Issue 16 OCTOBER 2011 www.tcd.ie/alumni
TrinityToday A PUBLICATION FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS
Meet the new
PROVOST
Trinity Ball
Alumni ACHIEVEMENTS
myths and music
NEWS
Front Cover 2011.indd 1
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F E AT U R E S
•
INTERVIEWS
09/09/2011 09:51:02
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH TRINITY, AND EACH OTHER
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Trinity Today | WELCOME
Editor’s Letter Dear Graduate, Welcome to the latest edition of Trinity Today, your alumni magazine. We hope that you will find it an interesting and enjoyable read. On 1 August 2011, Dr Patrick Prendergast began his tenure as Provost of Trinity College. In an interview with Trinity Today, he tells us about his priorities for the next 10 years which include consolidating Trinity’s role as a global university, opening the College up to the best and brightest students, and connecting with alumni and friends of Trinity the world over. One of the highlights of the year was undoubtedly Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to College in May. The Long Room was the setting for much of the visit as the Queen and Prince Philip viewed many treasures of the Library. 2011 has also been a year of celebrations with the tercentenaries of Trinity Medicine, Chemistry and Botany and the opening of the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, the most ambitious capital project in the history of College. Trinity alumni continue to excel and to make their name in business, science and the arts. Alumni featured in the magazine this issue include Avoca Creative Director Amanda Pratt; crime writer John Connolly; telecoms entrepreneur Sean Melly; and foreign correspondent Robert Fisk, while academic staff profiled include Prof Margaret O’Mahony, Head of Engineering School and Dr Mícheál Ó Siochrú from the School of Histories and Humanities.
Student life on campus is thriving and our sports round-up and celebration of the Dublin University Cricket Club is a testament to that. We also invite you to take a trip down memory lane with a feature on the Trinity Ball. The Trinity alumni community continues to expand. And it has never been easier to keep in touch. Over the past 12 months, thousands of you have joined us on our social networking sites. We encourage those who have not already done so to sign up for Front Gate Online, your online alumni community, at www.tcd.ie/alumni. The Alumni Office is constantly working to improve our offering to alumni. If you have any feedback about the magazine or any query that we can help you with, please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing alumni.relations@tcd.ie. Many thanks to all who have helped put this magazine together. Jennifer Taaffe B.A. (1997) Alumni Relations Director
Issue 16
OctOber 2011 www.tcd.ie/alumni
TrinityToday A PUBLICATION FOR ALUMNI
AND FRIENDS
Meet the new
PROvOST
Trinity Ball
Alumni
achievements
myths and music
NEWS
•
F E AT U R E S
•
INTERVIEWS
Cover image by Frank Miller, Irish Times.
editor: Jennifer Taaffe
Photographer: Paul Sharp
editorial Team: John Dillon Sally-Anne Fisher Michael McCann Caoimhe Ní Lochlainn Marcella Senior Nick Sparrow
With thanks to: DUCAC DU Publications SU Offices Publishers: Ashville Media Group www.ashville.com
Alumni Office, East Chapel, Trinity College, Dublin 2 t. +353 1 896 2088 e. alumni.relations@tcd.ie The opinions expressed in these pages are not necessarily shared by the Alumni OffIce or Trinity College Dublin.
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CONTENTS | Trinity Today
42 Royal Seal to the Library’s Year
Contents 4
Campus news Catch up on all the news from another busy year on campus.
12 A global Vision
Louise Holden speaks to Dr Patrick Prendergast, the 44th Provost of Trinity College.
18 The Trinity biomedical sciences institute
The most ambitious capital project in the history of the College.
20 Tercentenary Celebrations Trinity marks 300 years of Medicine, Chemistry and Botany with a year of celebrations.
22 physic garden The Physic Garden was opened this April to mark the tercentenary of botany. We highlight some of the medicinal uses of the Garden’s plants.
24 prof margaret o’ mahony We profile Margaret O’Mahony who has been appointed Head of the Engineering School.
26 sean melly Simon Carswell speaks to the entrepreneur about his adventures in the Irish telecoms market.
28 london Calling Frieda Klotz speaks to Reuters columnist Margaret Doyle who has been writing and commenting on the global economic crisis.
An Independent voice
30
30 An independent Voice Gavin Corbett speaks to world-renowned Middle East Correspondent Robert Fisk about why he thinks the Arab Spring is the best thing to happen to the region.
32 Dream weavers Avoca’s Creative Director, Amanda Pratt, tells how she changed the business from traditional small-scale to highstreet fashion.
34 world of Art
CEO of Culture Ireland, Eugene Downes, talks about singing, working in Russia and his role in promoting Irish culture.
36 Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture
12
A look at one of Provost Dr John Hegarty’s proudest achievements: the establishment of the Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture initiative.
A Global vision
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Trinity Today | CONTENTS Campus News
4
Dream Weavers
32
38
Living the Life after every dead thing
38 living the life after every dead thing
David Molloy investigates the life of one of Ireland’s leading crime writers, John Connolly.
42 royal seal to the library’s year
Highlights of the year’s events in the Library, in particular the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
46 Trinity ball
Karl McDonald explores the myths and the music of the ever-popular Trinity Ball.
50 scéal staraí
Agallamh le Mícheál Ó Siochrú.
52 A sporting year in Trinity
Club news and a round-up of all the latest events.
56
72 long Journey from
Cricket Club A celebration of the Dublin University Cricket Club on the occasion of its 175th birthday, by Gerard Siggins.
58 honorary Degrees A closer look at the recipients.
59 remembering Trinity: Charles edwards
On why he is leaving a legacy to Trinity.
60 Alumni events Photographs from another busy season of alumni events.
singapore to Trinity Dr David Yeo recounts his move from Singapore to Ireland in 1947 to study at Trinity.
74 in memoriam We remember former viceProvost John victor Luce, and offers condolences to the families of all deceased alumni.
76 DuwgA
A history of the Dublin University Women Graduates Association by its President, Kristina Odlum.
78 Alumni branches
66 Class notes News from graduates around the world.
46
Find your local alumni branch.
80 one on one
We get up close and personal with Clinical Professor of Neurology, Orla Hardiman.
Trinity Ball
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NEWS | Campus
Campus NEWS IT’S A TriniTy THing
2011 Photography & Video Competition
‘It’s a Trinity Thing...’ was the theme for this year’s photography and video competition, open to all students, staff and alumni of the College. The theme gave entrants artistic license to submit images or videos that captured the personality of the College or the Trinity Experience. Twenty images were selected for an exhibition in the College Library while the overall winner Callum Swift won an iPad for his video entry which can be viewed online at www.tcd.ie/alumni.
Photo Winner
Trinity Snow Nicola O’Dwyer
Runner Up Trinity at Night Raasay Jones
Runner Up Beauty of music, beauty of soul Ying Yang
Shortlisted entries: Above left: Trinity Week Norman McGrath Far left: Trinity Old New Raasay Jones Left: One in the Crowd Anthony Edwards
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Campus | NEWS
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Trinity College Dublin H
er Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh visited Trinity on Tuesday 17 May. In honour of the royal visit, Provost Dr John Hegarty hosted a reception in Trinity’s Long Room with Ireland’s wealth of talent in research, education, culture, the arts, innovation and entrepreneurship represented. During their visit to the Old Library, Her Majesty and His Royal Highness were escorted by a greeting party consisting of the Provost and his wife, Neasa Ní Chinnéide Hegarty; the Chancellor of the University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dr Mary Robinson LL.B., M.A. (1967); the College Librarian, Robin Adams; the Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn TD; and Minister of State for Training and Skills, Ciarán Cannon TD. The Foundation Charter of Trinity College Dublin by Queen Elizabeth I as a seat of learning was on view. So too was the Book of Kells, the College Harp and a Coat of Arms, believed to be from the original Elizabethan building of the College. For more on Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to the Old Library, please see page 42.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II meets students and staff of Trinity College during her visit to the College.
Digitised Witness Testimonies of 1641 Irish Rebellion T
President McAleese and Dr Ian Paisley at the launch of the 1641 Depositions.
he 1641 Depositions, an exhibition to raise awareness about one of the most bloody and traumatic moments in Irish history with a view to promoting greater understanding between the different traditions on the island of Ireland, was opened by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese M.A. (j.o.), LL.D. (1985), in Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room last October. Former Northern Ireland First Minister Dr Ian Paisley responded. The transcribed and digitised 1641 Depositions, witness testimonies of the violent massacres of the 1641 Irish Rebellion, were also launched online in a new website at www.1641.tcd.ie – a free resource is publicly available. The online resource sees the culmination of a three-year collaborative research project using the latest research technology between TCD and the Universities of Aberdeen and Cambridge.
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NEWS | Campus
S Y A L P A R T S E H C R O Y IT IN TR
Daft Punk
I
n February, the Trinity Orchestra, along with Trinity Singers and the core of a rock band, performed two concerts of the music of French electro duo Daft Punk. The programme of music was arranged and conducted by the orchestra’s auditor Rob Farhat and performed entirely by students. In 2009 and 2010, the Orchestra played the music of Icelandic atmospheric rock group Sigur Rós and English legends Radiohead respectively, and their arrangements of other contemporary indie rock songs have consistently proven popular during Freshers’ Week and indeed even outside College. The concert centred around Daft Punk’s second album, Discovery, which features hits like One More Time and Digital Love, but after performing the modern classic in its entirety, the orchestra closed the show with a medley featuring a reprise of highlights from the night and snippets of some of the group’s most well-known tracks from other albums. A video of the event, directed and edited by Tom Speers, emerged online at the end of April and garnered attention from more than just Trinity students. At time of print, the YouTube clip had received over 420,000 views and been reposted by a wide variety of respected blogs and sites including those of Prefix Magazine and notorious alternative tastemakers Pitchfork. The success of the concerts and videos led to an offer to share the main stage at the Forbidden Fruit festival in the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham with acts including Limerick-born electronic music pioneer Aphex Twin, and at the 10 Days in Dublin festival during the summer.
Image courtesy of David O Dwyer.
growing up in Ireland A
essor James Williams Minister Barry Andrews, Prof ne. Gree ila She and Professor
major new report from Growing Up in Ireland – the Infant Cohort, a national study tracking the lives of 11,100 nine-month-old infants and their families was launched by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Barry Andrews TD last November. The research report, led by TCD and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), was launched at the study’s annual research conference. It provides a unique insight into the lives of infants in Ireland, presenting in-depth findings across a range of areas including pregnancy and birth, childcare, health and development, and work-family life balance. In general, the report shows that Irish infants are doing well across
a range of key areas in their lives including health, emotional and physical development. It does, however, highlight particular concerns in relation to (i) relatively low breastfeeding rates in Ireland, (ii) patterns of smoking and drinking during pregnancy, and (iii) inequalities related to socioeconomic status of parents. The findings are based on the first wave of in-depth interviews with the parents of 11,100 ninemonth-old infants. These families and children are about to be revisited for a follow-up interview as the children begin turning three years of age to assess how much their lives have changed in the intervening years.
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Campus | NEWS
lifetime achievement award FoR PRoF o’MoRaIN
C Professor Colm O’Morain at the
Irish Healthcare Awards 2010.
olm O’Morain, Professor of Medicine at Trinity and consultant gastroenterologist at the Adelaide and Meath Hospitals Dublin incorporating the National Children’s Hospital (AMNCH) in Tallaght, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Irish Healthcare Awards in 2010.
science gallery O
ver the past year Science Gallery has gone from strength to strength producing an exciting and diverse series of exhibitions, from GREEN MACHINES which invited people to invest in design for sustainable future, to vISCERAL, which confronted visitors with the processes of modern biology. MEMORY LAB put memory to the test and HUMAN+ confronted visitors with the future of the human species. Our summer show ELEMENTS, developed in partnership with the School of Chemistry as part of their tercentenary explored the beauty of chemistry. Our next exhibition this October will invite visitors to immerse themselves in the conflicts and opportunities that surround the Future of Water. Science Gallery is more than just an exhibit space; it is a community that includes everyone from science fans and art groupies to some of the world’s leading thinkers in design, science, and technology. In 2010, we held a number of events, talks
and workshops with speakers including Dr Mary Robinson, the US Energy Secretary Dr Steven Chu and science author and journalist Prof Matt Ridley. Over the last year, Science Gallery extended its global reach with the launch of BIORHYTHM: Music & the Body at the EYEBEAM Art + Technology Center in New York as part of the 2010 World Science Festival. 2012 will see new and exciting activities including Science Gallery’s contributory role in bringing science to the city as Dublin takes the title of European City of Science 2012, while HACK THE CITY, our flagship exhibition in 2012, will invite local and global artists, scientists and designers to “hack for good” developing innovative ideas for future cities. www.sciencegallery.com
ideas meet, opinions collide
From HUMAN+ (Photo: David Bolger).
From VISCERAL (Photo: David Bolger).
From ELEMENTS, Chemical Vision by David Clarke (Photo: David Clarke).
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NEWS | Campus
Academy of Clowns
at the Beckett T
his year’s Senior Freshman ensemble production for drama students saw Raymond Keane, one of Ireland’s foremost clown practitioners, direct Academy of Clowns, a devised production that ran in April at the Samuel Beckett Theatre. Through four weeks of workshop rehearsals, each performer developed a red-nose clown ‘scene’, either singly or with one or two classmates. Performances proceeded in promenade fashion, with spectators guided physically around the 26 acts occupying every corner of the theatre. In Keane’s practice the red nose serves to reveal the distinctly human through the deeply personal. The acts ranged from an impassioned delivery in Italian of ‘The Eensy Weensy Spider’ to a breathless one-man rendition of the final moments from Gone With the Wind, and included clowning allusions to Shakespeare, Euripides, Mama Cass and, of course, Beckett’s previously undocumented affinity for the Macarena.
The cast of Academy of Clowns.
TriniTy laW STudenTS Win All-Ireland Competition
T
rinity School of Law students Bridget English and Rebecca Russell-Carroll were the winners of the McCann FitzGerald AllIreland Business Law Challenge, ‘The Advocate’, which took place recently in the Four Courts. The Trinity team beat off competition from other third-level legal students from around the country to take the top prize of €2,000 and a place on a summer internship programme.
Rebecca Russell-Carroll (left) and Bridget English with Mr Justice Peter Kelly (left) John Cronin, Chairman McCann FitzGerald, and Rose Hynes, chairman Bord Gáis Éireann
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Campus | NEWS
dean oF STudenTS roll oF Honour ENCOURAGING CIvIC ENGAGEMENT AMONG STUDENTS
O
From left to right: Dean of Students, Prof Gerry Whyte, student volunteer Anne Cleary, Dr Martin McAleese, and student volunteer Daniel Farrell.
award of Pushkin Medal TO DR SARAH SMYTH, HEAD OF THE SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES, LITERATURES AND CULTURAL STUDIES
S
arah Smyth, Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, was awarded the prestigious Medal of Pushkin by Presidential Decree at the Moscow Kremlin last November. This Medal is awarded annually to no more than ten recipients in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the promotion of Russian language and culture in the world. Asked about how she felt being the first Irish person to be honoured in this way, Sarah said: "In the context
of Bono’s concert in Moscow and meeting with President Medvedev during the summer, President Mary MacAleese’s visit to Russia in September and the Taoiseach’s planned trip in the coming year, the award highlights a significant shift in Irish-Russian relations and bodes well for future developments.” Dr Smyth is the author of a number of widely acclaimed Russian language textbooks and is currently principal investigator on a major IRCHSS-funded research project on Russian speakers in Ireland.
Dr Sarah Smyth being presented with her Award by President Medvedev.
ver 300 Trinity students were commended at the inaugural Dean of Students Roll of Honour ceremony in College on 7 April for their participation in extra-curricular, voluntary activity both inside and outside College. The Roll of Honour was launched by TCD’s Dean of Students, Professor Gerard Whyte M.A. (j.o.), B.C.L. (1984). The event’s keynote speaker, Dr Martin McAleese B.Dent.Sc., M.A. (1984), said: “I am heartened to know that another generation of young people are committed to carrying on the proud tradition of volunteering that has always been such a vital part of Irish life. May the role of volunteering in your lives be like the role of education in your lives – lifelong and enriching.”
TCD School of Psychology ranked in
Top Ten in europe
T
rinity College’s School of Psychology has been ranked 10th in Europe and 48th in the world by the just published QS World University Ranking for Psychology. As the only Irish university to feature in the top 50, Trinity’s School of Psychology has established itself as one of the most important centres in the world for study and research in psychology. Speaking about the achievement, Head of the School of Psychology at TCD, Dr Howard Smith said: “To be ranked 10th in Europe and 48th in the world is a magnificent achievement. It is a testament to the quality and dedication of the staff of the school and reflects a level of performance of which the College can be rightly proud.” The School will celebrate its 50th Anniversary in 2012 with a variety of events for the public and alumni. Further details will be announced soon. Please visit www.psychology.tcd.ie.
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NEWS | Campus
New nano-materials
will lead to advanced batteries
N
ano-scientists have become increasingly excited about a newly discovered nano-material, graphene, since this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for its discovery. Graphene, a layer of carbon atoms just one atom thick, is the strongest material known to man and has the potential to transform areas from electronics to gas sensing. However, researchers in the School of Physics and the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) have recently demonstrated a method to produce a range of other atomically thin layers from materials such as boron nitride and molybdenum disulphide. As reported recently in Science, these new nano-materials have the potential to revolutionise the generation and storage of energy, for example as components in advanced batteries.
Professor Jonathan Coleman, Associate Professor of Physics at Trinity College and Principal Investigator at CRANN who has been named among the top 100 materials scientists of the past decade by Times Higher Education. Professor Coleman is the only Irish scientist named in the top 100 and one of the youngest on the list.
l e d o M l re Digita t a e h T y e b b A of the
A
digital model of the old Abbey Theatre as it was on its opening night on 27 December 1904 was launched in April in the Samuel Beckett Theatre at Trinity College Dublin. The model is the result of a collaboration between historian Dr Hugh Denard from King’s College London – currently a Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity’s Long Room Hub – and Dublin-based digital graphics company NOHO. The new three-dimensional digital model is opening up fresh ways of exploring the stories and histories of the early years of the National Theatre.
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Campus | NEWS
s i s u p m A C e Th
FOR YOU TOO!
Y
ou may no longer be a student, but there are still plenty of reasons to come back to College: from exploring exhibitions in the science Gallery to bringing friends to see the magnificent Long Room, or even just to stroll through one of the most beautiful campuses in the world.
Helping uS underSTand THe compleXiTieS oF THe World bArACk obAmA leCTure by prof. JAmes kloppenberg In March 2011, renowned author and Harvard history professor, James Kloppenberg, gave a lecture entitled Barack Obama and the American Democratic Tradition in which he explored President Obama’s ideas through a detailed look at his writings. The lecture, which was sponsored by the University of Dublin Fund made up of Trinity graduates living in the US, and the Department of History, is the first in an Annual Lecture Series in American History.
sign up tod ay for the alum ni e-zine at www.tcd .i alumni/new e/ s/ezine
eXTra mural courSeS Always at the vanguard of current thinking, Trinity continues to try to bring its insights to a targeted audience. A recent example is a new course designed for teachers.
CerTifiCATe in holoCAusT eDuCATion A new Certificate in Holocaust Education offered by the School of Religions and Theology in association with Holocaust Education Trust Ireland is in its first year. This innovative and unique course is designed to provide educators with the knowledge and skills to teach about the Holocaust, racism and anti-semitism in age-appropriate ways. Lecturers are drawn from Trinity academics as well as researchers and educators from Europe, North America and the Middle East.
join uS online From left to right, Professor Brian McGing, Head of School of Histories & Humanities; Dr Daniel Geary, Mark Pigott Lecturer in US History, Department of History; Karyn PosnerMullen, Director of Public Affairs, US Embassy; James Kloppenberg, Charles Warren Professor of History, Harvard University.
Schools and Departments throughout College organise many events throughout the year which alumni are welcome to attend. poliCy insTiTuTe lAunChes henry grATTAn publiC leCTure series The re-launched Policy Institute is highlighting the contribution of philosophy and social science to current public issues. During 2011, the Institute initiated the Henry Grattan Lectures – a series of public lectures which aim to promote informed debate and offer new ideas on longterm social, political and economic challenges. Topics such the Euro area crisis and political change were addressed by speakers who included the Icelandic finance minister and leading Trinity and international academic experts. The Policy Institute is based in the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy.
And if you can’t join us physically, then why not join us virtually. Did you know that www.tcd.ie is one of the most consulted Irish websites? With so much information, you would be surprised what you might find. AbAir: irish VoiCes – worlDwiDe Readers from Brazil to Japan are now listening to Gaeltacht Irish on the Trinity website www.abair.ie. ABAIR provides access to the outputs of Irish speech technology research, converting text to speech using synthetic voices developed at the Phonetics and Speech Laboratory of the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences. The aim is to provide multiple voices for all Irish dialects: Donegal is already available; Connemara is about to be launched and Kerry is in the pipeline. This just a small selection of what your College has for you. see www.tcd.ie/alumni for further information and to register for Front Gate online, your online alumni community. Trinity Today | 11
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INTERvIEW | Provost
A Global Vision
Louise Holden speaks to DR PATRICK PRENDERGAST, the 44th Provost of Trinity College.
o
n the day of this interview, Paddy Prendergast was on his way to meet the Queen. As the incoming Provost of Trinity College, welcoming the British monarch to the University was one of his early duties and a neat exemplar of the unique role of Trinity College in Irish public life. Telling the story of Trinity College will be a key function of his Provostship, says Prendergast. Just as the Dublin campus is an unmissable leg of any Dublin tour, the Trinity story travels well, around the country and around the globe. Born and raised in Oulart, a small Wexford village known only to hurling enthusiasts, Paddy Prendergast left for Trinity College and a bachelor’s programme in engineering aged 17. He found the place inspiring from the moment he walked through Front Arch. “The physical environment of the place interacts with the intellectual environment and motivates people,” he says. “The vista from the front arch is a metaphor for what a university should do for the mind.” Prendergast remained at Trinity to complete a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, focusing his research on orthopaedic devices for the medical technology sector. Working with surgeons, he fine-honed implant design for joint replacements – an activity which continues today at Trinity, which is at the cutting edge of global research in this field. At the time, however, research was a new phenomenon in Ireland. “It was the 1980s and we were operating on a
economic skins in the long term. “This sector is still doing well and expanding. The strength built into the Irish economy in the 1990s is still with us and will form the basis of our recovery.” After completing his Ph.D., Prendergast went to Europe where, he claims, he really learned what can be done with a world-class research infrastructure. He completed his post doctorate at the Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli at the Italian National Centre for Orthopaedic Research, building robotic surgeons and learning Italian. Then he went on to the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands and there he learned how to publish, how to win research grants and “how to be an international scientist in the modern world.” “When I came back to Trinity as a lecturer in 1995, I felt I was ready for Ireland’s research expansion,” he says. “I put a consortium of researchers from Italy and the Netherlands together and we were granted IR£350,000. It was a very substantial sum at the time. We hired post-docs and researchers and ran the biggest university engineering laboratory in the country.” Activities at the lab centred on developing methods for the pre-clinical testing of implants, using powerful new computer technology to simulate the clinical environment. The lab put Trinity right at the forefront of next generation medical device research – a position which it still holds today. Prendergast’s research history sets him apart from previous Provosts, who cut their academic teeth in the US. He is, by his own admission, a Europhile and believes this focus will flavour his leadership of the University. He has taken frequent sabbatical trips to European universities, spreading the message of Trinity’s work in Poland, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. He intends to build on this communication strategy throughout his term as Provost, although his frequent visits to European universities will be curtailed.
