membership and upcoming events.
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Trinity Today One-on-one
One-on-One
Diarmuid O’Brien B.A. (1994), Trinity’s Director of Research and Innovation, tells us a little bit about himself. What excites you about your job? The opportunity to work with researchers from idea generation all the way through to supporting real impact from their research.
How important is it that Trinity increases its level of engagement with industry? Industry is an essential partner for Trinity. It can help identify some of the big research questions and provide a context and focus for groundbreaking research; provide career opportunities for our students and in many cases provide funding for our students, our research and new Trinity initiatives.
What does a typical day consist of? Meetings followed by meetings. Luckily I get to meet interesting people with different perspectives – world-leading academics, dynamic companies, entrepreneurs and business people. How do you relax? Family, food and sport. When and where were you happiest? Today and here. Appreciate the present. What is your greatest fear? Losing perspective. What is your favourite building in Trinity? The Naughton Institute which houses CRANN and Science Gallery – a new building which opens Trinity to Pearse Street and to which I have strong personal connections. What role can research and innovation play in the future success of Trinity? Research and innovation is critical to the reputation of Trinity and is an important differentiator in attracting and retaining the best faculty and students. It also acts as a bridge connecting Trinity – its students and staff – more deeply to Dublin and indeed the rest of the world.
What areas of research will provide the biggest opportunities for Trinity in the future? Many of the big research challenges are at the interface between disciplines – this is where Trinity can make significant impacts due to the excellent research we have across many areas from the arts and humanities, to the life sciences, engineering and the physical sciences.
Diarmuid O’Brien
What, in your opinion, are the greatest challenges facing third-level education in the 21st century? Maintaining a balance between allowing the freedom (and time) for new ideas and thinking; and ensuring that universities connect with the shorter needs of society and enterprise. It is possible and necessary to do both but very challenging to walk the tightrope.
How do companies and businesses benefit from working more closely with Trinity? Companies benefit in multiple ways and like most interactions it revolves around people – access to new talent in our students, access to world-leading researchers who can support the provision of solutions or innovation to the company, access to worldleading educators The interface who can support between disciplines the training and is where Trinity can skills needs of a make significant company. impacts What guests, from any stage of history, would you invite to your ideal dinner party? Nelson Mandela, Roy Keane, Marie Curie and Graham Norton. What is the most useful piece of advice that you’ve ever received? Don’t sweat the small stuff.l
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You can join Trinityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1592 Circle by annually contributing â&#x201A;Ź1,000 to the University. Members of the 1592 Circle receive a commemorative 1592 Circle pin, invitations to special Trinity events and a private tour of Trinity for the member, their family and friends
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