The vista from the front arch is a metaphor for what a university should do for the mind.” shoestring,” says Prendergast. “We had very little resources but we were motivated by a desire to improve the outcome for those with hip prostheses. It was such a common operation, second only to the appendectomy, but the implants often failed before ten years in those days. Now they can last a lifetime in some cases. We were working at the beginning of a medical device revolution in Ireland.” It was not just the start of our boom in medical technology. It was the early days of foreign direct investment in Ireland and the birth of the real Celtic Tiger. As far as Prendergast is concerned, the progress made in that period although eclipsed by the property boom of the noughties, will save our 12 | Trinity Today
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Provost | INTERVIEW
“That is why I plan to appoint, as soon as possible, an officer with responsibility for global engagement, as part of a new phase in external communications for Trinity,” says Prendergast. He is determined to see Trinity recognised as Ireland’s university on the world stage. “We need to engage with alumni, other universities and stakeholders all over the globe to tell Trinity’s story. Here at home I want to communicate the message that this College delivers for all Irish people, no matter what their socio-economic background.” “I am interested in opening Trinity College up to the best and brightest students, no matter where they come from,” he says. “We offer the challenge to excel here, to anyone who is up to that challenge.” The urgent focus for Trinity is to consolidate its role as a global university, says Prendergast. This can be achieved in a
variety of ways. Trinity undergraduates need to be supported, in greater numbers, in taking semesters abroad. “We need to establish partnerships with top universities and get students moving,” he says. He also wants to improve the mobility of staff. “If we want the best and brightest, we need to cast the net far and wide. Of course, we recognise our responsibility to Ireland, but we need to get the best people, wherever they are.” On the subject of Trinity’s responsibility to Irish society, Prendergast could not be clearer. “We have a crucial role to play in increasing employment in this country, not least through the social and commercial impact of our research,” he says. “By delivering to the very highest international standards in education, research and innovation, we can create a vibrant environment for the development of new business. We are part of an innovation ecosystem – I do not normally buy into jargon but in this case
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INTERvIEW | Provost
I think the biological metaphor is a good one.” Despite his seminal role in the development of Trinity’s biomedical technology expertise, Prendergast is wary of the prevailing view that Irish universities need to crystallise their activities around core strengths. “I do not fully buy into the notion of rationalisation, especially in the case of Trinity College, which derives its strength from its multidisciplinary environment. I see great educational value in that. Rationalisation could reduce the effectiveness of what we do as a university with relatively low expenditure by international standards.” Development of the humanities is another core element of Prendergast’s strategic vision, he says. “The Long Room Hub is developing into a centre for excellence in humanities research. My role is to encourage excellence wherever I find it in the University.” For the last few years, Prendergast has chaired the Trinity Irish Art Research Centre (TRIARC) and is an enthusiastic advocate of the arts within and beyond the campus. He strongly believes that the Trinity aesthetic is as much a part of its success as any research or learning which goes on within its walls. “During my term, we shall undertake major redevelopment of the east end of the campus. The old chemistry extension will be replaced by new engineering and natural sciences buildings. We shall take the opportunity to develop this space into something as inspiring as Front Square, using modern architecture. The physical and
I am interested in opening Trinity College up to the best and brightest students, no matter where they come from. We offer the challenge to excel here, to anyone who is up to that challenge.” intellectual spaces are inseparable. One inspires the other.” Amidst his high ambitions for Ireland’s oldest university, Prendergast is not ignoring the elephant in the room. “If the State is broke, who knows where it will end? Trinity has got to be a master of its own destiny. My executive team will be looking at this issue from the outset. We need to rebalance the mix of public and private funding to maintain the quality of education at Trinity College. I do not take an ideological view on this, I take a pragmatic one. Students may have to make a greater financial contribution to ensure high quality higher education. Low quality for free is not worth anything.” Students of Trinity College, past and present, hold the key to the continuing growth of the University, says Prendergast. “We need to reconnect with alumni and friends of Trinity the world over. There is an evolving idea that alumni can remain connected to the home university throughout their lives, that graduates should retain a stake in its success. I intend to visit alumni groups and welcome invitations.” He also hopes to spend some of his time in the lecture theatre. “As Provost it is important to take a leadership role in the contested ground of higher education, in the policy debates which take place above the level of the individual university. To enhance that role, I want to keep teaching. I will not get to know the undergraduates as well as I have in the past – that is one disadvantage of being Provost – but I will continue to play a part in education at Trinity.” Despite his many new responsibilities on campus, Provost Prendergast is determined to spend a good deal of his time representing College around the world. “I want to tell the story of this
The Provost on his graduation day with his parents Mary and John Prendergast.
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Provost | INTERvIEW
University, because there is a great story to tell; its history, its location, the fact that it is both modern and ancient. An old but modern university in the middle of a famous capital city – where else would you find it? This is a unique and inspiring institution.” He points to the sheer tenacity of Trinity to survive in the face of hundreds of years of upheaval in Ireland. “Trinity has remained open through famine and civil war, recession after recession for over 400 years. It is hard to think of any other single institution which has achieved that. “I have been to hundreds of universities around the world and I have not seen an education and research environment
quite like this one with its multidisciplinary character, the proximity of excellent people from such a diversity of fields all bumping into one another in this relatively small space. There is nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world. It is a miracle of history that it was established, that it survived and that it continues to serve the people of Ireland and the world.” That is why Queen Elizabeth II simply could not pass through Dublin without stopping by! Louise Holden B.A. (1995) is a graduate of English and Drama Studies and education feature writer for The Irish Times.
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE provostship of Trinity College Dublin T BaracK u.S. preSiden aT-greaT-greaT oBama’S gre , joHn Kearney grand-uncle, To 99 17 m Fro WaS provoST arney resigned Ke t os ov Pr . 1806 e when he was mad 06 suddenly in 18 ur no ho r te ea y – a gr Bishop of Ossor e! tim at the
roBerT uSSHer (1629–1634) Had Been a FelloW oF TriniTy Since 1611, and WaS THe FirST graduaTe To Become provoST. He seems to have been unduly hard on the students, banning the comedy which they had been accustomed to perform at Christmas.
during THe periodS 1598-1601 and again From 1641-45, TriniTy Had no provoST. anTHony Traill, provoST From 1904-1914, Had Been cHairman oF THe World’S FirST elecTric TramWay in porTruSH. Polymath and wit John Mahaffy, on hearing Provost Traill was ill, was heard to murmur “nothing trivial, I hope”. It was not, and Mahaffy was elected Provost in 1914.
george Salmon, provoST From 1888–1904 and FamouS For Saying THaT Women Would enTer TriniTy over HiS dead Body, was an accomplished chess player. Every year he used to play and beat the winner of the College chess competition. One year, however, he was defeated by a student, and he never played again after that.
unTil 1974 THere WaS no limiT To THe Term oF THe provoST and many remained in office until their death.
elecTing THe provoST Strict secrecy surrounds the voting process, which is similar in style to the Sistine Chapel conclave, which elects the Pope. It is unique in Britain and Ireland for selecting a university head. There is no provision in the Statutes for postal or proxy voting. Only those members of the electorate who are in attendance on election day may vote.Out of respect for the candidates, proceedings are kept confidential. In order to ensure that this confidentiality is maintained no mobile communications devices are permitted in the Dining Hall on the day of the election.
ricHard WaSHingTon Had THe SHorTeST Time in oFFice . He became Provost in 1640, and 12 months later Trinity – and all of Ireland – faced enormous upheaval when a major rebellion broke out. There was a fear that all Irish Protestants would be massac red, and Provost Washington fled Ireland, never to return.
A chronological list of former Provosts is available at www.tcd.ie/provost/former
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Since its launch in March 2011, the Alumni Appeal has raised over €100,000 from more than 500 alumni and friends. We are looking forward to updating donors on how this money will be used in the upcoming year.
Help Laura-Ann take the road less travelled.
In challenging times, it’s natural to concentrate our generosity on the people and causes that really matter. Which is why, as a Trinity graduate, we are asking you to consider making a donation to our 2011 Alumni Appeal. When you make a donation to Trinity, you’re not just sustaining a centuries-old tradition of academic excellence. You’re making a vital contribution to a better future for our people, country and planet.
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Today Trinity is home to over 2,000 ground-breaking postgraduate research projects which need and deserve your support, from developing treatments for killer diseases and advancing equality in the developing world to creating lucrative new technologies and challenging long-held cultural assumptions. There are also more than 500 people currently being supported by the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP) who, owing to their personal circumstances, would otherwise be unable to reach their academic potential.
For example, you’re helping an exceptional medical student like Laura-Ann Lambert to avail of a unique postgraduate opportunity in Bioengineering. This is vital for her ambitions to contribute to healthcare innovation after graduation, but would be out of her reach without your support. By donating to Trinity, you’re helping realise these vital projects and enabling people from diverse backgrounds overcome educational barriers so they can make a greater contribution to society. Please support us.
09/09/2011 09:55:48
Help Ralph fuse function and design for the developing world.
Using his background in both Fine Arts and Engineering, Ralph Borland’s research examines objects designed for the developing world and explores the frequent tension between practical use and what donors generally support.
“For example, the ‘Play-Pump’ – a roundabout for children which pumps water – is very successful as an awareness-raising tool, and attracts lots of funding. But it doesn’t actually work very well on the ground.” “Design has become a lot about its communication. But there’s a move
among designers to go back to finding the best solution to a problem rather than the ‘sexiest’.” “Crossing disciplines is important. There’s an artificial divide between the arts and the sciences and we need to bring them closer.” www.tcd.ie/alumniappeal
Help open Trinity’s gates wider to all.
Help medical research that transforms lives.
Help science projects that power our economy.
Help student initiatives that make Ireland smarter.
To see four more good reasons to donate to Trinity, go to
www.tcd.ie/alumniappeal and watch these four short films
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FEATURE | Biomedical Sciences Institute
The Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute The most ambitious capital project in the history of the College
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Biomedical Sciences Institute | FEATURE
T
he Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute opened in June 2011. It is a state-of-the-art research facility which redefines the scientific landscape in Ireland and will allow the country to take an international lead in the delivery of quality pharmaceutical and biotechnological programmes to support these industries and underpin job creation. Built around the areas of immunology, cancer and medical devices and linked directly to both medical education and industrial collaboration, the Institute will contribute to the improvement of the physical health of Irish society. The Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute is the University’s most ambitious capital project to date and represents the second phase of TCD’s Pearse Corridor Development. It reflects the degree of research prioritisation that has taken place in Trinity over recent years from building up worldclass staff to creating scale of an internationally competitive dimension. The €131 million eleven storey development (35,000m²) creates a corridor of academic activity and public interaction along Pearse Street in Dublin’s city centre, providing new social spaces, commercial areas, and improved access to public transport. The facility received €80 million in state funding under the Higher Education Authority Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI), co-financed by the ERDF, and National Development Plan 2007-13 medical education funding, with the balance financed by the College. The new facility will bring over 700 researchers together in one building with the common goal of addressing major challenges in health and disease through leading-edge scientific research. The new facility will consolidate and integrate pre-clinical bioscience research from across five schools: Medicine; Biochemistry and Immunology; Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science; Chemistry and Engineering. The Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute is structured around three interlinked research centres: the Centre for Study of Immunology, Centre for Cancer Drug Discovery and Centre for Medical Device Technologies. Trinity’s scientists will collaborate in this multidisciplinary environment to push the boundaries of discovery, enabling the translation of this research into new products, innovation and enterprise. In a departure from the traditional university model, the TCD researchers will also work alongside industry through provision of dedicated industry-academic collaborative and commercial laboratory space. In the year that Trinity celebrates the tercentenary of the foundation of the School of Medicine, it is appropriate that the new facility will house all undergraduate pre-clinical medical education and training activities. In total, almost 900 undergraduate students will have the unique opportunity of benefiting from the creation of a multidisciplinary educational environment embedded in a world-class research institute.
About the Building: » The project began in 2005
and the planning process involved detailed discussion with the local community and Iarnród Éireann. » The project has been carried out under a design and construct contract between Trinity College and Walls Developments. RKD Architects designed the building. » A significant feature of the construction is the deep basement over three levels. This had to be designed and built to withstand significant levels of ground water and to accommodate the future construction of an underground rail connector beneath the site. » The project required: 8,500 cubic metres of concrete, 2,500 tonnes of steel and enough floor finishes to cover three GAA pitches or 80 tennis courts. » Commercial and retail activities will form part of the development and the design includes provision for a major new public entrance to Pearse Station directly from Pearse Street. Preparatory work for the station entrance was carried out by Irish Rail before construction commenced. » Two glazed atria form the main building entrances with the central public concourse providing a new entrance to Pearse Street Railway Station and a significant ground floor retail shopping arcade fostering trade and interaction and offering key amenities for local residents and the College population.
Prof David Grayson, Head of School of Chemistry, making a presentation to Dr Beate Schuler who made a major donation towards the building.
Thomas Grimm M.B., M.A. (1992) with his parents Ursula and Walther Grimm in whose honour he made a donation.
Provost Dr John Hegarty making a presentation to Dr Stanley Quek M.B., M.A. (1970) who made a major donation towards the building.
Trinity’s biomedical sciences outputs are amongst the best in the world as is illustrated by the following international rankings:
» In neuroscience research Trinity College Dublin is in the top 0.01 per cent internationally
» Immunology research carried out by TCD has placed Ireland third in the world
» In the field of microbiology TCD ranks within the top 20 institutions internationally
» In the field of molecular biology and genetics TCD ranks within the top 50 institutions in the world.
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FEATURE | Tercentenary
TheTercentenary OF TRINITY meDiCine, ChemisTry AND boTAny
A yeAr of CelebrATions The verdi Requiem Tercentenary Concert, a joint performance of the Guinness Choir, the Dublin University Choral Society and the Ulster Orchestra was held in the Grand Canal Theatre in April of this year. The Concert was just one of the many special events which have been taking place this year to celebrate 300 years of Medicine, Chemistry and Botany in Trinity.
MeDICINe
Trinity’s School of Medicine, founded in 1711, is a unique institution which has played a pivotal role in delivering Irish medical education and medical practice of international consequence. Famous physicians include William Stokes, Robert Graves and Denis Burkitt amongst others who have made a significant contribution to the development of medicine. Today, Trinity’s discoveries in immunology in the treatment of poverty-related diseases such as TB and malaria constitute some of the most important medical research currently being undertaken anywhere in the world. There is also groundbreaking research in lung cancer and eczema published in leading international journals which will help improve and save the lives of many. The Tercentenary is a remarkable milestone and the School is taking an opportunity to assess what has been done over the 300 years and plan for the future. The Tercentenary celebrations have included a variety of events such as: » Tercentenary lectures in affiliated hospitals: Letterkenny General, St James’s, Tallaght, St Patrick’s, Naas General and the Rotunda » Students’ Intervarsity Debate » An exhibition Human+ in the Science Gallery » An exhibition The Best Doctors in the World are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman in the Old Library
» Students versus professors soccer game » International scientific conferences: Medical Humanities and the Narrative of Lifespan and Ageing; Denis Burkitt: Irish by Birth, Trinity by the Grace of God – a Life Celebrated; International Cancer Conference; the Tercentenary Meeting of the Institute of Molecular Medicine.
A special event this year was the opening of the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, to which the School of Medicine has moved. Both students and staff are excited about finally having a place which can be called home! During the August Medical Tercentenary Celebration we had a number of special events to mark the big anniversary and were delighted to see so many graduates visiting Trinity. (See photos on page 64.)
“The best do ctors tors in the world “The best doc are Dr Diet, Dr in the world are Quiet et an Dr Merry Dr Diet, Dr Qui Jonatd man” an” han Swift and Dr Merrym Jonathan Swift
om www.vermilliondesign.c
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ine The Sc Med ol ic M1edicine The School ofho17 –2f01 11o www.vermilliondesig n.com
G. Bidloo, Anatom ia Humani Corpor is (Amsterdam 1685) rated by Jane Maxw e Medical Schoo ell and M&ARL. The Library l, for its contr ts of Anatomy ibution towar acknowledges and Botany ds costs, and for the loan the of exhibition items.
acknowledges RL. The Library costs, and the ution towards ion items. he loan of exhibit
Prof Dermot Kelleher and 4th year student Anna Feeney welcome guests at the Grand Canal Theatre .
1711–2011
ry Dublin 7 April – 2 y College Libra Octo Room , Trinit 201 1 The Long Long ber Room, Trini er 2011 The ty College Libra 7 April – 2 Octob ry Dublin
From left to right: Prof Dermot Kelleher, Prof Owen Smith, Mrs Olive Burkitt, Dr Mary Robinson, Cas Boddam Whetham and Judy Howar d.
Martin Dyar as Nichol as Grimm in Tom Loves a Lord, Samuel Beckett Theatre.
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Tercentenary | FEATURE
BoTaNY
It all began with the appointment of Henry Nicholson as a lecturer in Botany in 1711. He gave his first lecture to a class of medical students in August of that year and botanical teaching and research has remained a core activity within the College ever since. The discipline continues to thrive today and enjoys an active national and international research profile. One of the key events associated with Botany’s Tercentenary was the re-establishment of the medicinal plants garden. The opening of the Physic Garden in April was followed by a public lecture on Why plants have been used as medicines for the past 3,000 years by Dr Henry Oakeley, Garden Fellow in the Royal College of Physicians in London. (See article about the Physic Garden on page 22.) Other highlights have included a botanical walk led by
The Physic Garden in bloom.
Poster from the Shoots and Leaves exhibition.
CHeMIsTRY
In this Tercentenary year, the School of Chemistry continues to move from strength to strength. Just one reflection of the rapid growth in the stature of the School is its current position at number 36 in the first ever QS World University ranking of Chemistry by subject area. This achievement is down to the hard work and dedication of all of our staff, and of the 100 or so Ph.D. students registered with us. We cannot take this success for granted though, and are determined to continue to build our international reputation. Chemistry moved its entire Organic and Medicinal Chemistry section into 2,000m2 (22,000 square feet) of laboratory and office space into the new Biomedical Sciences Institute over the summer. A suite of high-end instrumentation, including an 800 MHz NMR spectrometer, has been installed to support cuttingedge research.
celebrating Tercentenary, from Heads of three disciplines hell. Prof Dermot Kelleher left to right: Prof Fraser Mitc and Prof David Grayson.
other highlights of the Chemistry Tercentenary included: » The 6th Annual International Summer School for secondary school students
Professor Fraser Mitchell along the coast from Greystones to Bray Head in collaboration with the Dublin Naturalist Field Club; the Alumni Tercentenary Garden Party in the Trinity Botanic Gardens at which a calendar of images of the trees of Trinity College was launched; and, as part of the Tweedy lecture series, a talk by Dr Matthew Jebb, Director of the National Botanic Gardens entitled Shoots and Leaves – Changes in the Plants, Vegetation and Natural Habitats of Ireland. The Tercentenary year also saw five significant publications from the Botany Department: » The Plants of Trinity College Physic Garden by Hazel Proctor » The third edition of Trees of Trinity College Dublin edited by Daniel Kelly and David Jeffrey » Climate Change, Ecology and Systematics edited by TCD botanists Trevor Hodkinson, Mike Jones, Steve Waldren, and John Parnell » A special issue of the International Journal of Biometeorology, with guest editors Alison Donnelly, Bridget O’Neill and Amelia Caffarra » The 8th edition of Webb’s An Irish Flora by John Parnell and Tom Curtis. The final event in a year of celebrations was the Tercentenary Evening Dinner and Lecture at the beginning of October. Following Commons in the Dining Hall, Dr James White, from UCD, delivered a talk entitled Botany in the University of Dublin – Incubation and Emancipation and Professor Mike Jones chaired the presentation.
» Elements: The Beauty of
Chemistry exhibition at The Science Gallery » An Afternoon of Radioactivity,, a public event which included talks on the discovery of the radioactive “Table” by Gavin Beattie, part of the elements and a concluding “ELEMENTS Micro-Show ”, which is ran alongside the EL EM address given by Professor in Scien ENTS exhibiti on ce Gallery. Hélène Langevin-Joliot, the noted French nuclear physicist and grand-daughter of Marie Curie and the inaugural Cocker Lecture by Professor David Phillips, President, The Royal Society of Chemistry which is due to take place in November. The Chemistry Tercentenary was also celebrated at the annual Alumni Weekend in August with an address by Professor Dermot O’Hare of Oxford University entitled Tackling Tricky Chemical Problems: from CO2 to PCBs – from Reversing Global Warming to Eradicating Pollution and a response by Dr Mary Kelly B.A. (Mod), Ph.D., M.B.A., M.R.I.A., Director General of the Environmental Protection Agency. This lecture was followed by a viewing of the Elements exhibition in Science Gallery and tour of the Chemistry facilities in the new Biomedical Sciences Institute.
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FEATURE | Physic Garden
Physic
Garden by Dr Alison Donnelly
T
he Trinity College Dublin Physic Garden has been planted to celebrate the tercentenaries of the first post in Botany, Chemistry and Medicine which were all established in 1711. Although Botany is no longer taught to medical students, the links to drug discovery and development are still as strong as ever and, with 70 medicinal plants of ancient and contemporary medicinal relevance, the Garden celebrates the historical and continuing linkage between the three disciplines. The aim of the Garden is to give an indication from
Dr Henry Oakeley at the opening of the Garden in April.
where some of the medicines come. Although some plants are still used in herbal medicines, modern drug development relies more on finding novel chemicals of medicinal value in plants and then reproducing this chemical through biosynthesis techniques on an industrial scale to produce the relevant drug. The Physic Garden was opened in April by Dr Henry Oakeley who is the Garden Fellow at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Following the opening, Dr Oakeley delivered an entertaining and provocative lecture on the use and abuses of medicinal plants. A podcast of the lecture can be heard on the Botany website at www.tcd.ie/Botany/ tercentenary. The Physic Garden is located near the Science Gallery (between the Lloyd Institute and the O’Reilly Institute) and visitors are welcome.
hisTory The original Trinity College Physic Garden was established on the campus as early as 1687 and was the forerunner of the Trinity Botany Gardens which still flourish out at Trinity Hall in Dartry. The Register of the College of that year records a resolution that the kitchen garden of the College ‘be made a Physic Garden at the charge of the College’ to provide plant material to support the teaching of medicine. The Physic Garden is referred to again in the Register of 1710. Its exact position cannot be determined but it was undoubtedly somewhere in the vicinity of the Old Library. The first Botany post holder, Henry Nicholson M.D., thus set about creating a comprehensive Physic Garden and the first seeds were planted in 1712. Over 500 taxa were recorded in 1726 as being in the Garden. In 1773, the Physic Garden was transferred to Harold’s Cross but was abandoned in 1806 with the remaining plants being subsumed into new gardens at Ballsbridge. Subsequently, in 1967 the site was moved again and relocated to the Trinity Botanic Gardens in Dartry.
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Physic Garden | FEATURE
Some of the flowers that can be found in the Physic Garden Common nAme: Hop sCienTifiC nAme: Humulus lupulus meDiCinAl releVAnCe: Beers worldwide are produced by fermenting carbohydrates extracted from malt barley and boiled with hop flowers which give its distinctive flavour. Hops are anti-bacterial which helps to preserve beer. Native American Indians used it as a hypnotic, a sedative for pain relief and as an aid for sleep. In modern medicine, the volatile oils from the inflorescence are used for treatment of nervousness and insomnia. Common nAme: Foxglove sCienTifiC nAme: Digitalis purpurea meDiCinAl releVAnCe: One of the most important plants used in the treatment of coronary heart disease – the number one killer in the western world. Digitoxin, a known cardiotonic agent, administered during heart failure will increase the strength of the heart muscle resulting in a stronger heartbeat. This ensures more blood is oxygenated by the lungs and circulation is improved. Common nAme: Poppy (Opium) sCienTifiC nAme: Papaver somniferum meDiCinAl releVAnCe: The use of opium as a narcotic and analgesic dates back as far as 4000 b.c. It was used medicinally in ancient Greece and Rome before its introduction to China. The opium poppy remains hugely important in medicine as the source of morphine and codeine. In spite of its addictive properties, morphine is still the drug of choice in the management of severe pain. Heroin is synthesised from morphine. Common nAme: Purple Coneflower sCienTifiC nAme: Echinacea purpurea meDiCinAl releVAnCe: Widely used in herbal remedies to treat the symptoms of colds and ‘flu. Clinical trials support this theory, providing evidence that extracts from echinacea stimulate the immune system. It is also found to have anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties, however, those with overactive immune responses such as multiple sclerosis, AIDS and tuberculosis are advised not to use this herb. It has also been used to treat snakebite.
Foxglove
lley
Lily of the Va
Purple Coneflower
Yew
Common nAme: Yew sCienTifiC nAme: Taxus baccata meDiCinAl releVAnCe: Paclitaxel found in the bark of T. brevifolia was originally discovered in 1967 at the US National Cancer Institute by Monroe E. Wall and Mansukh C. Wani. Registered as Taxol, this compound is the standard used in the treatment of breast, lung and ovarian cancer. Although used for other ailments such as pulmonary problems and tuberculosis the medicinal benefits of taxus were also recognised by Native American tribes and in Himalayan and Ayurvedic medicine. Common nAme: St. John’s Wort sCienTifiC nAme: Hypericum perforatum meDiCinAl releVAnCe: Hypericum acts as a mild anti-depressant and is approved for treatment of myalgia or ‘muscle pain’ caused by overstretching of muscles or as a result of a viral infection. It can also be used to treat first-degree burns. It can however, alter the efficacy of other medication such as the oral contraceptive by inactivating them and may cause photodermatitis – sensitivity to sun exposure.
Lavender
Common nAme: Lily of the valley sCienTifiC nAme: Convallaria majalis meDiCinAl releVAnCe: Contains more than 20 cardiac glycosides, with convallatoxin the most important one, found in the rhizome. It is also currently under investigation as a treatment for diabetes. It has been used as a diuretic. Common nAme: Lavender sCienTifiC nAme: Lavandula officinalis, L. angustifolia and L. stoechas meDiCinAl releVAnCe: In Roman times, lavender was used for its pleasant scent as a bath perfume hence the origins of the name (‘lavare’ meaning ‘to wash’). Today, it continues to be a popular ingredient in cosmetics and perfumes.The essential oils are extracted from the flowers and used for their calming properties in the treatment of nervousness and insomnia. The oil is antiseptic and can be used on burns and stings and is commonly used as massage oil in aromatherapy. Extracts from The Plants of Trinity College Physic Garden by Hazel Proctor (2011). Trinity Today | 23
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INTERvIEW | Margaret O’Mahony
INTERvIEW WITH PROF. mArgAreT o’mAhony head of the engineering school and professor of Civil engineering (1842) human living experience. Almost everything we do involves engineering – the buildings in which we live and work, the vehicles which transport us from one place to another, water supply and sewerage systems, energy, health, communication and so on. However, I do not think society gives engineers the credit they deserve for making our lives run as smoothly as they do. This is key to an ongoing debate across Europe and further afield. TCD Engineering is heavily involved in
I am also very excited about the range, diversity and quality of research going on in Trinity Engineering.
Q A
so margaret, before we start, could you tell us how you came to be in Trinity? I was completing a D.Phil. in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford when I saw an advert for a lecturer post in Trinity. I came for interview and, like many others, fell in love with the place. Many alumni will remember and have fond memories of Professor Simon Perry. Simon had joined Trinity a few years earlier and was creating all sorts of possibilities in civil engineering at the time. This was immediately after a period of reduced investment, not dissimilar to the period in which we are now, but in the early 1990s when I joined things started to change radically both in Trinity and in the country. Many research funding opportunities opened up. Our engineering student intake started to grow and the staff, under Simon’s leadership, placed a strong emphasis on enhancing the student experience. Engineering alumni who were with us during that time will remember the engineering trips abroad, the engineering events Simon organised and his passionate talks on Light Rail Transit (Luas had yet to be built and Simon was a leading campaigner for it).
Q A
were you always interested in engineering?
Yes, always! I was interested in how things worked and how they were designed. I was attracted to the idea of the influence which engineers have in designing the
research on this topic in the EU FP7 ATTRACT research project with the more fundamental objective of trying to make engineering more attractive as a career. In addition, Kevin Kelly runs a summer school for female secondary school students who are interested in studying engineering at Trinity. Another perceived hurdle for secondary school students interested in studying engineering is the honours mathematics (C3) requirement. I studied at Salerno Secondary School in Galway, an all-girl school. Nine of us took the honours mathematics course and six of us opted to study engineering. Those women are currently in highly influential jobs in the engineering sector. Since then, numbers have fluctuated but I am happy to report that there are 127 female engineering students on our programme at the moment which is 21% of the student body.
Q A
what in your research excites you?
What excites me most about research is the investigative process. I work in an interesting area - the field of transportation engineering. I am working presently on the €24million EU funded Green-E-Motion research project which involves full scale electric vehicle demonstrations across Europe. We are working closely with ESB on this project and Siemens, BMW, Nissan, Renault, Daimler, IBM and Bosch are also key players. It is a fantastic project both in scale and topic. I am also very excited about the range, diversity and quality of the research going on in Trinity Engineering. One of my colleagues, Prof Anil Kokaram, has just sold his video
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Margaret O’Mahony | INTERvIEW technology company Green Parrot Pictures to Google. Liam Ryan, a final year civil engineering student won the One to Watch Eircom Golden Spider Award for his SafeText business. Dr Danny Kelly has been awarded a major European Research Council (ERC) Starter Grant to work on stem cells called Mesenchymal Stem Cells which can be isolated from within damaged or diseased joints such as the knee to regenerate and repair articular cartilage. This could prevent arthritis. He also recently formed a medical device company. Dr Laurence Gill delivered a full-scale continuous flow solar disinfection system for a village community in Ndulyani in the Mutomo area of Kenya to supply safe drinking water for approximately 600 people. Kelly Kausley, from St Vincent de Paul Marino, inspects an interactive demonstration at TCD during Engineers Week.
Q A
you have been with the engineering school since 1990, how has the school changed since then? There have been many changes. The most significant was the College restructuring programme which resulted in a new Engineering School. The Engineering School incorporates three disciplines: Civil, Structural and Environmental; Electronic and Electrical; and Mechanical and Manufacturing. The other significant change is the step change in the level of research output and funding awards to the School. In line with the professional institution Engineers Ireland’s requirements, we are currently making major changes to the engineering programme. After 2013, only a five-year programme with the award of a Masters-level qualification (MAI) will be accredited by Engineers Ireland. This gives the School opportunities to include student placements at home and abroad for periods on the programme. We are currently piloting student placement at universities abroad as part of the Unitech and Cluster networks and with selected companies in the US and Germany. I would be delighted if alumni would consider taking some of our students on placements. This type of experience is important for their professional development and adds greatly to their student experience.
Trinity Engineering is currently ranked in the top 100 engineering schools in the world and it is the leading engineering school in Ireland.
Q A
Congratulations on your recent appointment as the head of the engineering school. what are your plans for the next few years? Thank you. It is a fascinating job. Trinity Engineering is currently ranked in the top 100 engineering schools in the world and it is the leading engineering school in Ireland. This is down to the huge commitment and calibre of the students and staff. We punch well above our weight for the amount of funding which we receive compared with other universities in the world but we could do so much more if the funding levels were higher. We are developing plans for a new engineering hub to house research labs and creative design space. Our Development Board, chaired by Bernard Hensey of Boeing Shanghai, and which includes key industry players, is instrumental in helping us with our plans for the future. I am particularly interested in introducing more creative design and build modules into the engineering programme. We have done this in the first two years of the programme and run competitions for the most creative designs. The students work in teams, they have the freedom to test their own ideas, they build prototypes and they participate in a competition at the end of year. It is fascinating to watch how engaged the students are in these modules. As part of the plan to introduce more of these modules to the programme, Prof Larry Leifer from the D-School in Stanford University will visit TCD Engineering in September to help us with the preparation of new creative design modules. Later in the year, we will be sending academics to Stanford to learn more about the way they teach creative design there. This working link with Stanford University is a key development and I am very much looking forward to the opportunities it will bring.
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engineering has more alumni than any other school. what message would you like to send them? I would love to hear from engineering alumni, to hear where they are now and to hear about their careers since they left Trinity. Trinity Engineering has gone from strength to strength over the years and our alumni are helping us get there. I am extremely grateful to them for their support and for the important contribution they make. We are in the top 100 engineering schools in the world and we are striving to do better. We would love to tell alumni about our plans and what is going on in the School right now. www.tcd.ie/engineering PhD student Andrew Lochaden working in the Structural Testing Hall.
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INTERvIEW | Sean Melly
SEAN MELLY:
THE TELECOMS ENTREPRENEUR speaks to Simon Carswell
S
ean Melly, the telecoms entrepreneur-turned-investor, studied business at Trinity from 1981 to 1985. He was a “fully rounded student,” he says, mixing study with rugby, and never found himself in hot water with the junior dean. “No, unfortunately. I wish I had a story,” he says. Melly switched to the Bachelor of Business Studies programme at Trinity from architecture at Bolton Street in Dublin. Born in London and raised in Dun Laoghaire, Melly was the first member of his family to attend university. His contemporaries at Trinity included Sean Haughey, the former Fianna Fail TD and son of the former Taoiseach Charles Haughey, and the broadcaster and media owner David Harvey. At a 25-year reunion last year, one of his former classmates brought along an old photograph of their BBS class sitting on the steps of the Pav after playing a team from Engineering. Everyone in the photograph was at the reunion, says Melly proudly. About 70 per cent of the class chose the well-trodden path into accountancy but Melly followed the trail into banking. He completed a Master's in finance at University College Dublin before joining Citicorp in London, the investment banking division of Citibank, which was seen as “the university of banking,” he says. He left Ireland in 1986 because he wanted to, not out of necessity.
entrepreneur who had set up a telephone call back system pricked his interest. Melly noticed that it cost the equivalent of about $5 a minute to make a call from Dublin to New York but just $1 a minute from New York to Dublin. He spotted an opportunity. Previously telecoms companies would have to spend tens of millions establishing telephone networks, but by the mid-1990s state phone companies were being broken up as monopolies and markets were being opened to new competitors. Technology was also advancing so quickly that it allowed Melly to sell US call rates to companies in Ireland using a telephone “switch” in New York. His business was called Tel Atlantic Corporation and it offered cheap international calls to multinational companies in Ireland. Starting his own business was daunting. “It was like jumping off a cliff. You went from being very well paid by somebody to do a job to having no pay and starting a business in your spare room in New York or here in Killiney [where he lives],” he says. Melly set up TCL Telecom in 1995 as one of the first
For years whenever an idea for a business crept into his head he scribbled it down on a piece of paper for a file he kept on his desk.” “The options here were few and far between at the time. I didn’t feel deprived or that the Government had let me down. I was concentrating on where to make some hay,” he says. Melly worked for Citi for five years during the Margaret Thatcher era of de-regulation and what he describes as “the explosion of the leverage buyout market” where investors borrowed heavily to take over companies. After Citi, he worked for the Canadian Belzberg family, helping them to buy stakes in businesses, before joining Irish financier and investor Dermot Desmond in 1991, working in New York. “If you asked Dermot to describe himself, he would say that he was an eclectic investor,” says Melly. “One day it could be snack foods, the next day semiconductors. That was part of the fun.” By 1995 – at the age of 31 – Melly had enough of working for others. For years whenever an idea for a business crept into his head he scribbled it down on a piece of paper for a file he kept on his desk. A New York Times article about an
competitors to Telecom Éireann and was one of the first entrepreneurs to push for liberalisation in the Irish telecoms market. With the company in need of cash to expand and investors scarce at the time, Melly approached US telecoms giant Worldcom. They agreed to take a 30 per cent stake in the Irish company and eventually bought out the company in 1997. The Irish business is now part of verizon, one of the world’s biggest telecoms companies.
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Melly says he “did well” out of the Verizon takeover of Worldcom. Following that deal, he applied the model that had worked in Ireland to countries in central and eastern Europe and set up a company called E-Tel in 1999. “It was just a bigger version of TCL Telecom in Ireland,” he says. “We rolled that out in five countries. We identified markets where there were the same characteristics – there was a state phone company dominating telecoms, charging very high prices and offering a very low service.” He sold E-Tel to Telekom Austria in 2007. More recently, Melly tried to buy the heavily indebted Eircom in 2009 but lost out to STT, the telecoms company owned by the state investment fund of Singapore. He has plenty to say about the failings at Eircom, which is smothered with about €4 billion of debt following successive takeovers. “The manifestation of that has been the poor and crumbling network throughout the country. People talk about it in terms of broadband access, capability and speeds,” he says. Now, through his Dublin-based company Powerscourt Capital Partners, Melly is an investor in various companies such as Vasorum and Alta Science, specialists in medical devices, and Cloudium Systems, which makes software and hardware for “cloud computing”. Melly looks to sell out of the businesses he invests in within five years, which may have to be extended during these hardened financial times. “Some of our businesses may never make money but they can become very valuable. We are not about making bread for 50 years. It is about creating value from intellectual property,” he says. One long-term project that Melly is involved in is the building of a new School of Business on the Trinity campus. The existing business school, which has about 300 undergraduates in each year, is running at full capacity, he
Some of our businesses may never make money but they can become very valuable. We are not about making bread for 50 years. It is about creating value from intellectual property.” says. As a board member of Trinity Foundation and chairman of the Trinity Business School advisory board, Melly is part of the drive to fund the project for completion in 2016. The University is seeking 20 “founding patrons” to donate €500,000 each over five years and 50 “patrons” to provide €100,000 each. Melly acknowledges that it’s a tough time in business, particularly with the negativity around Ireland following the country’s banking crisis. “The big picture is about fixing the banks and restoring confidence. The banks are the oil in the machine,” he says. But, ever the entrepreneur, Melly still sees ways of making money. “I started my own businesses three times and built them up, and then I went into funding other people’s businesses. Now we will drift back to businesses that we will start ourselves.” Simon Carswell is Finance Correspondent of The Irish Times. He attended Trinity College from 1994 to 1998. He is author of Something Rotten: Irish Banking Scandals (Gill & Macmillan), published in 2006, and Anglo Republic: Inside The Bank That Broke Ireland (Penguin Ireland), which was published in September 2011. Trinity Today | 27
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INTERVIEW | Margaret Doyle
LondonCalling
Margaret Doyle, Profile Frieda Klotz
I
t is Margaret Doyle’s first day back at work after maternity leave when we meet in Reuters' swish offices at Canary Wharf. Wearing a lilac suit, her dark hair cut short, she makes a distinguished figure, which is what you would expect – Doyle, 41, who holds degrees from Harvard University and Trinity College Dublin, is an investment banking columnist for Reuters. In addition to becoming a mother for the first time, she recently became a Conservative councillor for the Borough of Westminster in London. The prospect of juggling these various roles does not seem to daunt her. “I have tried to put in place the supporting infrastructure,” she explains over lunch in the Reuters cafeteria. “For example, I am starting back four days a week for just over a month. I have got very good childcare lined up. We moved house, so it is a much easier commute for me. I have done a lot of homework about what works for working mothers.” Reuters is family friendly and has good maternity policies. Contrary to many of the stereotypes about gender, she thinks that as a mother she will be better at her job than she was before. “I want to work, but motherhood has made me much clearer about what it is that is important in my career, what I think I’m good at, and what I enjoy. Because if I’m not spending time being a mother, then that time is very very precious, and I do not want to waste it.” Far from being weighed down by responsibility, Doyle is at the top of her game. In her job as a columnist, she distils esoteric financial information into comprehensible terms for her readers, a task which draws on an undergraduate degree in economics at Trinity, two separate stints at the global consulting firm McKinsey, and an MBA at Harvard. About once a month, she does a newspaper review for the BBC, and has made appearances on RTÉ – on Prime Time and Frontline – as well as working for a host of international media outlets. For two years, she edited Global Agenda, the magazine of the World Economic Forum’s meeting at Davos. She also chairs international economic conferences, including one about Ireland’s bailout, in November 2010. “I think my strengths lie in my ability to bring insight and understanding to complex financial situations,” she says, “to our readers, and, when I am on television or radio, the general public.” A normal day for Doyle begins at around half six. She walks to work, and is at the office by 7.30am. She and her colleagues meet at 8am, when they discuss the news and what they will work on that day. “One of the joys of journalism is that each day’s work can be self-contained,”
I think my strengths lie in my ability to bring insight and understanding to complex financial situations.”
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Margaret Doyle | INTERVIEW
Doyle says. “I like having deadlines.” Bedtime is between 10pm and 11. Doyle grew up in Wexford, one of nine children. She went to school in Loreto Convent in Wexford, where she was head girl, before attending Trinity College as an entrance exhibitioner and then a foundation scholar. The scholarships continued to pile up – she went to Harvard with a Fulbright, and later became a Baker scholar by graduating in the top 5% of her class. However, she is modest about her achievements. “Harvard Business School (HBS) is different from the rest of Harvard, it is a trade school and it does not pretend to be anything else,” she says. “Academically I found Trinity just as much, if not more demanding than HBS.” From her vantage point in London, Doyle has keenly observed Ireland’s financial meltdown. As long ago as 2003, she predicted a property crisis on the back of a report drawn up by a then-colleague at The Economist, Pamela Woodall, which showed that Ireland had a bubble. “Back then, of course, people thought, ‘You are mad.’ Especially when prices continued to rise, they thought, ‘How foolish!’” Now, though, the pendulum of emotions has swung too far the other way, and Doyle thinks there are grounds for cautious optimism – although in her opinion house prices will drop further. “I think that the gloom is overstated, as is often the way,” she suggests. “That is not to say that things are not really tough; but there are some bright spots.” She names the low corporate tax rate, a strong export sector, and being part of the Eurozone as factors which will help to improve Ireland’s plight. Doyle also hopes that there will be reform, both financial and political. Doyle notes that Ireland’s economy did thrive for a while. The trouble is that it is hard to distinguish a bubble from a boom. “It is very tough to be the one person, the boy who says ‘the emperor has no clothes.’ It is very hard to judge market timing. So, for example, in Ireland there was a real boom which morphed into a bubble. But it is very difficult to identify the moment of transition.” Nor was Ireland’s misfortune unique, she says, just unusual in its scale and impact. “And of course,” she adds, “there is the nature of the bank guarantee, which is a whole other story.” Her career in London’s financial centre has given her a broad perspective on the global chaos which unspooled in 2008. The scariest thing, according to Doyle, is that everybody got it wrong. “It would be very easy if we could say, ‘X, Y and Z were fraudsters,’ and we could lock them up and say we have sorted out the problem,” she points out. “But actually, it was a systemic issue. We all – and I include myself in this – we all subscribed to a certain world view, this vision of free markets and capitalism. What has shocked so many people is that we basically got it wrong. The underpinnings of capitalism were not as robust as we believed.” “If you look at many of the people involved in banks,” she continues, “say Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers – the people at the top were not selling shares, which is what you would expect if they were fraudsters. They were buying shares, they had massive
exposure – so many bankers had their life savings in Bear Stearns or Lehman. So, it was not the case that they were ripping off, or thought they were ripping off, investors. They drank the Kool-Aid. They believed their own hype.” Doyle thinks that in the UK the Conservatives are the right party to lead the country out of recession. I ask why she felt inclined to back them rather than Labour or the Lib Dems. Her reasons are two-fold, one being libertarian. “It was the Conservative party which stood up and said, ‘we do not believe in 90-day detention without charge,’” she says referring to the Labour party’s attempt to bring in a bill which would allow police to hold terrorist suspects for three months. Then, of course, there’s the economy. “If you grew up when I grew up in the '70s,” she says, “Britain was the sick man of Europe and then Margaret Thatcher came along and almost single-handedly brought in huge economic reform and spurred fundamental reform of the British economy.”
It is very tough to be the one person, the boy who says ‘The emperor has no clothes.’ It is very hard to judge market timing.” Margaret Doyle’s competence and intelligence have got her a long way since she left Trinity, and her Irishness has been an additional gift. At Harvard, students were rewarded for speaking in class. “That was not something which I found particularly onerous,” she says. “Irish people arguably are at a natural advantage.” Frieda Klotz is a freelance journalist currently living in New York. She studied Greek and English (TSM) at Trinity College before completing a doctorate in Greek literature at Oxford. Her first book, The Philosopher’s Banquet, co-edited with Dr. Katerina Oikonomopoulou, came out in June.
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FEATURE | Robert Fisk
An
INDEPENDENT
VoiCe ©Corbisimages.com/Stephanie Sinclair/VII
Foreign correspondent Robert Fisk speaks to Gavin Corbett
F
or over half his lifetime, the London Independent’s Robert Fisk Ph.D., Litt.D. (hc) (1984) has reported from the Arab world, seeing over the course of that time the region suffer crisis after catastrophe. This year, a wind of change snaked through the sands. It had its genesis in protests in Lebanon and Iran in the last decade, but gained unstoppable momentum in Tunisia last January and, soon after, Egypt. At last – good news from the Middle East.“It was the happiest story I’ve ever reported on,” says Fisk of the Egyptian revolution. But Fisk is as keen a reader of history as he is thorough a recorder of it, and he cannot help but look beyond the Arab Spring with a degree of pessimism. “Revolutions don’t always have happy endings. The American revolution turned out okay, but the French revolution ended up in the Terror and the Russian in Stalin. And I’m not entirely certain this is all going to end in the Middle East smelling of roses. It could turn out to be pretty grim.” Part of that uncertainty stems from the fact that, as I speak to him, the region is still in flux. He paraphrases a text message he received that morning from “a well-
My view is that if a journalist is costing hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to go to these various places, and if he’s risking his life, I want to know what he thinks.” known Lebanese politician” about Nato’s making heavy weather of removing Libya’s dictator: “Gaddafi’s brigade seem to be doing rather better than the Afrika Korps.” The words – and the dark laugh with which they’re relayed – give an insight, I suspect, into a certain blackness of humour that prevails among those whose job it is to bring us news from the Middle East. What does it do for a person’s state of mind, I wonder, to report from the world’s most dysfunctional region for over 30 years? “I don’t get upset about it. I get angry,” he says. “And I let my anger show quite willingly.” Fisk’s trademark forthrightness isn’t just a matter of personal release – it comes from a clear idea of the role
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I’m not one of these people who says, ‘I love Lebanon’, which many journalists do and then leave after three years. I’ve been there for 35.” of a foreign correspondent. “My view is that if a journalist is costing hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to go to these various places, and if he’s risking his life, I want to know what he thinks.” His knowledge and opinions see him in constant demand to give lectures around the world, although, he says, “I’m trying to cut back a bit now. I sometimes wake up on airplanes, and I have to check around me to see what airline I’m on and work out where I’m coming from and going to. That’s a sign of being very exhausted.” Occasionally there’s a lull which allows him to pursue other interests. One such situation presented itself to the then-recently installed London Times Beirut correspondent in the late 1970s, when printmen at the paper staged a lengthy stoppage and the title went into deep freeze for nearly a year. With the blessing of his foreign editor, the young journalist headed to Ireland, to Dublin – and to Trinity College. There, Patrick Keatinge of the Political Science Department agreed to be his tutor for what was originally planned to be an M.Litt. on Irish neutrality during the Emergency. “After the first year I was producing so much material that Patrick said, ‘I think we can make this into something bigger.’” Fisk found his working methods had to bend to the creaky systems of the day. “It wasn’t very easy. You couldn’t just go around to the Public Records Office and press a computer. You had to work your way slowly through everything. I’d go into Dublin Castle in the morning, where the archives were, and if I wanted cabinet minutes I would have to wait while they were brought from the Department of Foreign Affairs. And they’d arrive in a jeep with two uniformed soldiers to guard them.” He remembers, too, foraging under “the dusty roofs” of fire stations in Dundalk, Dun Laoghaire and Dublin’s Tara Street for records of those units’ involvement in fighting the Belfast blitz fires of 1941. He’d often make the trip north himself. He had previously been there as the Times’s Northern Ireland correspondent in the early ’70s, and little had changed in the meantime. “The war – if you can call it that – was still going on. I’d find myself in very strange circumstances – with for example the father of a leading UDA man, who was an air-raid warden in the second world war. And I’d be talking to him about the blitz in ’41 and hear bombs going off in the centre of Belfast.” Fisk was awarded his doctorate in 1984. Twentyfour years later, he was in Trinity again to collect an honorary doctorate, along with film actor and director and political activist Robert Redford. “When we walked out together, there was quite a crowd, all shouting, ‘Robert! Robert!’ I turned to Redford and said, ‘Robert, I think they’re talking about you!’” His links with Ireland go back to his father. “He was born in 1898, and was in Ireland in 1916 as a soldier on ‘the wrong side’. He was due to go to the Somme in early 1916, and the chances are – with 20,000 British dead on one day alone, July 1st – he would have been killed. But because of Padraig Pearse he was sent here instead. As I
told the Bloody Sunday lecture some years ago, Padraig Pearse may well have saved my life.” Fisk turned 65 this year. I ask him if he sees himself staying in Lebanon for good. “I like living there. It’s a very cosmopolitan place and has a very educated public. The people speak three or four languages each. And there are more newspapers in Lebanon than there are in most of the rest of the Arab world put together.” He bristles, though, at the cosy idea of the country that has recently propagated. “I get tired of people who say of Lebanon that you can swim in the morning and ski in the afternoon. I’ve never actually met anyone who’s done it. Or that Beirut’s the Paris or whatever of the Middle East. I’m not one of these people who says, ‘I love Lebanon’, which many journalists do and then leave after three years. I’ve been there for 35.” Despite his vow to slow down, Fisk is as busy as ever with his journalism, his books and his lectures. On the day I talk to him, he is on his way from Monaghan to Canada, whence he would travel to Italy. No matter where he goes in the world, though, a little piece of Trinity always goes with him. It all stems from his interviewing a man called Ervin ‘Spike’ Marlin – one of many witnesses to wartime Ireland whose first-hand accounts gave such colour to Fisk’s Ph.D. “Spike had been an OSS officer – the OSS being the predecessor to the CIA. He was sent over by Roosevelt to find out if the Irish were helping the Germans, which he decided was rubbish. He had also been a Trinity student before the war. Years later, after he died, I gave a lecture in Canada, after which his son met me and said he thought his father would have liked me to have his Trinity tie. He had proudly worn it in Dublin during the Emergency. Now, if I go anywhere formal, I wear an OSS man’s Trinity tie – complete with ink stain on the back of it!” Gavin Corbett B.A. (1998) is a freelance journalist. He spent time in Lebanon while working with the Irish Defence Forces.
Robert Fisk receiving his honorary degree along with Robert Redford and John Hume.
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INTERvIEW | Amanda Pratt
DREAM
weavers
Avoca Creative Director, Amanda pratt, talks to Anna Carey about the family business
a
manda Pratt was twelve years old when her parents bought the company which would later become a huge part of her life. In 1974, Donald (LL.B., 1958), and Hilary Pratt (B.A., 1959) bought the historic Avoca Handweavers’ Mill in Kilmacanogue, County Wicklow. Although Donald, a solicitor, and Hilary, a teacher, had no experience in the textile trade, they managed to turn what most considered to be a dying business into an international phenomenon, producing beautiful woollens which made their way all over the world. Today, Avoca is a family affair. Both Donald and Hilary are still actively involved in the business – “They have never retired and I’m really glad they have not, because I like having them around,” says Amanda – and so are their children. Simon (B.A., 1987) looks after the food side of the business, including the busy cafés; Ivan manages the export business; vanessa is in charge of the stores, and Amanda is the creative director, responsible for the fashion side of the company and designing the Anthology women’s wear line among other creative duties. Growing up, Amanda had no desire to get involved with the family firm. “I was at boarding school at The King’s Hospital until I was 18 so I was quite removed from the business,” she says. “I was only home for half a day on Sundays so for six years it was not a big part of my life.” Having shown a talent for languages at school, Pratt was advised by her career guidance teacher to study modern languages at Trinity, but quickly transferred to History of Art and Architecture, and Ancient History and Archaeology. Although she enjoyed both subjects, she says she spent most of her time at Trinity in Players. “It was based in Front Square at the time,” she recalls. “We had an absolutely
brilliant time.” She was surrounded by talented young students. “A lot of the people with whom I was in Trinity in the early 80s have gone on to do really interesting things – Anne Enright, Pauline McLynn and Declan Hughes,” and she has retained some knowledge from her degree. “It has been very good in that it gave me reference points,” she says. “I end up doing a lot of work with architects now, and I was used to looking at ground plans and elevations in History of Art and Architecture, so it is all very familiar.” After graduation, Pratt, like many of her peers, headed to London. “I had always loved clothes,” she says. “I had been the wardrobe mistress in Players, and I got into a clothing technology course at the London College of Fashion. I do not know where I thought I was going to go after that.” Indeed, her first few post-college jobs in London had nothing to do with fashion at all – one involved watching videos all day for a video production company.
I had always been a very avid knitter, so I said ‘if you give me the job, I would love to come home.’" However, after a few years she found herself missing home, and when her parents told her they were having trouble with the knitwear part of the business she made what turned out to be a life-changing decision. “I had always been a very avid knitter, so I said ‘if you give me the job, I would love to come home.’ A few months later I was back in Ireland looking after
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Amanda Pratt | INTERVIEW
the knitwear side of the company.” In the 80s, Avoca’s knitwear offerings bore no resemblance to the sophisticated, quirky creations for which the company is known today. “It was very, very traditional,” says Pratt. “It was all hand-knitting, mostly Arans.” The knitting was done by various individual knitters and knitting circles, in their own homes. “My first job was rolling off Aran yarn with a hand winder and putting it in kilo cones. Then I was delivering yarn to the individual knitters and knitting circles, collecting the garments, measuring and checking them, paying people. It was very hands on and I did it for years.” Gradually, as Amanda and her siblings got more involved with the company, Avoca began to change. It all happened slowly and on a small scale. First, Amanda’s brother Simon began developing the culinary aspect of the business, cooking soup and making bread. Then Amanda started working with knitters on her own patterns, designing modern, fashionable children’s knits in bright colours. “It was all very gradual, but by around 1992 we were moving bit by bit away from the traditional Arans,” she says. The Pratts were also buying in non-Irish products for the first time, as well as branching out into pottery. Eventually she and Simon, who had also briefly lived in London, had a conversation about whether they were both going to stick with the company or leave Ireland again. “We thought if we are going to stay we would better plough our own furrow,” says Amanda, “So we did. We started to do things that we loved. Then, as we got more confident and realised that our ideas were not bad, we started to get braver and braver.” In 2000, Avoca’s new image really entered the public consciousness with the opening of the high profile Suffolk Street store in the centre of Dublin. Pratt believes the store was a watershed moment in the firm’s history. “It changed the company’s profile and people’s perception of us straight away,” she says. “Before that you had to drive out to us. But
now we were in the middle of town.” There are now eight Irish Avoca stores, from Kerry to Belfast. Avoca seems to have a very specific aesthetic and ethos— fresh, pretty, wholesome, slightly eccentric in a charming way. Was this a conscious creation? “No,” says Pratt. “It is always just been about finding stuff which we like, and that has been the guiding principle to this day. Simon, Vanessa and I do the shop buying, but Vanessa is the one who looks after the retail side, so once I say I love something she takes up the baton and looks after the warehouse side of it.” Amanda clearly loves sharing her passions with Avoca’s customers. “We decided to introduce wellbeing and skin products and scent recently, and we are having such a lovely time! We met the people from Dr Hauschka natural skincare range and we are going to put the entire range into two of the shops. It is a lovely thing to be able to do. You think, that is the best range and I can share it with the world.” Luckily, the siblings all get on well – most of the time. “There are advantages and disadvantages to working with your family,” says Amanda. “We go through stages where we all get on brilliantly and stages where we fight like cats and dogs. But I have never worked for so long a time in any other company so I do not know what it feels like to work with all non-relatives.” None of the siblings’ partners, however, are directly involved in Avoca. “It is a very specific rule – we set it up very early on. If you bring in partners or spouses, you are going to end up creating conflict. Our partners have their own careers, but if what Avoca needs crosses into what their companies do, then absolutely we would work with them.” Amanda’s husband Tom Kelly works in advertising, and the couple have18-year-old twin daughters, India and Holly Star. So does Pratt want to involve them in the family business? “No, I think it is very important for them to think for themselves,” she says. “You never know, they might want to get involved in the future, but it is important to be your own person.” Anna Carey B.A. (1997) is a freelance journalist and author who contributes regularly to the Irish Times and RTÉ. Her first book for young adults, The Real Rebecca, was published earlier this year. Trinity Today | 33
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INTERVIEW | Eugene Downes
World
Art
of
Patrick Freyne interviews Eugene Downes, CEO of Culture Ireland
E
ugene Downes? He is the best civil servant I know at cutting through red tape,” says an arts-industry friend on hearing that I am to interview the Culture Ireland chief executive. “Well, I am not really a civil servant,” says Downes B.A. (1994) with a smile when I tell him this. Downes, despite his office in the Department of Arts, is a contract employee. He has been a civil servant in the past, but he has been many things in the past - a broadcaster, a private sector consultant and a singer. Right now as CEO of Culture Ireland, he is a passionate advocate of Irish arts practitioners both at home and, more crucially, abroad. “Our artists are some of the best ambassadors we have,” he says. His own connection to the art world goes back to childhood. “My mother is a classical pianist,” he says. “She played many concertos with the National Symphony Orchestra over the years. My father is an architect and historian of art. He also plays the violin with a particular focus on chamber music. I was born into a household with music playing all the time, particularly Mozart - my mother was a Mozart specialist.” His international outlook also stems from his upbringing. “Both my father and mother had spent periods studying in continental Europe so they would very much have seen Irish arts and culture as part of a much broader European culture,” he says. “That has always had a huge impact on me. I think in an odd sense the fight for sovereignty in some ways defined Ireland apart from Europe, but now more than ever our
“
Trinity as being quite an intimate place. I think one of the most interesting challenges for universities that aspire to world-class status is how you can combine scale with that sense of collegiate personality. Certainly in my day, I think the architecture of Trinity, the psychic geography of College, just created a certain way of being with people and meeting people.” In the end, Downes managed to enjoy the sociability of college, audit the Hist and get a degree. Choosing what to do next was more difficult. “Music and the arts were a very strong pull, but I also had a huge interest in international affairs and politics and the world at large,” he says. “I got a job with the Department of Foreign Affairs. I had friends who were in it at the time and there was a sense of adventure about it. I worked first of all on the UN peacekeeping side and then on the Northern Ireland peace process and I was posted to Moscow as consul and cultural attaché in 1997.” He was in Moscow during a rare lull in that city’s turbulent history. “I literally left a month before the banking collapse in the summer of 1998,” he recalls, and he immersed himself in Russian culture. “I spent a lot of time working with both Russian and Irish artists in Russia,” he says. “I spent time with Russian opera companies and I even went on tour with one. I was cast in one or two roles, but before getting into rehearsal, I decided to resign from the Department of Foreign Affairs and go back to Dublin to sing full time. At one level, I was getting frustrated with the inherent difficulties of diplomacy. It’s quite hierarchical. It probably needs to be.” He jumped into a life of music for just over a year, but he then took a broadcasting job with the fledgling RTÉ Lyric
Certainly in my day, I think the architecture of Trinity, the psychic geography of College, just created a certain way of being with people and meeting people.” international identity is important.” Indeed, it was as a burgeoning internationalist that Downes chose to study classics at Trinity in 1990, although he says he ended up juggling his studies with other interests. “Singing was always on the side when I was at college,” he says. “I studied for several years with the great Veronica Dunne. And I also spent a lot of my time, if not most of the time, in the Graduates’ Memorial Building with the Hist. I was auditor from’93 to’94. My final years were a battle between the GMB and getting a degree.” He certainly recalls his time there fondly. “I do remember 34 | Trinity Today
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FM. “I was beginning to realise that I did not have the 120% single-minded commitment which a young singer needs to take it forward professionally,” he says. “I was asked to make a one-off feature documentary. Then they asked me to make a series, and when one of the original presenters moved on, they asked me to do a weekly programme. It was huge fun.” Around the same time, he was approached by his former employers at the Department of Foreign Affairs to consult on programming cultural events for Government occasions. “From 2000 to 2007, I operated in a specialised niche of international arts strategy and event programming. It was a small niche with just four clients - the Department of Foreign Affairs, the President of Ireland’s Office, the Department of the Taoiseach, and the Department of Arts.” One of the consultancy roles was a review of Ireland’s international arts strategy, which ultimately led to the establishment of Culture Ireland, an agency tasked with promoting Irish arts and culture abroad. In 2007, he was selected as its Chief Executive. “I put my hat in the ring and got the job,” he says. The role seemed to bring together all of the themes which had fascinated him – culture, art, politics, internationalism. Although, it also coincided with a budget crunching recession. “The stakes are definitely higher now,” he says. “Ireland’s reputation in the world has taken a serious hit and we have to play our very best cards to rebuild our reputation. There seems to be a broad consensus, and this is something which was certainly focused on at the Global Irish Economic Forum in Farmleigh, that our art and culture are among the things for which we are best known in the world. It’s one of a handful of areas where we have genuinely been a global leader.” So right now he is overseeing the Imagine Ireland initiative
in the United States, which was launched by Ireland’s Cultural Ambassador Gabriel Byrne and involves well over four hundred showcase events. “That has been rolling out over the year, building on the ambitions of so many Irish artists in the US from the worlds of theatre, dance, film, music, visual art and literature. We developed it in response not only to the government’s US strategy unveiled in 2009 but also to the specific plans and ambitions of Irish artists themselves.” Eugene Downes and his team are also planning the next five years of Culture Ireland’s existence. It is reaching the end of its first five-year strategy and “our feeling at the moment is that it has been quite successful and there will probably not be a radical change in direction.” Downes is still evangelistic about Irish art, culture and the role it can play abroad. Over the course of the interview he heaps praise on singer/songwriter Julie Feeney, playwrights Enda Walsh and Mark O’Rowe, composer Donnacha Dennehy as well as many, many others. Does he ever get sick of all that art? “It’s work and play for me,” he says. “My holidays tend to be busman’s holidays and I spend many of my evenings at shows or art events. For a lot of people working in the arts it’s their life and their passion as well as their job. Work-life balance can be an issue, but that’s the nature of the beast!” Patrick Freyne B.A. M.Phil (1996) is a freelance journalist who writes for The Evening Herald, Business and Finance and The Irish Times.
... our art and culture are among the things for which we are best known in the world. It’s one of a handful of areas where we have genuinely been a global leader.”
Some of the artists participating in Imagine Ireland: Caoimhín O Raghallaigh [left] & Breandán O Beaglaoich [right]; John Hurt in Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett [Gate Theatre] and Anne Enright. Photo: Anthony Wood.
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FEATURE | Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture
CReaTIVe aRTs, TeCHNoLoGIes D
aND CULTURe
r John Hegarty completed his term as the 43rd Provost of Trinity College Dublin on 30 July 2011. One of his proudest achievements over that ten year period was an initiative he launched to spearhead a new approach to culture, the creative arts and technologies. Two developments had inspired John Hegarty to fundamentally rethink the role of the university in this domain. The first was the outcry from the theatre industry following the cessation of Trinity’s B.A. in Acting Studies in early 2007 due to chronic underfunding. There was widespread concern over the loss of a course that was held in high regard by the theatre community and from which many leading practitioners had started their careers. In this context, Dr Hegarty established the Forum on Acting Training to allow debate on how Irish actors might best be trained in the future. The outcome of that Forum was the recommendation to establish a new national academy of dramatic art. Thanks to the support of the Cathal Ryan Trust, the new academy, The Lir, is in fact due to open this September in a state of the art building on the corner of Grand Canal Square and Pearse St. This major development encouraged Dr Hegarty to reconsider the extent of creative practice at Trinity. In addition to the dramatic arts, the university has major strengths in areas such as creative writing, literary translation, music composition, and creative technologies, including gaming, animation, simulation and digital arts. He became more aware of the extent to which disciplines engaged in the visual arts
These factors, combined with the increased recognition of the capacity of the creative and cultural sectors to contribute to Ireland’s economic recovery, convinced Dr Hegarty that there was enormous potential to create a powerful new dynamic at the heart of Dublin city with Trinity as catalyst. To explore how to achieve this he gathered a diverse group of academics from across Trinity including a poet, linguist, dramatist, cultural economist, humanist, computer scientist, art historian, music composer and librarian. The result was the launch of the Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture (CATC) initiative in late 2009. The CATC initiative is ultimately about people – promoting dialogue and the generation of new ideas, connectivity, and programmes within and across the arts and sciences, and between the city and Trinity. A new appreciation of creative practice within the university has been at its core - those who create and will be the practitioners in existing and new artistic forms and creative and cultural enterprises, such as the writer, actor, director, composer, digital artist, animator, literary agent, curator and conservator. Also at its core is the recognition of the expertise in the creative and cultural sectors of benefit to the university. The initiative is sparking exciting new partnerships in this domain in education, research, professional and creative practice, and entrepreneurship. It is helping produce a pool of new interdisciplinary
The CATC initiative is ultimately about people – promoting dialogue and the generation of new ideas, connectivity and programmes within and across the Arts and Sciences and between the City and Trinity.” and cultural heritage, and indeed Trinity’s renowned Library, were involved in contributing to the practices and processes of creation, curation and conservation. He was also aware that for many of the university’s academic staff there is little distinction between practice and appreciation, with many established as writers, poets, literary translators, directors, composers, artists and performers in their own right. Around the same time Dr Hegarty was reappraising Trinity’s location in the midst of a unique cluster of cultural and performing arts institutions at the heart of Ireland’s capital city. In 2008 he convened a meeting of the directors of a number of these institutions in close proximity to Trinity. It resulted in an agreement to fund a new research project to document their historic links and potential for future collaboration. The report by Dr Johanna Archbold was published in 2010 as Creativity, the City and the University.
graduates with competencies drawn from programmes connecting the arts and sciences and grounded in the cultural and creative sectors. The initiative is also repositioning the university as a porous concept at the heart of the city and community. The diagram depicts how this concept is applicable to Trinity in relation to the Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture. A number of disciplines are singled out for the first phase of the initiative because of their strengths in creative practice and represent six flagship areas: Dramatic Arts Creative Writing & Literary Translation visual Arts Creative Technologies Music Composition Cultural Heritage
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Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture | FEATURE
These areas are not self contained by any means but simply form a platform to promote the level of activity happening already and to facilitate further collaboration. The CATC initiative has tapped into a network of activity, openness to new ideas and collaboration both within the university and in the city that has led to many tangible outcomes: The establishment of a new Centre for Creative Technologies and a Centre for Music Composition supported by leading academic appointments in composition, digital humanities, art history, and visualisation The appointment of a joint cultural coordinator between Trinity and the National Library of Ireland Trinity’s first ensemble lectureship in residence, Ensemble Avalon, in partnership with the Allied Pensions Trust, Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane, and the National Concert Hall New international fellowships in literary translation with the Ireland Literature Exchange and Dublin City Public Library New adjunct appointments from the arts and creative industries including novelist Sir Terry Pratchett, literary agent Jonathan Williams, publisher Peter Fallon, Disney Research Director Jessica Hodgins; composers such as Bill Whelan; and artists in residence such as Selina Cartmell and Lenny Abrahamson The development of two new masters programmes with internship components - the M.Phil. in Public History and Cultural Heritage and the M.Phil. in Digital Humanities and Culture - in collaboration with the National Library, the National Museum, the National Archives, the Hugh Lane, Dublin City Public Library and the Chester Beatty Library among others
This unique initiative is engendering huge excitement and will continue to evolve with great momentum under the patronage of the new Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast." A suite of new vocational programmes in the dramatic arts to be introduced from September by The Lir, the new National Academy of Dramatic Art at TCD A new collaboration between the Centre for Creative Technologies and Ballyfermot College of Further Education with the launch of their first joint summer animation hub. Most importantly, the initiative is highlighting the range of established and emerging talent flourishing in the fabric of Trinity’s creative community and the scale and originality of the achievements and developments underway. It is contributing to the development of a powerful cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional dynamic focused on delivering an ambitious new future for Ireland drawing on distinctive local strengths of international quality across education, the creative arts, technologies and cultural domains. This unique initiative is engendering huge excitement and will continue to evolve with great momentum under the patronage of the new Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast. Dr Caitriona Curtis, Executive Director Creative Arts, Technologies & Culture Initiative Office of the Provost www.tcd.ie/catc
Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing
The Lir ACTOR DIRECTOR etc
WRITER TRANSLATOR
Languages & Literature
Libraries, Archives, Cultural Tourism
Digital Cultural Heritage CURATOR CONSERVATOR
Theatre, Film, TV
Drama & Film
Centre for
Oscar Wilde Centre
The Lir
WRITER TRANSLATOR
DIRECTOR etc COMPOSER
Cultural for Irish Writing Heritage
Composition Music ACTOR PERFORMER
Art History & Engineering Architecture Languages Sciences Drama & Literature
Libraries, Archives, Cultural Tourism
The Creative Arts, Technologies and Culture initiative
Theatre, Film, TV
Literary Industry
Digital Cultural Heritage
Visual Arts CURATOR CONSERVATOR
ARTIST CURATOR
Centre for Composition Music for Creative COMPOSER PERFORMER
Technologies
Art HistoryANIMATOR & Engineering Architecture Sciences
DIGITAL ARTIST DESIGNER
ARTIST CURATOR
Galleries, Museums Galleries, Museums
Expanding the mission of the partnership with the creative universityIn (core)
industry and cultural sector
& Film
Cultural HeritageCentre
Visual Arts
Music Industry
Expanding the mission of the The Creative Arts, university (core) Technologies and embrace the creative practitio Culture To initiative (middle band)
Centre for Creative Technologies ANIMATOR DIGITAL ARTIST Digital DESIGNER
Media, Gaming Digital Media, Gaming
Music Industry
To embrace the creative practitioner (outer band) (middle band)
In partnership with the Creating a creative dynamic network of industry and cultural sector interconnectivity at the heart of (outer band)
the city
Creating a dynamic network of interconnectivity at the heart of In education, research, creative the city
practice and entrepreneurship
In education, research, creative practice and entrepreneurship
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INTERvIEW | John Connolly
living the life after every dead thing
David Molloy speaks to crime writer John Connolly
J
ohn Connolly is a man at ease. The 42-yearold smiles continually from behind a dark beard, sharing a quick chat with the barista at the café where we meet. He casually offers to buy the coffee. He acts like someone perfectly comfortable in his own skin, and as a popular novelist with 15 bestsellers under his belt, it is not hard to see why. John was always a writer in the way most writers are, penning stories and bad poetry as far back as he can remember. After school, he went straight to work in Dublin Corporation and quit at the age of 20, taking his pension money to attend university. A native of Rialto in Dublin, John’s first memories of Trinity are not his best. “It never struck me that you could go into this place,” he says. “I think sometimes people in Trinity forget how intimidating that building is for people who have no concept of going to university... the idea of just rambling into it does not strike a lot of people.” A few years older than his classmates, it took John a year or so to feel comfortable in a place he would ultimately remember fondly. It was during his third year studying English that he got the most from his university education, when Professor Ian Ross introduced a crime fiction course, embracing popular genre fiction for the first time in Trinity. At a point when, Connolly says, many felt that “enough time had to pass for bodies to rot before they should put on a course.” Ross’s teaching
John Connolly speaking at a TCD alumni event in the Long Room Hub, April 2011.
had a profound effect on John’s appreciation of the genre. “Ian was very crucial in what I did. I would not be writing, I do not think, if I had not done that course.” Under Ross, he was introduced to new writers and influences – Ross Macdonald and William Goodwin’s Caleb Williams, among others – which opened his eyes. “It usually only happens in one or two courses that you do... where a whole lot of things come together and you make a big leap in your thinking, and your imagination.” Despite this, he never wrote fiction during his student years, turning instead to journalism and Trinity News, for which he wrote features between 1989–1991. He ended up studying journalism in Dublin City University (DCU) and working in The Irish Times for the next five years as a freelance journalist: a profession at which he did well, but with which he ultimately became disenchanted. “You know how they say if you are the smartest guy in the room, you are in the wrong room?” he says, flashing another smile. “In The Irish Times, I was not the smartest guy in the room.” While Connolly John Connolly with Dr Darryl Jones, Senior was a jack-of-all-trades in the paper, he Lecturer and Head of School of English. knew he would never be the best in his profession, and found himself constantly
He acts like someone perfectly comfortable in his own skin, and as a popular novelist with 15 bestsellers under his belt, it is not hard to see why.”
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John Connolly | INTERvIEW
frustrated at being the second or third fiddle in the company orchestra. It was the realisation that he had entered journalism because he enjoyed being paid to write which drove Connolly to fiction for the first time since his teenage years. John worked the late-night shift in The Irish Times: typing away during the long quiet stretches, running off drafts on the office printer and carrying them home. His first novel, Every Dead Thing (1999), brought the world the tortured private detective Charlie Parker, and brought Connolly the success which allowed him to leave his life as a journalist. It is when we talk about the craft of writing that Connolly becomes more enthusiastic and serious – almost academic – as he gets into the detail of his crime fiction, all of which is set in Portland, USA. John points out that crime fiction was never an Irish art form:
You learn by making mistakes, and then you go make a whole different set of mistakes on the new one. There is no sense in going back.” from Dracula to Dorian Gray, we have always been famous for our fantasy. Partly, this is because we were never a very violent society, nor a very urban one. More so, he says, it is because when the big boom in crime fiction arrived in the UK in the 70s and 80s, it was a practical challenge to deal with the topic in Ireland. The shadow of the IRA, the only gun-carrying group in the country, made such fiction impossible; the Troubles would affect a novel at every level. If an author set an armed robbery in Derry, he could only be talking about one group, no matter how well disguised. “In all practical terms, we could not really write it,” John says.
This led him to believe that crime fiction simply could not work in Ireland, and he decided he needed another locale. Having worked in Maine as a student and spent much time there, he was drawn to the area as ‘virgin territory’ for the genre. In New York, he says, you can throw a stone and hit ten metaphorical detectives; not so in Maine. Connolly’s books now represent a fusion between ‘straight’ crime writing and supernatural fiction, something which invites comparison with another Maine heavyweight, Stephen King. But Connolly’s books have evolved over time, and were not always about the paranormal. In fact, Every Dead Thing has a reputation for being a rather grisly novel. “I was young, and I wanted people to understand how someone could be so traumatised,” he says of the violence. “I suppose if I was doing it now I could be subtler.” Yet fans need not worry. Connolly has no plans to go back and change his novels, for the same reason that he has allowed them to evolve into something different. “You learn by making mistakes, and then you go make a whole different set of mistakes on the new one. There is no sense in going back.” Trying new things and seeking new influences is a cornerstone of Connolly’s philosophy. He has never signed on for more than two novels at a time with his publishers, taking a break from the Parker books whenever he feels the need to experiment. His first was for a standalone crime novel, Bad Men (2003), followed by a much bigger departure in The Book of Lost Things (2006), a story of a child who retreats into a fantasy world to escape the trauma of a parent’s death. “Your imagination can run riot when there is no limit on it,” he says. “It keeps me fresh. I love the Parker books, so I come back to them completely reinvigorated; and I have usually learned a new skill by doing something different which I can then apply.”
Artworks by Anne M. Anderson, inspired by the works of John Connolly, commissioned for a special edition of The Book of Lost Things.
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INTERvIEW | John Connolly
It is not just the literary world which influences John. He is a keen music fan too, as interested in someone’s music collection as their bookshelf. He claims he cannot listen to music while he writes, but he hands me a CD entitled Love and Whispers, a compilation of songs linked either thematically or lyrically with two recent Parker books, The Lovers (2009) and The Whisperers (2010). Full of slow melodic pieces from singer-songwriters to an alternative country band, it is an odd yet strangely cohesive mix. “Things don’t happen in isolation. Most of us are plugging away at the same three or four or five essential issues, because they are the things which affect all of us,” he says. This encapsulates John’s attitude – taking inspiration from everywhere, making the best you can of it, and finding something new. And with a writing pace of about one book each year, he is staying on the move. “Ideas are not the currency, time is the currency. You are going to die with ideas unwritten,” he says, keen and serious. “Now, you may say, ‘some books may be worth that great ten-year span, the great magnum opus.’ But I guarantee you, no matter how great the book is, you will not
have learned as much as if you would have published five books in those ten years. You just will not.” “Leonardo da vinci’s workshop floor was probably covered in imperfect circles and helicopters which did not fly. That is how it works. You hack away at it, rewrite constantly, and if you are very, very fortunate, when you are dead, somebody will pass judgement on what you have done as art, but you yourself do not get to make the call.” Maybe this is why Connolly is so comfortable with himself. For him, writing is a constant journey of experimentation and improvement. He does not aim for high art, but considers himself lucky to be paying his mortgage with the craft he enjoys so much. “The secret to happiness,” he tells me, with the biggest grin yet, “is to find the thing you would do as a hobby and convince someone else to pay you to do it.” David Molloy B.A. (2009) is a freelance journalist working in Dublin. He served as Editor of the student newspaper Trinity News in the 2009/10 academic year.
“HERE’S A GENERAL LIST OF BOOKS WHICH I HAvE LOvED, AND WHICH HAvE PROBABLY FOUND THEIR WAY INTO MY WORK IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER. IMPOSSIBLE TO RANK THEM, UNFORTUNATELY. LIFE DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!” Books, in no specific order: 1. Ross Macdonald – The Chill
6. Charles Dickens – Bleak House
One of the reasons I began writing mystery fiction. Lew Archer is the first detective to be defined by empathy, I think, and this book has one of the greatest endings in the genre.
The greatest novel in the English language. It is that simple.
2. James Lee Burke – Dixie City Jam Burke is simply the greatest living mystery writer, and few writers, literary or genre, have a finer engagement with history and landscape.
3. alexandre Dumas – The Three Musketeers One of my favourite novels, and certainly my favourite adventure story.
4. e.e. Cummings – Collected Poems/Six Nonlectures The first poet I discovered for myself, and I hope something of his sensibility has affected my own work.
5. Richard Ford – The Sportswriter Because I’ll never be able to write prose so unadorned, yet so brilliant.
7. Ford Madox Ford – The Good Soldier One of the few books that I have re-read, along with...
8. emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights Unreliable narrators, heavy on the gothic – not hard to see its impact on my books.
9. ed McBain – Let’s Hear It For The Deaf Man The first mystery novel that I ever read, and hence the book which set me on this path.
10. M.R. James – Ghost Stories of an Antiquary James heavily influenced the supernatural elements that have come increasingly to the fore in my books. Still unchallenged as the greatest writer of supernatural stories in the English language.
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Experience something new in the Old Library
The Trinity Library Shop 10% discount to all alumni* The Library Shop opening hours are: 9.30 - 5.00 Monday to Saturday 12.00 - 4.30 Sundays e. library.shop@tcd.ie www.tcd.ie/Library/Shop *On production of relevant ID front gate adverts_aw.pdf
1
21/09/2010
15:53
reer The Ca is par t rk Netwo Front of nline, Gate O lumni TCD A unity Comm
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FEATURE | Library
Royal seal
to the library’s year
by Robin Adams, Librarian and College Archivist
College Librarian and Archivist Robin Adams, HRH Prince Philip, the Chancellor, HM Queen Elizabeth, Minister of Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn TD, the Provost.
T
he most high profile event in the Library’s recent past was the visit to the Old Library by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Philip on 17 May, an event broadcast live by RTÉ and covered by the international media. Preparations involving many library staff and colleagues from across College took many weeks. The event took place 100 years after the last visit by a British monarch, George v, to the Library. The Queen and Prince Philip saw the facsimile of the Book of Kells in the exhibition, so that they had an opportunity to see the manuscript close up and to allow the assembled press to get the best photograph. Prince Philip fulfilled his role as freelance commentator by drawing attention to the reference on a nearby panel to Iona as a possible site for the manuscript’s origin, while
the Librarian stressed the case for Kells as its source. After time out of sight of cameras with the original manuscript and Bernard Meehan (Keeper of Manuscripts), the Queen and Prince Philip met with some of the library staff working on the Save the Treasures programme, supported by alumni. They also met Susie Bioletti and Dr Charles Benson M.A. (1967) who showed them the Library’s copy of the Abidil Gaoidheilge agus Caiticiosma, the first book printed in Irish, Dublin 1571, at the behest of Queen Elizabeth I. They were equally entertained to see a copy of Sharkey’s Irish Racing Calendar, printed in 1795, as they were to visit the National Stud and the Coolmore training and breeding establishment the following day. An earlier royal visitor to the Old Library was His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco, the purpose of whose
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Library | FEATURE College visit was to meet academics, and to announce that Monaco would host a conference under the joint auspices of the Centre for War Studies at TCD, and the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco this autumn. The Save the Treasures programme to clean and record the condition of the books in the Long Room continues, though at a reduced rate and the project is presently working on the books in bay EE, the Library of Archbishop Ussher. To date 85,000 items have been cleaned and recorded and 20,000 have been treated. Recent exhibitions in the Old Library have included the present exhibit celebrating the tercentenary of the School of Medicine, under the banner The best doctors in the world are Dr Diet, Dr Quiet and Dr Merryman, as quoted by Jonathan Swift. It features material from the Library collections illustrating
the course of medicine over the last three centuries. Some of the items included are a manuscript of medicines prepared by an apothecary in the 17th century, the minute book of the Guild of Barber Surgeons, signed by Michael Kearney, an ancestor of U.S. President Obama, a death mask of Dean Swift and the skeleton of the Irish ‘giant’ Cornelius McGrath, on loan from the Department of Anatomy. The next exhibition, opening in October will be Troubled Magnificence, society and culture in the reign of Louis XIV, which will draw on the rich collections of 17th century French material in early printed books. The exhibition will be curated by Charles Benson, a recent recipient of the honour of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ambassador Her Excellency M. Emmanuelle d’Acho, on behalf of the government of France.
improVing
the student experience
Trevor Peare in the Fry Study Room.
The study pattern of students is changing and teaching methods evolve, so the Library is working to amend and improve its study facilities. With the help of a donation from the Fry family in memory of TCD graduates Iris Fry, her sister Margaret Hammond, brother Rev. Henry Fry and father Prof. Matthew Fry, a suite of group study rooms has been installed in the Berkeley Library. This provides space for sixty students working in small groups with some IT facilities. It has been an enormously popular
initiative and is regularly fully booked out in term time. Plans are under way to further enhance the accommodation by creating an informal study space and additional seating for 24-hour access in the Ussher Library. The Hamilton Library, which serves students in Science, Engineering and Medicine, underwent a complete refurbishment prior to the new academic year. This involved new carpeting, painting, upgrading study desks, and the better arrangement of the collections.
TerCenTenAry of the old library Next year sees the celebration of the foundation of the Old Library building in 1712. Designed by Thomas de Burgh and re-modelled in the 19th century by Thomas Deane and Benjamin Woodward, the building is regarded as one of the finest 18th century designs in Ireland and is widely seen as an icon of scholarship and recorded knowledge. The anniversary will be marked by the publication of a collection of essays on the building and its contents, by a conference and an exhibition in the Long Room. Further details of these events will be made available in due course.
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FEATURE | Library
Friends
of the librAry The Friends of the Library recently assisted with the purchase of La petite Galerie Dramatique, Paris, 1796-1843. This is a series of 1,600 coloured plates showing actors in costume over half a century. It is hugely important in the illustration of French drama of the period and complements the collection of French plays built up in recent years. This is an example of the role in which the Friends of the Library can play their part in developing the special collections of rare materials. Founded six decades ago, the Friends is an association which aims to combine support of the Library’s special collections with an opportunity for interaction between College and the wider community.
Prof Stephen White and
Robin Adams.
life of Nobel Prize laureate Samuel Beckett. The Friends raise these funds through members' fees of €30 (which includes a subscription to Long Room, the journal devoted to the history of the book in Ireland which the Friends publish), and through active support of the annual Trinity Secondhand Booksale, which is such an occasion for all book enthusiasts. From time to time, art works are also purchased, to add to the ambiance of the library, such as a batik by Bernadette Madden recently hung in the orientation area. The Friends organise lectures about books in general, history, current affairs and cultural matters, often drawing on speakers whose researches or experiences are centred on Trinity. Members of the public can attend on payment of a small entrance fee at the door. Current students are welcome too.
Friends is an association which aims at combining support of the Library’s special collections with an opportunity for interaction between College and the wider community. Through the provision of funds it makes possible purchases for Early Printed Books (defined as books published before 1920), manuscripts, music, the Map Library, and other research collections. Recently they supported the acquisition for Early Printed Books of a 500 volume collection of French poets of the inter-war period, so specially associated for Trinity with the
BooKSale 2011
TriniTy librAriAn honoured by the french government
The Booksale 2011 was held earlier this year, due to changes in College’s academic timetable and the late date of Easter. The supply of books has proved to be recession-proof although buyers’ wallets were a little lighter than in previous years. Nevertheless, by the second day, there was a constant stream of customers working their way steadily through the stock. In all, the sale raised €19,000, bringing the total raised by successive Booksales to over €415,000.
Dr Charles Benson M.A. (1967), Keeper of Early Printed Books and Special Collections in Trinity College Library.
The French Government has awarded the honour of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres to Dr Charles Benson M.A. (1967), Keeper of Early Printed Books and Special Collections in Trinity College Library. The Ordre was established in 1957 to recognise significant contributions to the diffusion and public appreciation of French culture. It was awarded to Dr Benson in recognition of his work in developing and promoting resources for the study of French in Trinity College. Dr Charles Benson has been Keeper of Early Printed Books and Special Collections in Trinity College Library since 1988 and is widely known as an historian of the early nineteenth century book trade in Dublin. Other recent recipients of this honour include the violinist André Rieu and the actor George Clooney.
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Library | FEATURE
The Digital library The Library is rapidly building a Digital Library of images from our collections so that they can be shared via the internet and studied using the new technologies. The Digital Resources and Imaging Service (DRIS) launched its service to the College in May 2011. Its role will be to develop digital research toolsets, and imaging services to support the next generation of humanities research and education. A wealth of images from a wide range of Library materials is already available and the DRIS team is looking to build this collection into what will become the library of the future. The work requires the use of sophisticated camera equipment, preliminary conservation work and the careful handling of the original objects. The Library will launch the service to the wider community later in the year, as the material will be of real interest to the general
librAry up Alumni gro es the
id The Library prov ts to alumni: fi ne be following all items in 10% discount on op the Library Sh Old Library/ Free entry to the ition Book of Kells exhib rary Lib e th Free access to news, ry ra Lib on r Newslette s on iti events and exhib ation, visit For more inform ni/library www.tcd.ie/alum
» » » » »
public and will have particular benefit to schools and other universities. Our ambition is to provide digital access to much of our treasures and we will look to support from donors to undertake this programme on a wide scale through our Images for a Nation initiative. The Library’s collection of manuscripts and archives is one of its chief treasures, with hundreds of thousands of documents, from Egyptian papyri of the 5th century BC and records of the Roman Inquisition to the archives of the great houses of Ireland and the literary manuscripts of novelists and poets. Scholarly access to these collections is now greatly enhanced through the availability of an electronic catalogue to manuscript holdings and work continues to input records into the Manuscripts and Archives Research Library Online Catalogue.
DonATions to the library Significant additions to the Library’s collections have been made through generous donation in the last number of months. Professor Stephen White of Glasgow University donated a very rare copy of a first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Paris 1922. Nan O’Connell and the family of Fred O’Connell presented a volume of bound issues of the French satirical magazine Le Rire and three volumes of the House of Commons Papers, relating to the Expedition to the Scheldt, 23 January – 21 June 1810. Trinity Today | 45
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Image courtesy of Photocall Ireland.
FEATURE | Trinity Ball
y t i n i Tr ths Ball My & Music
by Karl McDonald
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Trinity Ball | FEATURE
M
arking the end of the teaching term and the beginning of the exam period, the Trinity Ball has existed for decades, on and off as the vagaries of College life permitted. Similar to the May Balls of various Cambridge colleges, the Ball continues to attract thousands of revellers. These days, the chances of finding any of the tuxedo and ballgownclad students doing any formal dancing are slim, with hip hop, dance, rock and pop acts from Ireland, England and America dominating proceedings, but it is this sense of tradition which imbues the Ball with much of its special quality. In this year’s Ball Guide, the Trinity
on, they have seven platinum plaques, a Grammy and a plethora of other awards to complement their status of one of the biggest live bands in the world. In 2004, London grime MC Dizzee Rascal entertained students with his first hit, Fix Up Look Sharp. Six years later, with four number ones under his belt, he returned triumphantly to headline the 2010 Ball. If the Trinity Ball’s real history is not enough to create a unique atmosphere, plenty of myths have become attached to it, providing both points of pride for students and fodder for complaining about contemporary line-ups. Ask the average ticket-buyer about famous Ball performers past and you will hear tales of uncles who swear they saw U2, parents who gurned to The Clash at their peak and, perhaps, sensitive older siblings who threw daffodils at Morrissey when the Smiths performed. While these acts may have been brought to campus by the Students’ Union, they did not perform at the Trinity Ball itself, but that does not seem to matter regarding their place in the mythology. The collective College memory is short – four years before it resets, generally – and these sorts of stories inevitably spawn when undergrads try to peer back before the start of their own degree into the murky past. A seminal Clash gig in the Exam Hall in 1977 (featuring “continuous gobbing” according to The Irish Times) easily becomes a headline set at the Ball on the second telling. But precisely because the collective memory is so short, it makes no real difference. Legendary bands played the Ball in the past. Acts which may become legends in their own right continue to play to this day. And of course, the Ball experience is more than just the music. Though the modern Ball is effectively a self-contained, one-night-only private music festival on a par with plenty of summer festivals in Ireland and the UK, most of the attendees would only take some light convincing from the advance line-up announcement to buy a ticket. It is a night out, one which, for many, fulfils its promise to be the best of the year. Repeat attendees develop a routine for the day, often starting at
These days, the chances of finding any of the tuxedo and ballgown-clad students doing any formal dancing are slim, with hip hop, dance, rock and pop acts from Ireland, England and America dominating proceedings, but it is this sense of tradition which imbues the Ball with much of its special quality.” News publication which serves as a programme for the event, Senator David Norris recalled attending balls during his undergraduate days in the 1960s. “I remember suckling pigs being roasted on a spit in the now vanished Fellows’ Garden,” he said. The Fellows’ Garden became the Fellows’ Square at the end of that decade, and his recollection of seamstresses quartered beside the arch in House Six seems to equally belong to a fondly remembered past. However, when Provost Patrick Prendergast attended two decades later in 1984, it was still “a proper Ball with real waltzing,” with an orchestra performing Strauss in the Exam Hall. But, by 1988, change was in the air with militant American rap artists Public Enemy playing a set which became legendary on the Irish music scene whilst touring their politically-charged classic It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. Writer, broadcaster and TCD economics graduate David McWilliams recalls witnessing the act and asking himself, “Are we not the power?” Still, it marked an example of a landmark show taking place at the Ball. It was not the last – the event has frequently featured sets from acts which go on to sell out stadia. In 2000, an English band called Muse played in the Main Tent as part of the tour for their first album. Eleven years
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FEATURE | Trinity Ball
the Pav or in College Park before the gates close for final preparations. Talk amongst students for weeks in advance centres around pre-parties: where they are on, how close to College they are, who will be there, whether there will be food or (unsurprisingly) drink provided and, often, whether it will be possible to take in several before arriving in the queue outside College in time to catch the early acts. Entering Front Square on any normal day is a pleasant experience, but on the night of the Ball, it is a place transformed. With huge, coloured lights scanning the sky and nothing but students in formal wear in sight, it is difficult to believe that the cobbles are the same ones that hosted lost tourists and disgruntled cyclists hours before. First-timers and dates from other colleges look around with wide eyes. veterans bee-line for the bar tents, try to spot their first broken high heel or meet the dozens of casual acquaintances who are, for the duration of the Ball, to play the role of best friends. Festival tents identical to those that show up at Oxegen or Electric Picnic are pitched on College’s green spaces. Music wafts out, and it is difficult not to experience some mild euphoria from the uniqueness of the night and the potential for the next few hours. It only happens once a year, and for many final year
From the
archives
WANTED, PARTNER FOR TRINITY BALL – Must be clean, presentable and generally a social asset. Apply Gould, No. 9, for an interview. (Trinity News, May 20th, 1965, Personal section)
BALL TICKETS: MANY TO BE DISAPPOINTED – About 250 people have received notices to the effect that they will not get tickets to the Ball unless successful applicants do not claim tickets during the week. Allocation has been on a strictly chronological basis. Already a strong black market has developed with selling prices from £5-£6. At the Ball itself there will be a Gaelic coffee, coffee and wine service in No. 6. Women will have to be out of rooms by 8 p.m. on Friday. (Trinity News, May 20th, 1965)
students it is a farewell to the University social scene, so it is important to have as much fun as possible. Some students have been disgruntled in recent years at the fact that there seems to be less input from students into the choice of the line-up. It is certainly the case that there are not exactly public polls for choosing the headliners, but given that as recently as 2005, the Ball’s existence year-toyear was in doubt due to concerns about viability, the current arrangement with MCD is a mutually beneficial one. MCD’s ability to draw high profile acts cannot be questioned. When this year’s line-up was announced, it was arguably the most impressive to date. The acts, between them, had aggregated double figures of number ones, and even if a date on The Streets’ retirement tour or a homecoming set from TCD alumni Bell X1 was not of interest, there was a 4.45am set from satirical/populist hip hop troupe Rubberbandits to end the night. With critics bemoaning the lack of communal feeling in the modern university experience, it was wonderfully refreshing to see a tent full of students arm in arm with strangers, screaming the words to their Christmas number one pretender Horse Outside in unison. Tellingly, it looked like the Rubberbandits were having a great time too.
TRINITY WEEK BALL Trinity Week Ball this year is to be held on Friday, May 29th.The Ball Committee failed to obtain permission to extend the Ball until 6 a.m. (as in the Oxbridge’s Balls), and consequently the arrangements will be the same as last year’s. The Board’s refusal to allow this was based on the claim that the influx of 1,400 dinnerjacketed and ballgowned students into an industrial town such as Dublin at six o’clock in the morning was an entirely different thing from 1,400 students descending on a university town at that hour. Ball Fashion (Trinity News, May 28th, 1964)
Extracts from the Trinity News Archive, a fully searchable online database of every issue of Trinity News from 1953-1970. This material is available thanks to a donation of five bound volumes by Colin Smythe O.ST.J., M.A., LL.D. (h.c.), F.R.S.A. (1963) and the project was organised by Martin McKenna (editor, 2008-09). www.trinitynewsarchive.ie 48 | Trinity Today
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Image courtesy of Frank Miller, Irish Times.
Trinity Ball | FEATURE
With huge, coloured lights scanning the sky and nothing but students in formal wear in sight, it is difficult to believe that the cobbles are the same ones that hosted lost tourists and disgruntled cyclists hours before." The aftermath of this year’s Trinity Ball was not without its talking points, with English chart-topper Jessie J resorting to Twitter to express reservations about perceived drunkenness in the crowd. A minor controversy ensued, characterised by the breakneck pace and character restrictions of social networking, but as a young artist yet to be exposed to the summer festival circuit, it seems that Jessie J was allowing personal preference – she is a teetotaller – and an element of naivety to cloud her impression of her audience. The Ball’s attendees are adults, fully capable of taking care of themselves, and MCD, as the nation’s foremost event promoter, know exactly what it is doing. The event is, after all, an end-of-year college Ball for Trinity students, not a music festival per se, and it is natural that people are going to blow off steam while they enjoy the acts before they put their shoulders to the wheel for exams. Dylan Haskins, the History of Art and Architecture student who made waves by running for Dáil Éireann in the Dublin South East constituency during the recent General Election, approached the story with an even hand in The Irish Times. “If some people go too far, they are the exception rather than the rule. They will be carried home
on the arm of a friend and probably know better next time. This has always been the story and probably always will be,” he wrote, while acknowledging Jessie J’s point of view and praising her performance. Delivered from its days of uncertainty and now run on a scale that makes it genuine competition for big international festivals, it seems like a few students having a little too much fun is not the worst problem with which the Trinity Ball could have to deal. As much as cobbles and exam stress, the Ball is an indelible part of every Trinity student’s College memories, something unique which can only really be experienced from the inside. From David Norris to Dylan Haskins and beyond, Trinity’s most eminent alumni will carry memories of it with them wherever they go. Karl McDonald is a Senior Sophister History student and former editor of Trinity News Two and the Ball Guide. He works as a freelance music journalist for various publications in Dublin and Belfast. Trinity Today | 49
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FEATURE | Scéal Staraí
scéal
Staraí
agallamh le Mícheál Ó siochrú
B
huail Aonghus Dwane le Mícheál Ó Siochrú le déanaí ina oifig ar champas, agus chuir sé agallamh air faoina shaol, a chuid oibre acadúla agus ceird na staire, agus faoina thuairimí faoin nGaeilge féin. Tá Mícheál ina léachtóir sinsearach i Roinn na Staire agus ina Chomhalta den Choláiste. Bhain mé sult as an chomhrá spreagúil a bhí agam le Mícheál- duine a bhfuil a chroí istigh ina chuid oibre agus a bhfuil buanna cumarsáide aige le sin a chur trasna go soiléir, bríomhar. Rugadh Mícheál i Rath Éanna i mBaile Átha Cliath. Tógadh le Gaeilge é, agus bhí Pádraig Ó Siochrú, “An Seabhac”, mar sheanuncail aige. D’fhreastail sé ar Scoil Neasáin agus i ndiaidh sin ar Scoil na mBráithre Críostaí ar Chearnóg Pharnell. Bhí an-suim ag a sheanathair Mícheál sa stair, agus scríobh sé siúd cúpla leabhar staire do scoileanna sna 50idí. Nuair a chríochnaigh Mícheál an Ardteist i lár na n-80idí, d’imigh sé leis ag taisteal ar feadh bliana, agus chaith sé tréimhse i Montréal i gCeanada ag obair i siopa mór leabhar dara láimhe a bhí faoi úinéireacht Éireannach. Bhí sé i gcónaí i gceist aige filleadh go hÉirinn agus chuaigh sé i mbun bunchéime sa stair i TCD – coláiste a roghnaigh sé go príomha mar go raibh seantaithí aige ar bheith suite i lár na cathrach óna laethanta scoile. Bhain sé sult as a thréimhse mar mhac léinn i TCD, ag déanamh dlúthchairde san am sin atá aige go fóill. An raibh baint ag a scolaíocht lán-Ghaeilge lena shuim sa stair a mhúscailt? Deir Mícheál go mbíonn daoine ag rá go raibh na Bráithre Críostaí ag brú léargas cúng staire chun cinn, ach ní bhfuair sé féin go raibh an cás amhlaidh ach i gcorrchás. Bhí a thréimhse i gCeanada mar bhriseadh aige ó shaol na Gaeilge ar aon nós, agus bhí sé lánsásta díriú isteach ar ghnéithe eile den stair taobh amuigh de stair na hÉireann i TCD, cé gur fhill sé “diaidh ar ndiaidh” ar an réimse seo.
Mícheál Ó Siochrú.
Amach ag an am sin. Nach bhfuil an léargas sin aontaobhach? Deir Mícheál mar fhreagra go gcaithfimid dul chuig na foinsí a mhaireann fós, agus úsáid a bhaint astu: má théann tú á lorg, tá scéal an taoibh eile ann “idir na línte” mar a deirtear. Bailíodh na teistíochtaí ó na gnáthdhaoine, ní ráitis na móruaisle atá iontu. Tá mion-eolas ar an saghas saoil a chaith gnáthdhaoine ag an am, mar tá liostaí d’earraí a chaill siad sonraithe ann- idir bheithígh, threalaimh a bhí acu ina dtithe, srl. Osclaíonn sé seo fuinneog uathúil ar shaol laethúil agus baile na ngnáthdhaoine sa 17ú haois, eolas atá gann go hidirnáisiúnta agus atá luachmhar do staraithe na sochaí. Bhí Mícheál páirteach in eagrú comhdhálacha le cothrom 400 bliain Phlandáil Uladh a chomóradh. An féidir i ndáiríre teacht ar chomhthuiscint faoin eachtra sin ar an oileán seo? Dar le Mícheál, ní hí an chomhthuiscint cuspóir na staraithe, ach tuiscint níos fearr a aimsiú ar céard go díreach a tharla. Ní haon scéal amháin atá sa stair, tá na mílte scéal i gceist léi, agus cé go mbeidh a dtuairimí féin ag gach duine, ní fíor go mbíonn duine amháin ceart agus an duine eile mícheart: ní mór na scéalta ar fad a thógáil le chéile- ní hé, áfach, go dtiocfar ar aon léamh staire amháin i ndeireadh na dála! Maidir le teoiric na staire “comhroinnte” a chualathas go leor faoi le linn chuairt na Banríona le déanaí, agus daoine a bhíonn ag rá gur chóir dúinn anois “líne a tharraingt sa ghaineamh” maidir leis an stair; síleann Mícheál gur argóintí áiféiseacha atá anseo. Cé nach féidir a shéanadh go bhfuil nasc ollmhór idir stair na hÉireann agus a gaol le Sasana/ an Bhreatain, tá “stair comhroinnte” ag Éirinn freisin le gach uile thír ar domhan- tá stair choilíneach ag Éirinn agus níl sé
Bhí Mícheál páirteach in eagrú comhdhálacha le cothrom 400 bliain Phlandáil Uladh a chomóradh." Feictear dó gur thug an teanga buntáistí dó mar staraí atá in ann dul chuig bunfhoinsí i mBéarla agus i nGaeilge araon. Rinne Mícheál, agus foireann staraithe i TCD, dianobair ar thrascríobh agus dhigitiú Theistíochtaí (depositions) 1641, cnuasach fianaise ó Phrotastúnaigh a d’fhulaing san Éirí 50 | Trinity Today
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Scéal Staraí | FEATURE
cruinn talamh slán a dhéanamh de sin. A mhalairt, tugann an stair sin léargas dúinn ar stair choilíneachtaí eile ar fud na cruinne. Maidir le cothromaíocht na n-uafás, agus daoine a dheir “bhuel, más fíor go ndearna Sasana seo, caithfidh go ndearna na hÉireannaigh sin…”, ní mór a thuiscint nach bhfuil cothromaíocht dhíreach idir Éire agus an Bhreatain sa stair – murab ionann agus a rá nach bhfuil ciontacht ar bith ar Éirinn. Dar leis, tá suim as cuimse ag Éireannaigh sa stair, agus feictear sin sa mhéid grúpaí a thagann le chéile ar fud na tíre, agus an méid leabhar staire atá le feiceáil i siopaí leabhar, feiniméan a chuir iontas ar chuairteoirí Sasanacha arb eol dó. Tá Mícheál Ó Siochrú gníomhach sa cheardchumann IFUT agus gafa le ceardchumainn le 20 bliain anuas – dar leis, tá sé tábhachtach i gcás lucht acadúil, mar shampla, a bhíonn ag obair ina n-aonair go minic, iad sáite i dtaighde, i dteagasc agus i scríbhneoireacht, nach rachadh coincheap na hOllscoile mar phobal as radharc, agus go mbeadh daoine ag obair ar son mhaitheas an phobail trí chéile. Tá an t-ádh ar Mícheál go bhfuil a réimse oibre mar ábhar a chuireann sé spéis ann ina shaol chomh maith. Rinne sé a thráchtas dochtúireachta faoi stiúir Aidan Clarke, agus chuaigh Clarke i gcion ar an saghas agus ar an tréimhse staire a bhíonn á chíoradh aige anois. I ndiaidh a thráchtais, d’imigh Mícheál go Boisnia ag obair mar Oifigeach Polaitiúil do na Náisiúin Aontaithe ar feadh cúpla bliain; rinne siad iarracht an saol polaitíochta a atógáil sa tír sin, i ndiaidh tréimhse choimhlinte agus sléachta. Tar éis dó trí nó ceithre bliana a
chaitheamh in Aberdeen, tháinig sé ag obair i TCD. D’fhág a chuid taistil agus a thaithí réimse leathan suimeanna aige, agus coinníonn sé súil ghéar ar imeachtaí sa saol polaitiúil. Lena chúraimí sa bhaile, agus lena chuid oibre, ní bhíonn mórán am saor aige, ach is leantóir spóirt é, agus an-suim aige sa scuais ach go háirithe. Maidir lena dhearcadh ar an nGaeilge anois, creideann Mícheál go raibh an t-ádh air go raibh an chumarsáid idir é féin agus a athair trí mheán na teanga i gcónaí: choinnigh sé sin ceangal leis an teanga aige agus é thar lear. Tá méadú suntasach tagtha ar na deiseanna a bhíonn anois aige an Ghaeilge a labhairt le daoine; labhraíonn sé Gaeilge go minic le triúr nó ceathrar cairde leis, agus le roinnt daoine eile atá ag obair sa réimse céanna leis féin. Bíonn leithéidí TG4 agus Raidió na Gaeltachta ag déanamh fiosruithe nó ag iarraidh agallaimh a dhéanamh minic go leor. An rud is tábhachtaí, dar leis, ná go mbeadh daoine ag úsáid na teanga go nádúrtha, gan a bheith ag iarraidh a bheith go hiomlán foirfe nó cruinn inti: mura bhfuil ach cúpla focal ag duine, bíodh sé/sí sásta iad a thriail. Aonghus Dwane, Oifigeach na Gaeilge Tá Oifig na Gaeilge ann chun an Ghaeilge a chur chun cinn sa Choláiste, chun cúraimí an Achta Teanga a stiúradh agus scéimeanna cónaithe Gaeilge na mac léinn a riar. www.tcd.ie/gaeloifig
Trinity Affinity Credit Card
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. Linda O’Reilly, Trinity Campus Branch, 2 College Green Tel: 01 649 3281 - Email: linda.o’reilly@boi.com Terms and conditions apply to all credit card applications. Applicants must be 18 years of age to apply. Bank of Ireland is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland
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SPORTS | News
a sporting
year in trinity
Club rounDup
DUFC take on
Midleton RFC
last October.
DU Cycling competing in the Downhill Mountain Bike intervarsity competition in January.
The DU Kayak Club who completed their annual Freshers’ Week bridge jump.
Members of DU BC taking part in the Erg-Facto charity event r, a held in the Sp orts Centre las t November.
Trinity’s senior hurlers who won a two point victory in the Ryan Cup over reigning champions Mary Immaculate.
Following their recognition by DUCAC in October 2010, the AmeriCAn fooTbAll Club won their intervarsity competition in November and continued their success in winning at Colours in March.
The Ladies’ boAT Senior vIII won National Championships last year and their Novice Iv came in second. This puts them in a good position coming into their season this year.
The Leinster Senior League Division 1C was won by the DU AssoCiATion fooTbAll Club (Soccer) in June this year. The Club won the Universities Senior Farquhar Cup and the Freshers won the Harding Plate of which the final was against NUIG.
The fenCing Club had another very successful year: starting in October 2010, women’s foil Geraldine Davies took 2nd place at the Schull Novice Cup; the Women won the North of Ireland Open in January; and the Club were crowned intervarsity champions in February.
The bADminTon Club, captained by Mark Wilkinson, won the CUSAI University League Division A competition in March and continued their winning streak in April when they secured the 2011 Colours title against UCD, winning 15 of the 16 matches.
Cormac McMahon won the All-Ireland hAnDbAll Intervarsity this year.
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News | SPORTS
DU rifle Club members now For further occupy almost half of the information please places on both the air rifle see www.tcd.ie/ and smallbore national Sport/ducac classification lists after what was both a busy and a successful competitive year. DURC will be celebrating its Golden Jubilee in January 2012 and would like to hear from Club alumni. You can contact them at rifle@tcd.ie, on their LinkedIn group ‘Dublin University Rifle Club Alumni’, on Facebook page ‘DU Rifle Club’, or you can check out our website at www.rifle.tcdlife.ie.
The Ladies hoCkey 1st XI team continue to play in the top division at Leinster. They reached the semi-final of the Chilean cup this year. Four of the 1st XI team were named on the Irish University’s squad; Maebh Horan, Jessie Elliott (Club Captain), Rachel Scott and Eanna Horan. At the JuDo All-Ireland Intervarsities, Adam Corcoran (73 kg) won Gold and Diana Sandu won the Spirit of Judo Award which is the highest individual award in Ivs. The Lawn Tennis Club had a very successful start to their sporting year where the men and women won the Floodlit league Class 5 and the men won Class 4 and were promoted to Class 1. The women also won the Winter League, Class 3.
In November, the ulTimATe frisbee Women won the Indoor Intervarsity with Trinity players also picking up awards for Most valuable Player (MvP) of the tournament and MvP of the final. The women also won outdoor Intervarsities in March.
The sAiling Club, captained by David White, won their Intervarsity competition this year. The TCD 1: 1st Silver Fleet lost one race only out of 16.
duBlin univerSiTy hoCkey Club Alumni Dinner
The CUSAI Finals day were held in Trinity in March and the Ladies’ VolleybAll team won their university event.
F
ollowing on from the success of the recent raucous DUHC Alumni Ball, a more sedate gathering at the DUHC Alumni Dinner enjoyed an evening comprising Commons and a reception in the new Senior Common Room in May 2011. About 40 graduates duly assembled to the sound of the Campanile bell and observed how Commons had changed little since the eldest of the alumni present (West and Warke) graduated in the early 1950s. The focus and highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the induction of David Judge into the DUHC Hall of Fame, only the second recipient of this accolade (the late great Jv Luce being the other). On receiving an engraved Dublin Crystal bowl to mark the event David painted a pastel of pictures of his career, regaling the attentive gathering with heretofore unspoken stories of incidents normally left on tour, in which the ever-youthful Lavan and Fitzsimons featured large.
s rships sporst chola S
port Scholarships were awarded to 28 Trinity students at a ceremony held in the Pavilion Bar in December 2010. The scholarships were awarded by Trinity’s Department of Sport and Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC) in 13 different sports and were presented by the CEO of the Irish Sports Council, John Treacy.
Pictured from left to right: Scott LaValla, rugby; Sarah Dolan, rowing; Natalya Coyle, athletics and Tom Brennan, kayak.
David Judge DUHC 1st XI Captain 1956/57 with Roger West, President of the Club.
In March of this year, players and supporters of the sQuAsh rACkeTs Club gathered to celebrate 75 years of squash in Trinity. Jonah Barrington and Trinity’s All-Ireland Club Championshipwinning teams of 1992 were also honoured with Hall of Fame awards.
Dublin uniVersiTy hArriers AnD AThleTiCs Club celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the first Colours Match between Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin at an awards dinner in May. The Athletics Team of 1961, which won all ten of its competitive matches that year, was inducted into the DUHAC Hall of Fame. Trinity Today | 53
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SPORTS | News
munster rugby
charity cycle in trinity M
Prof Orla Hardiman of TCD with, from left to right, Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul Darbyshire, Ronan O’Gara and Paul O’Connell of Munster Rugby prior to a fundraising cycle for Motor Neurone Disease research.
unster and Leinster players set aside their rivalry when they came together to take part in the Motor Neurone Research Fundraising Cycle in honour of Paul Darbyshire and in aid of Motor Neurone Disease research in Trinity. Paul Darbyshire, who died on 20 June 2011, was Munster Head of Strength and Conditioning for the past four years and was diagnosed last September with Motor Neurone Disease. Paul continued to carry out his duties with the squad – until the severity of his illness forced him to retire – with a characteristic courage and humour that has been an inspiration to all. The cycle was supported by 60 cyclists who set off from Portlaoise that morning on the final leg of the cycle which ended in Paul’s home town of Warrington. Munster legend Mick Galwey, along with his Munster management colleagues, Shaun Payne and George Murray, were amongst those completing the Cork–Dublin run and they and their fellow cyclists were greeted at the Pav in Trinity by international squad members Shane Jennings, Eoin Reddan, Robert Kearney, Mick O’Driscoll, Peter Stringer and John Murphy, as well as Malcolm O’Kelly, John Fogarty and a host of fellow rugby personalities.
Healthand
SPORTS WEEK
T
his year’s Health Week was a great success with lots of participation by students and staff. The week started in style with a flash mob on Front Square. Over 50 people unleashed their inner Fred Astaire and strutted their stuff in front of a crowd of delighted, if not a little surprised, onlookers. The dance theme was continued throughout the week with free disco, waltz and salsa classes available. This year Exercise Hour was introduced with staff being given an hour during the week to fit in exercise. There was also plenty of activity for those interested in more holistic elements of health. Dr Eva Orsmond of Operation Transformation fame was the key-note speaker for the week. The mindfulness and relaxation sessions were a big hit, the gardening workshop From Seeds to Soups and Salads was as popular as ever and lots of people availed of the opportunity to get a free massage in the Sports Centre.
A scene from
the flash mob
on Front Squa
re.
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News | SPORTS
TriniTyRegatta B
oth the Dublin University Boat Club (DUBC) and the Dublin University Ladies Boat Club (DULBC) enjoyed numerous victories at the annual Trinity Regatta which took place in April 2011 at the War Memorial Garden, Islandbridge. Their victories included both of the Senior eights races and all of the men’s sculling events. The Regatta is one of the most important events in the College sporting calendar and has been held every year since 1898 with the exception of during World War I. It features a combination of competitive racing and a great day out for spectators. The Regatta course runs from Chapelizod to the weir at Islandbridge and offers multi-lane racing. The annual Trinity Regatta is hosted by Trinity College and the DUBC. Competitors include intervarsity rowing teams and other Irish Amateur Rowing Union (IARU) clubs from around Ireland. Hundreds of spectators attended the event and the luncheon including Provost Dr John Hegarty and Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Dr Leo varadkar. Former DUBC captain, international rower and global adventurer Mark Pollock B.A. (1998) was also present. Following a tragic accident last year, Mark’s appearance was a highlight of the day. His good nature, determination and bravery continue to provide inspiration to Trinity rowers. The prize giving ceremony was presided over by DUBC President Des Hill.
Trinity Reg
atta, April
2011.
trinity win rugby colours AGAINST UCD – IN MAJOR UPSET!
A
t the annual Colours rugby match held recently in Donnybrook a strong Trinity College side upset their UCD rivals when they edged their way to a 31–22 victory, denying UCD the Division 2 championship and regaining the Colours title. The fixture marked the 59th annual Colours rugby match, the highlight of the rugby season.
The winning team in action.
Numerous tries and penalty kicks from both sides kept the match close throughout with only a point separating the teams at half time. A controversial late penalty try under the posts and a yellow card for the offending UCD scrum half proved to be the deciding moment of the game, giving the Trinity side the nine point cushion they needed to seal the Colours encounter against their rivals UCD. After a somewhat unlucky season, the Trinity team, who went into the game as the underdogs, proved that they had the skill and determination to compete at the highest levels in the league. Director of Rugby
DUFC, Tony Smeeth said: “The win made all the hard work that we have put in worth it. The lads were outstanding in their execution of the game plan – it was all about the players.” The match marked the final game of the season and secured Trinity’s position in mid-table, preventing old rivals UCD from securing the Division title which went to Ballynahinch. Despite the agonising defeat for UCD they will move up to play in Division One next season as runner up in the league. The winning TCD Team: 15 James O’Donoghue, 14 Neil Hanratty, 13 Ciaran Wade (Conor Colclough 58), 12 Tim McCoy, 11 Shane Hanratty, 10 Dave Joyce, 9 Mick McLoughlin (Sam Bell 62), 1 Ian Hirst (Paddy McCabe 60), 2 Tim O’Mahony (Craig Telford 65), 3 James Gethings, 4 Colin MacDonnell, 5 Pierce Byrne, 6 Scott Lavalla, Dominic Gallagher, Johnny Iliff (Alan Mathews 48). Trinity Today | 55
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SPORTS | Cricket
Dublin University CRICKET CLUB
(DUCC)
by Gerard Siggins
Participants in the DUCC 175th anniversary game. Back row: Prof Jim Wilson (president), Ian Morgan, Ewan Crawford, David Pigot, Charlie Butler, Conor Hoey, Jonathan Harte, John McGrath, Michael Halliday, Michael Rea, David O’Neill, Chris Harte, and Graeme Guthrie Front: Oliver Posgate, Richard Forrest, Iain Synnott, Eoghan Delany, Carl Hosford, Gerard Siggins, Prof Trevor West, Nick Wheeler, Dominick Joyce, Cormac Neill, Graham Walsh, Apoorv Vyas, and Aidan Neill.
T
he Cricket Club celebrated its 175th birthday in June 2010 with a commemorative match and dinner. It was a glittering occasion for a Trinity club which has had a few lean years – and one which inspired several who attended to resolve to join the battle to restore its fortunes. A committee was formed and has helped with fundraising and other initiatives to assist the student club. Briain O’Rourke, the leading coach in Leinster, was recruited and a Newcastle University player was funded to travel to play on an exchange scheme. A Friends of Trinity Cricket bursary has also
Two one-day matches were staged under the captaincy of Conor Hoey and Johnny McGrath, and those who played included former Irish internationals Michael Rea, Mike Halliday, Chris Harte, and Dom Joyce. The guest list included dozens of former captains and those who travelled came from Australia, Singapore, France and Canada, as well as many from the UK. It was memorable event for a Club with many memories. College Park was in spectacular condition and David Hackett and his hard-working grounds staff were further rewarded when the ground was selected to host the Leinster Senior Cup final for the first time since 1949. An Ireland ‘A’ fixture against MCC was also held in July. But while the 175th birthday was enjoyed, it is fair to say that the scores of returning players found the club at perhaps its lowest ebb. The 2010 season saw the first XI relegated from Division 2 of the Leinster Senior League, in the first season the leagues were reorganised. Cricket in College has always been hamstrung by the short Trinity term, with many students disappearing far and wide by the middle of June. DUCC have had to cram their fixtures into the often damp depths of April and College Park is studentfree for the best of the Irish summer. New term structures have made this situation worse and the first XI league season is now over by the third week in May, although the intervarsities competition and junior league sides carry on to the end of June. While the first XI finds itself in the unfamiliar territory of Division
Cricket has been played in Trinity since the 1820s, but the first evidence of a constituted club dates from 1835. The 175th anniversary celebrations saw more than 80 former members return to College Park.” been inaugurated which will commence for 2011–12 and has already drawn great interest from leading schools players. The Club has already seen an upswing in interest, partly spurred by the excellent performances of Ireland at the ICC Cricket World Cup in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. One of Ireland’s leading batsmen in the tournament, Ed Joyce, is a Trinity Economics and Geography graduate and played for DUCC each season from 1999–2002. Cricket has been played in Trinity since the 1820s, but the first evidence of a constituted club dates from 1835. The 175th anniversary celebrations saw more than 80 former members return to College Park. 56 | Trinity Today
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Cricket | SPORTS
The Club now fields three teams in the Leinster leagues – for the first time since the 1930s – and a thriving women’s team too.”
th anniversary game.
A scene from the 175
Ed Joyce entered Trinity in 1998, already a full international. For years, he combined his April-June in College Park with July-September at Lord’s with Middlesex. His Trinity record was excellent, capped by one stunning century to snatch a victory against YMCA shortly before his finals. Even with a career which took him to the greatest venues in the game – and another match-winning century for England in the Sydney Cricket ground – the oasis off Nassau Street still occupies a place in Joyce’s heart. He has returned twice to play in reunion games and regularly keeps in touch with Trinity’s fortunes. “I greatly enjoyed my time in Trinity,” he said recently at the launch of the new bursary scheme. “I would encourage any youngster to play there – there are few finer grounds to play at than College Park.” “No matter what you do in cricket afterwards, you’ll never forget those days.” The 175th anniversary dinner also tied in with the 40th anniversary of the last time a Trinity team won the Leinster Senior League, and Michael Halliday organised a memorable reunion for most of that XI. The 1970 champions who attended included Joel McKenna, Johnny Shaw, John Silverstone, Eoin Deering, John Frankland, Chris Harte, and Hector Deane. Earlier eras of the club were strongly represented, with vincent Kelly from the 1940s, John West and John Atkinson from the 1950s, and Roger Kynaston from the 1960s. No-one has contributed more to the club over half-a-century than Trevor West, and there was a standing ovation when a special presentation was made to the indefatigable “Westy.” As the evening wound down, a special appeal was made to graduates who enjoyed their sport in College Park to help ensure that it remains available to future generations. An evening on the balcony of the Pav supping a pint and watching cricket as the sun sinks over the Berkeley Library is a warm memory shared by thousands. Long may it continue!
3, all is not gloom for Trinity cricket. April saw the arrival of as good a crop of first years as there have been for many years, and the debut century by Eoghan Conway of Rush was a notable landmark in the Club’s history. Conway has played for Ireland at Under-13, Under-15, Under-17, and Under-19 level, while Darren Nicol has been capped at Under-15 level. Opening bowlers Fred Mann and Niall Delany, and opening bat Hugh Pike have also showed great promise for the years ahead. The Club now fields three teams in the Leinster leagues – for the first time since the 1930s – and a thriving women’s team too. They follow in a proud tradition which dates back to the years following the Napoleonic wars when cricket had an upsurge in popularity in both England and Ireland. The earliest reference to the game in College was of a visit by Ballinasloe but once the young gentlemen got themselves organised the Trinity Club went from strength to strength. Throughout Queen victoria’s reign, it was the foremost Club in the land, producing dozens of players for the Ireland team which started playing in 1858. Even when the game started its decline in Ireland in the 1880s, Trinity cricket remained strong and the last decade of the 19th century was arguably our ‘Golden Age.’ Men such as Lucius and Arthur Gwynn, Clem Johnson, Frank Browning, and Dan Comyn were to the fore as Trinity took on and beat the best of English sides. Warwickshire were bowled out for 15 on one memorable day at Edgbaston. Modern students find it hard to believe that DUCC was a regular feature of the programme of touring sides to England – their predecessors faced the might of Australia (twice), South Africa (three times), India, and West Indies! Gerard Siggins was at Trinity from 1979–84 and was president World War I and the departure of the British, saw the sport of the Cricket Club from 1993–97. A professional journalist decline steeply, but league cricket had started in Leinster and writer, he has had three books published on cricket, as in 1919 and the 1920s were another strong period for the well as a history of the Lansdowne Road stadium. student club. Some of the best cricketers in the country were at Trinity, including Jacko Heaslip, Jim Ganly and the peerless George Mcveagh, who beat the 1928 West Indians almost single-handedly in College Park. Trinity were an occasionally strong force for the next half century but the 1970 league win of Michael Halliday’s team was the last time the club found its name engraved on a senior trophy – although there were narrow defeats in cup semifinals in 1987 and 2001. While names such as Gwynn, Mcveagh and Halliday will always live on in Trinity cricket history, the brightest shining star is Irish international Ed undoubtedly that of a man who still earns his Joyce in action. living as a professional Sussex player in the A scene from the 175th anniversary game. English county championship.
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ALUMNI | Honorary Degrees
Honorary Degrees Winter Commencements - December 2010
Summer Commencements - July 2011
» professor Derek briggs Sc.D., is a palaeontologist and Director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University and was conferred with a Doctor in Science. He is recognised internationally for his research on the preservation and evolutionary significance of exceptionally preserved fossils. He is the author and editor of a number of books that have become benchmarks in paleontology.
» micheal Johnston D.Ed., educational leader and founder of the Dalkey School Project and Educate Together, was conferred with a Doctor in Education. The Dalkey School Project was established in 1974 as the first publicly-funded, independent and multi-denominational primary school in the country. Johnston was the first Chairman of its Board of Management and has been a driving force for the establishment and expansion of the independent schools ever since. In 1984, he set up Educate Together as the umbrella organisation of the sector. Today there are 56 Educate Together schools in the publiclyfunded primary school system.
» sister Cyril mooney D.Ed., educational reformer and Head Mistress of Sealdah Loreto Day School in Kolkata, India, was conferred with a Doctor in Education. For more than 50 years she has been an energetic pioneer in the education of girls from the poorest backgrounds and spearheaded a model for mixed education where girls from very different social classes are educated together. Her model of training women to act as teachers in their local communities has been very influential. » pat matthews LL.D., Executive Director of the Irish Society of Autism and Past President of the World Autism Organisation, was conferred with a Doctor in Laws. During a lifetime of commitment to people with autism he has changed the way in which people with autism are regarded and treated in society. He has campaigned most forcefully nationally and internationally for the rights of people with autism and has pioneered a deeper understanding of autism. » norah kelso M.A. has recently retired as Alumni Relations Officer in the Trinity Foundation at Trinity College, a position she held since 1994. For more than 25 years she has been the public face of the College to its alumni. Throughout this period she played a pivotal role in the organisation of all major annual alumni events and has acted as Secretary to the TCD Association and Trust. The College community wishes to acknowledge her long and distinguished service to College and its alumni with the award of an honorary Master in Arts.
, Professor Derek Briggs, L-R Provost Dr John Hegarty, Norah Kelso ey, Pat Matthews. Moon Cyril r Siste son, Robin Mary cellor Chan
» Jonah barrington LL.D., a squash player who won the British Open six times, was conferred with a Doctor in Law. He discovered his talent for the sport during his time as a student in Trinity, where he was a keen member of the College’s squash team. As an athlete, coach and sports advocate he has revolutionised the playing of squash internationally and is responsible for the highpowered training underlying the game today. He is largely responsible for transforming squash from a minority game to a professional sport. » lubna olayan LL.D., Deputy Chairperson and CEO of Olayan Financing Company and one of the most influential businesswomen in the Middle East, was conferred with a Doctor in Laws. A strong supporter of women’s education and of greater understanding of Islamic cultures and religion in the Western world, Olayan is also a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, the Board of Trustees of the Arab Thought Foundation and of KAUST, the newly established SaudiArabian Science and Technology University, with which Trinity is developing links.
L-R Chancellor Mary Robinson, Micheal Johnston, Lubna Olayan, Jonah Barrington and Provost Dr John Hegarty.
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Remembering Trinity Charles Edwards – Why I am leaving a legacy to Trinity When Charles Edwards B.Comm. (1989) first came to Trinity from London in 1961, four others from his secondary school in Shrewsbury, England, came with him. His circle of friends soon grew and to this day, he remains lifelong friends with many of them. Trinity remains a steadfast, fixed and fond memory in his life. His favourite quote is from his friend Hamish Riley-Smith B.A. (1963) who said “those of us who went to Dublin had unknowingly won the lottery in life.” While Charles built his family business in antiques and lighting in London, he continued to recommend Trinity to family and friends. He has remained a committed supporter of students who face financial hardship, not least because he remembers how that felt.“I remember so well what it was like to be broke and cold in Dublin. I was always shown amazing kindness and generosity by Irish people.” More recently, Charles has decided to leave a legacy to Trinity. His motivations are clear. “I had a fantastic time at Trinity and I am also a great believer in giving to charity. It makes me happy to do this.”
Yo u r l e g a c y will make a d i ff e re n c e
For more information contact Trinity Foundation t. +353 1 896 2088 e. foundation@tcd.ie www.tcd.ie/alumni/legacies
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alumni | Awards 2010
The Alumni Awards 2010
The 2010 Alumni Awards were presented at a gala dinner in November 2010. Compere for the evening was Peter Fallon M.A. (1976). The recipients were presented with awards in recognition of achievements in their respective fields and for the contribution that they have made at home and abroad.
About the awardees
Prof PATRICK BRENNAN
M.A. (J.O.), Ph.D. (1967) The outstanding quality of Patrick Brennan’s research, together with his personal dedication to the elimination of leprosy and tuberculosis, is recognised throughout the world. He has served as Chairman of the World Health Organisation Programme for Tropical Disease Research and as research advisor to the Sasagawa Memorial Health Foundation who, through the Nippon Foundation, underwrites most of the Global Leprosy Elimination Campaign. Patrick was born in Co. Roscommon in 1938 and completed his secondary education in Blackrock College. He graduated from University College Cork before coming to Trinity College to undertake research, leading to a Ph.D. (1965), on the mode of action of the anti-tuberculosis drug, Isoniazid. In 1976 Patrick left Ireland for the USA to join his wife, Carol, who had been appointed an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado. He went on to hold senior posts in the National Jewish Centre for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine and the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver before being appointed Associate Professor, Professor and ultimately Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University (Fort Collins).
HARRIET BRIDGEMAN
M.A. (1964) Viscountess Bridgeman is Founder and Executive Chairman of The Bridgeman Art Library Ltd. Graduating from Trinity College Dublin in 1964, Harriet Bridgeman was appointed executive editor of The Masters, a weekly art monograph. Following this, she conceived, edited and produced another magazine, Discovering Antiques, for which she formed her own production company. Seeing the opportunities for a one-stop photographic archive of works of art, she founded the Bridgeman Art Library in 1972. The Library has since enjoyed continuous expansion, with branches in New York, Paris and Berlin, representing over 2,000 international museums, galleries, private collections and artists. In 1997, Viscountess Bridgeman was awarded the European Women of Achievement Award in the Arts in recognition of her role in promoting European culture and in 2005 was voted the International Business Woman of the Year in the International Business Awards. She is a founder member of BAPLA (The British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies) and represents them on the British Copyright Council. In 2006, she founded the Artists’ Collecting Society to collect Artists’ Resale Rights.
DR MARTIN McALEESE
B.Dent.Sc., M.A. (1984) Following his graduation from Queen’s University Belfast with a B.Sc. in Physics, Martin McAleese went on to train and work as an accountant. Subsequently, he graduated in dentistry from Trinity College Dublin and ran a very successful general practice in Co. Armagh, with a focus on orthodontics. When his wife, Mary McAleese, was elected President of Ireland in 1997, Martin wholeheartedly devoted himself to support her work of bridge-building between all communities on the island. In particular he has sought to develop greater trust and reconciliation among communities in Northern Ireland, notably involving the working class loyalist community in his native Belfast. Martin has promoted various initiatives encouraging these loyalist communities to move away from a culture of paramilitarism towards a future of peace, prosperity and constructive community development. 2010 saw the launch of “Your Country, Your Call”, a national competition which was the brain-child of Martin McAleese. The public were asked to submit transformational proposals that, when implemented, would secure prosperity and jobs for Ireland. The winners were selected from a phenomenally successful response in September 2010.
DR Michael Peirce
B.A.I., M.Sc., M.A., Ph.D., M.A.I. (h.c.) (1964) Michael Peirce graduated from Trinity Engineering in 1964 and then moved to ICI in the UK. He returned to a lectureship in the Engineering School in 1972, was awarded a Ph.D. for his research in the manufacture of computer systems and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1975. He established one of the first campus companies at Trinity in 1978 and subsequently resigned his position to become the Managing Director of Mentec Ltd. which, in a very short time, became one of Irelands largest “home start” IT Companies with offices in the USA, UK, Belfast and Europe. Mike moved from secure employment to establish Mentec and has been a role model for entrepreneurs for over three decades. From the outset, Mike believed that Ireland could position itself in the high tech arena by providing specialised services to niche markets. Mike is highly regarded in the business world and has always maintained a huge commitment to Trinity. He still gives seminars and lectures on real life engineering. and is a member of the Engineering School Development Board. Through his leadership, optimism and forthright attitude, Mike is a true pioneer and a wonderful role model.
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Awards 2010 | alumni
Professor Iggy McGovern recited his poem written especially for the occasion
Worlds 1
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And were you tempted to engage In vuvuzela-fuelled rage When one hand, as you know, no doubt Forced Ireland to sit this one out? Forgotten now as we sound brass For four who truly are world-class. The first at Colorado State Has laboured long to dissipate The baleful scourge of leprosy (good works begun at Trinity). No one can equal in mere wealth His contribution to world health. The second saw that artistry (like books) must have a library; The founder of the Bridgeman Art Where science plays a crucial part In bringing to us at a glance This vital world inheritance.
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The third knew from the poet how Important was ‘a local row’: He strove along with his soulmate To ‘take away this murdherin’ hate’ And by example to ensure A just response to the world’s poor. The fourth was much the first to see How intellectual property Transferred into the market place Provides a sound financial base For growth in this computer age Home-grown for the world wide stage.
7 From left to right 1. Beate Schuler, Martin Naughton LL.D. (h.c.) (1995) and Carmel Naughton. 2. John Erwin M.B., M.R.C.P.I., M.A. (1975) and Karen Erwin M.A. (1972). 3. Paul Drechsler B.A.I. (1978) and Wendy Drechsler. 4. Tony Mahood B.A.I. (1964) and David Cuffe. 5. David McConnell M.A., F.T.C.D. (1978), Patrick Cunningham and Pat Molloy B.B.S., LL.D. (h.c.) (1969). 6. Lady Alison Deeny, Sir Donnell Deeny B.A., M.A. (1973), Eileen McGovern and Ignatius McGovern M.A. (J.O.) (1983). 7. Greg Heys and Deirdre Heys. 8. Anne Lloyd and Dr David Lloyd.
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The four worlds represented here Are worthy of a World Cup cheer: Forgive him, yes, but not forget M’sieur Henri’s unsporting debt; Their honour (and ours) now demands You make loud noise with both your hands! Iggy McGovern M.A. (j.o.) (1983)
November 2010
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alumni | Events
Christmas Commons, December 2010 1
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From left to right 1. David Watchorn B.A. (1993), Yvonne O’Gara, Charles Watchorn M.Sc. (Mgmt.), M.A., F.C.A. (1974). 2. David Grindle B.A.I., M.Sc. (1991), Clive Moutray B.A.I. (1991). 3. John Burke, Valerie Burke B.A. (1999). 4. Marie Fanning, Orla Maguire, Mary Butler Ward LL.B., M.A. (2003), Mary Benson.
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5. Marc Whisker B.Sc. (Syst.Inf.) (1998), Lorraine Whisker B.A. (1971), Neville Whisker B.A. (1969). 6. Paddy Butler, Aoife O’Brien, Fionnuala Tansey M.B.A. (1992), Patrick Collins. 7. Melissa Webb M.A., LL.D. (h.c) (1965) Angela Somerfield, Janet Pasley B.A. (1955). 8. Paul Beausang, Margaret Beausang, Fred Hurley B.A., B.Sc. (1944), Finola Newton.
TCD Association & Trust Dinner, May 2011 1
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From left to right 1. Pauline Brereton B.A. (1961), Ann Budd M.A. (1968), Michael Brereton B.A. (1963). 2. Michael McKillen M.A., PH.D., (1965), Marion Courtney-McKillen M.A. (1980). 3. Mary Jennings M.A. (1956), Clodagh Bowen B.A. (1969), Trevor Bowen B.B.S., F.C.A. (1971). 4. Eavan O’Brien M.A., Ph.D. (2003), John Walsh B.A., M.Litt., Ph.D. (1997). 5. Michael O’Siadhail B.A., M.Litt. (1968) and Corinne Harrison. 6. Patrick Geoghegan, Neasa Ní Chinnéide Hegarty, Melissa Webb M.A., LL.D.(h.c); (1965), Provost Dr John Hegarty.
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Events | alumni
Pimms in the Pav, June 2011 1
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From left to right 1. Caroline Kiroska (née Tisdall) B.A. (1994), Daniel Watkins, Tanya Kenny B.A. (1994). 2. David Carroll, Caroline McCarthy B.Sc. (Surv.), A.R.I.C.S. (1993). 3. Ruth O’Byrnes B.A. (2002), Jean-Bernard Isabelle B.B.S. (Lang.) (2002). 4. Eamonn McMackin M.B. (2010), Blathnaid Bohan B.Sc. (Pharm.) (2008). Ruben Feldman B.A. (2007). 5. Musical ensemble ‘4 in a bar’ - Paul McGough M.A. (2005), Tristan Caldwell, Ciaran Kelly, Eoin Conway. 6. Abby Hicks, Grainne Dooley B.A. (1991), Dan McSwiney B.A. (1991).
Trinity Ball NYC, June 2011 1
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From left to right 1. Grainne Conroy B.B.S. (2009), Meghan Brown B.A. (2009), Suzanne Gaffey B.A. (2009). 2. Jim O’Sullivan B.A. (1986), Provost Dr John Hegarty, Tony Murphy B.A. (1981). 3. John McCambridge B.A. (2008) and Reachbha Fitzgerald B.A. (2007). 4. Caitriona Curtis, Sophie Gorman, Lenka Marinkovic. 5. Tom Kennedy, Val Kennedy, Bill Maguire B.A. (1983), Roz Zuger M.A. (1952). 6. Declan Prenty, Caroline Duggan B.Mus.Ed., M.A. (2001), Shane Naughton M.Sc., M.A. (1994), Kristy Brooke Moore.
7. Rosemary Dooley LL.B (1996), Gareth Fitzgerald, Pauline Turley B.A. (1996), Jennifer Taaffe B.A. (1997). 8. View from the Boathouse, Central Park. 9. Provost-elect Prof Patrick Prendergast B.A.I., Ph.D. (1987). 10. Revellers at the end of the night.
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ALUMNI | Events
Medical Tercentenary Celebration, August 2011 1
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From left to right 1. Rory Stewart, Laura Morrissey, Terence McCoy, Antoinette McCoy, Olusola Ade Onojobi M.B. (1959), Delia Ade Onojobi, Jean Holohan M.B. (1980). 2. Kaye Marshall, Deirdre, Christopher Whitfield M.B. (1955), Leonie Whitfield and Lauren Paciej. 3. Edmund Bourke. 4. Owen Morgan M.B. (1963), Mohammed N Mohamdee M.B. (1963). 5. Prof Dermot Kelleher M.B. (1978) addressing guests at the opening ceremony. 6. Prof Adrian Hill, Chair of the Tercentenary Board. 7. Dame Beulah Bewley M.B. (1953) being presented with a Tercentenary scroll by Provost Patrick Prendergast B.A.I., Ph.D. (1987) 8. Evelyn and Malcolm Graham M.B. (1947).
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9. Angela Skuce M.B. (1988), George Little M.B. (1988), Lynda Sisson M.B. (1988) and Aengus Ă“ Marcaigh M.B. (1988). 10. Yvonne May, Michael Brennan M.B. (1972), Elaine Brennan and Garrett May M.B. (1969). 11. Una and Tom Farrell M.B. (1993). 12. Constantin Benierakis M.B. (1957), Hui-Pin Teh M.B. (1964), Kim See M.B. (1963), Hwee-Leng Lim M.B. (1959), Ip Sau Sheung and Jonathan Chiu M.B. (1966). 13. Betsy Keath, Bill Powderly, Susan O'Reilly M.B. (1976). 14. Jackie Khoo M.B. (1986), Jeremy Lewis and Elisabeth Robinson. 15. Norman McWhinney M.B. (1973), Judy McWhinney M.B. (1973).
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Events | alumni
TCD Alumni Weekend, August 2011 1
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From left to right 1. Ann O’ Neill B.A., Barrister-at-law (1981), Sara Shar-Lev (née Ashe) B.A. (1981), Liz O’Donnell B.A. (1981), Siobhán Madden (née Lohan) M.A. (1981). 2. Vanessa Johnston (née Millard) B.A. (1991), Elaine Comyn B.A. (1991), Felicity McGrath (née Casey) B.B.S. (1991). 3. David Havers B.A., M.Sc. (1971), Kathleen Havers (née Casey) B.A. (1972). 4. Victor Talbot B.A. (1971). 5. Emer Kelly B.B.S. (1991), Helen O’Sullivan B.B.S. (1991). 6. Stephen Fuller B.A.I. (1961), Anne Fuller. 7. Valerie Roche M.A. (1972), Huntly Lauder B.A., Ph.D. (1971), Monika Lauder B.A. (Mod), Ph.D. (1971). 8. Felicia Olima B.SC. (MGMT.), M.A. (1981).
13
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9. Trevor Orr B.A.I., M.S.c. (1971), Michael Webb, Melissa Webb M.A., LL.D.(h.c) (1965), Brian McMurry M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D., Fellow Emeritus, M.R.I.A. (1953), Sara McMurry M.A. (j.o.) (2001). 10. Ian Keith B.A.I., C.Eng. (1976), Claire Wheeler B.A.I. (1976), Robin Fitzgerald B.A.I. (1976). 11. Fionn Murtagh B.A.I., M.Sc. (1976), James Armstrong B.A.I. (1976), Barbara Van Der Puil, Nichola Armstrong, Henk Van De Puil B.A.I. (1977). 12. Sandra Fay B.B.S. (1991), Elaine Watters (née McGuinness) B.B.S. (1991), Provost Patrick Prendergast B.A.I., Ph.D., (1987), Erin Bland (née Fitzsimmons) M.A. (1971), Katherine Harte B.A. (1981). 13. Georgina Knott, Michael Knott M.A. (1961). 14. Ann Boland, Tressan Scott (née Deeny) M.A. (1961), Patrick Cunningham.
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alumni | Class Notes
Class Notes NEWS FROM TRINITY ALUMNI AROUND THE WORLD
2000s Ivan McAdam O’Connell B.A. (2003) After graduating with a joint Psychology and Economics degree, Ivan worked as a teacher for two years in one of the eight ‘most exceptionally challenging’ comprehensive schools in London, as part of the inaugural TeachFirst cohort. After leaving TeachFirst, Ivan joined a leading global financial services organisation working for periods in Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles and London. Ivan is currently working in Singapore managing the European desk for European-based multi-national companies operating in Asia. Ivan is active in the Irish business community in Singapore, and in his spare times enjoys travelling in the region.
Diana Hogan-Murphy B.Sc. (Pharm.) (2006)
Diana Hogan-Murphy (on left) in Antartica.
Over the last two years Diana Hogan-Murphy has realised her wildest dream of being the first female to complete a 250km extreme multi-day ultra marathon on each of the seven continents. Events included the Marathon des Sables in the Sahara in Morocco; the Trans Alpine in Germany, Italy and Austria; the Gobi March in China (winner); Desert RATS in the USA; Atacama Crossing in Chile (3rd); Racing the Planet in Australia and finally the Last Desert in Antarctica last November (winner). The Cork-born pharmacist works in Cavan General Hospital and lives in Galway.
Terence Cavanagh B.A. (2006) Terry achieved international recognition in the games world earlier this year when he launched a game called VVVVV through his own company www.distractionware.com which was shortlisted as best game at the International Festival of Independent Games.
Yibo Hu M.Sc (2008) Yibo is currently managing his own business in Ireland (B&T Computers Ltd). He also owns an offshore company in China doing outsourcing work between Ireland and China. His company provides various opportunities between China and Ireland and is actively looking for opportunities between the two countries. He would be very interested in talking with anybody interested in his business.
Marie Louise Heavey M.A. (2006).
Marie Louise Heavey M.A. (2006) Lawyer “TCD was always the university for me, even at a very young age. While attending secondary school at Loreto College, St Stephen’s Green, I used to pass Front Gate every morning watching the various students of TCD and waiting for my time to come. In terms of BESS as a degree course, it was the perfect fit for me. BESS gave me a broad introduction to the various aspects of the business and corporate world. Upon graduating, I decided to pursue a career in corporate law with a specific interest in banking and finance. Having qualified as a lawyer in Ireland, I am now working with one of London’s leading law firms, specialising in aviation and asset finance. I am still involved with TCD as a committee member of the Trinity Business Alumni (TBA) which organises networking events for graduates engaged in various business activities. Upon relocating to London, I discovered that the TBA had a presence here and I am delighted to be part of the TCD network which has strong links across a vast range of industries and reaches into some of the world’s leading businesses.”
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Class Notes | ALUMNI
dearBHail mcdonald ll.B. (2000) legal editor, The Irish Independent
Dearbhail McDonald LL.B. (2000).
SUBMIT CLASS N A O ONLINE TE A T ww
w.tcd.ie /alumni “After my A levels, I briefly flirted with the idea of drama school in London, but settled for the drama in the Law School at TCD instead. I was in everything but the Christmas crib, playing in the orchestra, singing in the choirs and debating with the Law Society for years. I had a fantastic experience, academically and socially. Mostly I recall four years of great friendships and laughter which have lasted the years. I took the road less travelled as a law graduate who shunned a career in the law, ending up as a journalist. But I studied under great academics and tutors who taught us to look beyond our formal legal education. This led me towards a career in writing and ultimately, a career writing about the law. I began my journalism career with The Sunday Times and joined the Irish Independent in 2006 as Legal Affairs Correspondent where I now hold the position of Legal Editor. I have recently published my first book Bust: How the Courts Exposed the Rotten Heart of the Irish Economy, with Penguin Ireland.”
1990s roiSin FiTzpaTricK B.B.S. (1990) Roisin Fitzpatrick – Artist of the Light, one of Ireland’s leading contemporary artists, is delighted to announce the opening of her exclusive exhibition of solo artwork, in collaboration with the Irish American Heritage Museum, at the Irish Consulate in New York from 3 October - 16 November 2011. This exhibition will provide a contemporary interpretation of all aspects of light, from the illumination of Newgrange at the winter solstice to various aspects of light in nature including the Whirlpool galaxy, water crystals and fractal designs. Each piece of art expresses beautiful, intricate patterns with simple elegance using natural silks and fine crystals to create entirely unique art forms. Following a career at the United Nations, European Commission and European Bank, Roisin experienced a near death, life-changing event from a brain aneurysm which ultimately inspired the creation of the Artist of the Light contemporary artwork collection. See www.roisinfitzpatrick.com for further information.
Roisin Fitzpatrick with Irish Consul General Noel Kilkenny; Newgrange 2011
conrad BurKe m.Sc. pHySicS (1996) Founder of innovalight “I did my B.Sc. (Hons) in Physics at UCD and later on moved to Trinity to work with Dr John Hegarty who, at the time, was head of the Physics Department, and very well-known globally for his breakthrough work in Conrad Burke M.Sc. Physics (1996). high-speed optoelectronics for communications and fiberoptics. He was extremely supportive as supervisor for my M.Sc., in the same field of optical communications. We have remained very good friends since and get together regularly. Having a degree from Trinity has opened up so many doors for me. I have had a very international career having lived in Germany, UK, USA, and Japan. Everywhere I go in the world, everyone knows Trinity. I started Innovalight in 2005, a company that has developed a silicon nanotechnology ink that is sold to the world’s top manufacturers of high performance solar cells. Innovalight was presented a Technology Pioneer Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2006 for developing one of the most revolutionary semiconductor materials seen for the past 40 years. In July 2011, Innovalight was acquired by DuPont Corporation. Prior to Innovalight, I was executive vice president of sales for Bookham (now Oclaro) and a venture partner at Sevin Rosen Funds, a US venture capital firm. I also worked in research in Japan for NEC Corporation and later for AT&T in the US. I live in Silicon valley, California with my wife and two children, returning regularly to Ireland. I am an avid promoter and coach of startup entrepreneurs. A personal career highlight for me was in October 2010, when I received an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at a ceremony in Dublin presented by President of Ireland, Mary McAleese.” Trinity Today | 67
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ALUMNI | Class Notes R YOU ACT I T N N CO UM W AL T O L L FE INE A ni ONL ie/alum
.tcd. www
Sarah Webb B.A. (1991) Author.
SaraH WeBB B.a. (1991) author “I studied Modern English and History of Art and graduated in 1991. I chose Trinity College as my mother, aunt and grandfather had all studied there – Melissa Stanford is my mother – and I knew the campus from being brought to visit my grandfather’s rooms from a very young age. What I remember most about Trinity is the sailing! A lot of sailing with the Trinity 1st team. We won pretty much everything going, from the intervarsities, to the Bradford Barrel in the UK, and the Welsh Dragon. Academically, I really enjoyed both History of Art and English. I read some fantastic novels during my 3 years of English – books I have never forgotten, such as Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eyes. After leaving College, I decided I wanted to work with books, so I became a bookseller, first with Hodges Figgis, then Hughes and Hughes, Waterstone’s, and finally, with Eason’s. I started writing when I was 25, and I have now published nine adult novels, four children’s novels in the Ask Amy Green series for young teens and other non-fiction books – some 27 books in total. I was recently shortlisted for the Irish Books Awards and the UK’s Queen of Teen Awards. I also volunteer at Roddy Doyle’s writing centre for children, Fighting Words, review children’s books for the Irish Independent, and programme the children’s section of the Mountains to Sea Literary Festival. My websites are www.askamygreen.com and www.sarahwebb.ie.”
deirdre mceacHern m.a. (1991)
cHriSTopH HendriK mueller B.a. (1996)
Deirdre is president of vIP Coaching based in Kittery, Maine in the United States. She has also spent the past 10 years writing and just published You Only Live Once: Create The Life You Want. Deirdre, once named business coach of the year by the Cambridge, Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, has given presentations, led training and delivered workshops for people in the US, Europe, Australia, the Philippines and India and numerous professional associations. She is also a former adjunct professor of sociology at Emerson College in Boston.
Christoph received his B.A. from Trinity in History and Political Science and recently published a book West Germans Against the West: Anti-Americanism in Media and Public Opinion in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-68.
andreW lacy B.a.i. (1992) Andrew lives in Munich in Germany, working as an Oracle DBA. He married a German girl and has two boys (more details to be found on XING/Linkedin). He would be very interested in catching up with the class of 1991/1992.
KaTHryn croFTon B.a. (1993) Kathryn has just published her first novel Circles in the Sand - A Dog’s Tale, inspired by a true story. 25% of the profits will go to seven Irish animal charities. It’s partly set in Trinity, as Kathryn loved her time here. Her website has just gone live at www.kathryncrofton.com. She would love to hear from anyone who graduated with her in 1993.
jameS ‘TurTle’ BunBury B.a. (1996) Turtle’s book Vanishing Ireland – Further Chronicles of a Disappearing World was recently shortlisted for the Bord Gáis Book of the Year Award. His next book will be published by Hachette in the autumn of 2011 and will chronicle the life stories of men and women across Ireland who were involved with a trade or way of life that is fading from our modern world. If you have any suggestions please contact Turtle via his website www.turtlebunbury.com.
glen Killane B.a. (1994) managing director, rTÉ Television “I chose Trinity College because my particular area of interest was English and I had heard it had a wonderful English department with fantastic lecturers. I had also heard that there was a Glen Killane B.A. (1994). great sporting and social scene. I came with fixed ideas on English Literature but my experience in Trinity showed me a whole new way of looking at the subject. I think one of the main things I learned from Trinity was to follow a career path about which I was passionate, where I could harness the creativity and love of learning which was so evident in the English department. My main interest postTrinity was in becoming a journalist. I wanted to write but ended up in television sports production. I began working in RTÉ in 1996 where I worked as a Sports Editor until 2000. Following a stint working for ITv Sport in London, I returned to RTÉ as Deputy Head of Sport in 2002 and became Head of Sport in 2004. I was appointed as Managing Director of RTÉ Television in June 2010.”
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Class Notes | alumni
1980s Kieran McLoughlin B.A. (1981) President and CEO of The Worldwide Ireland Funds “I chose Trinity because of the depth and diversity of the education provided. I adored my time there and took full advantage of the “Trinity experience”. Decades later I have many dear friends from those halcyon days. Trinity influenced my career, not in a specific sense, but generally by enhancing my sense of possibility and perspective. It was a privileged time. I am responsible for the Funds’ network of donors and events across the United States and its relationship with its sister organisations in 12 countries. Since its inception in 1976, the Fund has raised more than $370 million for over 1,200 projects North and South across the island of Ireland promoting peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development. I am focused in particular on developing major gifts across the Funds’ global network. Last year, the Fund launched its Promising Ireland campaign to raise $100 million for Irish charities to respond to greater need in Ireland. It is a privilege to be involved with philanthropists across the world who are so committed to and concerned about Ireland. Sarah and I and our three kids live in New York city where being Irish means you are given all the breaks and is a testament to the great goodwill our country enjoys.”
David Taplin M.A. (j.o.), F.T.C.D. (1983) David was recently awarded the prestigious title of President Emeritus of ICF: The World Academy of Structural Integrity in Sendai, Japan. David will also be attending the 13th International Conference on Fracture in 2013.
Mak Choong Moon M.A. (1984) After leaving Trinity, Mak Choong started to build his career and future back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He started in a construction site and worked his way up the corporate ladder. He helped to build a half way house for abused children. When the tsunami disaster struck his home town in Penang in 2004, he raised funds to rebuild the tiny village at Pulau Betong. This was a big project but with the help of local authorities the fishing village was rebuilt within eight months. After the tsunami he also launched and English language tuition programme to help children who were kept away from school in order to increase household income. After completion of the five year English tuition initiative, he decided to publish a book on Ulam – Salad Herbs of Malaysia. The book was launched on October 25, 2010 and the proceeds were used to roll out nationwide English language tuition to help countless students.
Paddy Moloney MUS.D. (H.C.) (1988) Paddy is an honorary degree holder and member of The Chieftans. He received a Medal of Honour for Lifetime Achievement in Music from the Fallen Angel Theatre Club and National Arts Club in New York on 27 January 2011.
Kieran McLoughlin B.A. (1981).
1970s Martin Connolly B.B.S (1972) Martin recently established the non-profit organisation Will Our World, whose goal is to support extremely poor rural communities in India to become self sustaining. His project is located in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and generally considered to have the highest number of people in India living in a poverty trap. Martin, who has spent most of the past 30 years working on development projects around the world, would like to hear from classmates from 1972 and other graduates who share a common vision about finding relevant solutions for the extremely poor and disadvantaged.
Nick Fitzgerald Brown M.A. (1972) Nick was long-listed for the inaugural Sunday Times-EFG Private Bank short story award of £25,000 this spring. He has been a fulltime author for the last 30 years. His works can be viewed on his website www.nicholasbest.co.uk.
Rosemarie Rowley M.Litt., M.A. (1974)
Rosemarie’s book length poem in terza rima, Flight into Reality, has just been re-issued by Rowan Tree Ireland Press. It is the longest original work in terza rima in English, and has been described by the late eminent poet Kathleen Raine as one of the best long poems about women’s experience written in recent times. Trinity Today | 69
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alumni | Class Notes
David Bunworth B.B.S. (1972) Businessman “I chose Trinity College because I felt its business studies course offered more than any other university. Equally important, it was located centre city and had a unique campus feel to it as a college. I enjoyed my four years in College as it met my expectations both academically and socially. The quality of lecturing was generally good and it developed me from the rote type of learning in school to a wider appreciation of thinking beyond memorisation. It was also perfect for my career as I wanted to move to a marketing career initially. In my 40s, I developed into more general management positions. Up to recently, I was Managing Director of Bord Gáis Energy. My responsibilities included sales, marketing, finance, regulatory affairs and customer operations. I have now decided to undertake specialised assignment work and some nonexecutive director positions. This is the latest move in my long line of appointments, which spans leading brands such as Aer Lingus, Guinness and ESAT, to name but a few.”
David Bunworth B.B.S. (1972).
Norville J. Connolly M.A. (1975) Norville graduated from Trinity in 1974 and apprenticed to Ian Bamford in the well-known and established solicitors firm of D & E Fisher Solicitors in Newry where he is now a partner and currently practices specialising in land law and company and commercial transactions. He was admitted to the roll of solicitors in southern Ireland in 1991. He is a long-standing member of the Law Society Council and a member of various committees including policy, general purposes and Finance and Client Communications and has chaired the remuneration, client complaints and the compensation fund rules change committees. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Laws in European and Commercial Law, has published articles in the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly and the Writ and has lectured in and chaired various Law Society CPD events.
Gemma Whelan B.A. (1976) Gemma has just published a novel Fiona: Stolen Child. The book was launched at the Wordstock Literary Festival in Portland. To find out more about Gemma please visit her website www.fionastolenchild.com.
1960s Jitendra R. Modi B.Comm., M.A., LL.B., D.P.A. (1961) Jitendra R. Modi started his career as a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance in Tanzania where he served as senior economist and Head of Economic Section over the period 1964-71. This was followed by a two-year spell as a fiscal expert on a UNDP Perspective Planning team in Sri Lanka. Subsequently, he joined International Monetary Fund in Washington DC in 1973 working as a government finance statistician for six years, as fiscal economist for 15 years and as IMF Resident Representative in Jamaica for 27 months. During that 25-year career span, he visited nearly 40 countries in the diverse regions of the world. Following early retirement from the IMF in 1997, he started working as an independent consultant and is also enjoying spending quality time with his children and grandchildren.
Foster Murphy B.A. (1962)
Norville J. Connolly M.A. (1975).
Over the last three years, Foster has been advising the World Student Christian Federation staff and officers on organisational issues. His consultancy, Charitable Futures, has, since 2002, seen him working with some 60-plus charities, local, national and international on strategic issues. The WSCF assignment is of particular note, as this was his first job. After studies in Cambridge, he was also the Irish Secretary of the Student Christian Movement.
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Class Notes | ALUMNI
rodney Senior B.a. (1963) One of Rodney’s great interests in TCD was sound recording, making a couple of 16mm sound tracks there and also several Choral and Singers concerts recordings. He made a couple of Gerard Gillen LPs one in TCD chapel on the NIRC label. He has recently made 40 private CDs of the late Bill Young’s singing broadcasts.
Terence (Terry) dormer m.a. (1965) Terry travelled to Africa in 1965, where he worked as a teacher in Uganda and a teacher trainer in Nigeria before joining the Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House, London in 1971. He had a broad range of tasks during his 32 years at Marlborough House, including service in the Private Office of the Commonwealth Secretary-General. Following his retirement in 2003, he has devoted an increasing amount of his time to underwater photography. In 2010, he signed a contract with the Natural History Museum in London, under which his images of marine species in their natural environments are available from the Museum’s picture library.
1940s joHn HigginSon m.d., F.r.c.p. (1947) John graduated from the School of Medicine in 1947. He then attended the Western Infirmary in Glasgow where he specialised in Pathology. He got his M.R.C.P. in London in 1949. He married in November that same year and then left in December for Johannesburg, South Africa where he was on staff at the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR). John developed an interest in environmental pathology and began to specifically conduct research into the epidemiology of cancer during this time. John subsequently went on to hold high level pathology positions in Kansas University Medical Centre and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France. From Lyon he moved to a post in Washington DC. He joined the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and also the faculty of Georgetown University. After retiring in 1997 from Georgetown, he moved to Savannah, Georgia where he continued to consult for a few more years. He will be 89 this October.
Simon coTTon m.B., m.a. (1949) Simon recently published the book Nine Camelots about the Cotton, Fitzsimon, Staunton and Gatenby families, which is now available in the TCD Library. The book includes memories from his time in Trinity and Dr Steevens Hospital, and features over 750 photos. The book is a non-commercial publication but Dr Cotton is happy to provide a PDF or DvD to interested persons.
roBerT marSden m.a. (1949) This year Canon Robert Marsden celebrated the 60th anniversary of his ordination as a curate of the Church of St James, James’s Gate, Dublin. The Reverend Marsden moved into the Parish in 1950 the same year as he married his wife Betty (nee Kirkpatrick). In 1978 he was appointed Canon of Clogher and he retired to Sandymount, Dublin in 1994. To mark the anniversary he visited his first church, now occupied by Lighting World Ltd.
SUBMIT CLASS N A O ONLINE TE A T ww w.tcd.ie /a
lumni
Terry Dormer M.A. (1965) with clownfish.
gaBriel j. SloWey m.B., m.a. (1968) A year after graduating from Medicine in 1968, Gabriel married Mary Keaveney. He joined the Family Practice Unit in Ottawa Civic Hospital a week later. He originally went to Canada "for just two years". He has been in the rural practice in Chesterville, ON since 1970. He became Coroner in 1975 and a Member of the Executive Section of General Practice, 1985 to 2007. He is a father to Gabrielle, Daragh, Clodagh, Emily and Brian.
Robert Marsden M.A. (1949).
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PROFILE | Class Notes
Long Journey
from
Singapore to Trinity – 1947
by Dr David Yeo M.B., M.A. (1958)
T
oday, I see there are a number of Asian students in Trinity. In fact, nowadays it is quite normal for Asian students to go overseas for their education. I suppose this is a reflection of the growing wealth of the Asia Pacific region. These days, ease of travel, accommodation, communication and English are all taken so much for granted that going overseas for any purpose, not to mention education is no longer considered exceptional. However, this is not always the case. Within living memory things were very different. I wonder how many Asian students in Trinity today realise how unusual going overseas used to be for an Asian and what the practical implications of it were. World War II had just ended. The Japanese occupation of Singapore from 1942 to 1945 was tough and living conditions were very poor. The practical implication for me was that at school we were forced to learn through the medium of Japanese, not English. So in fact as a school boy, I spoke very little English, if any at all. When the British returned to Singapore in 1945, my father perceived the need for his children to have a better education, and more importantly one in English, which would normally have meant going to the UK. However, our family Pastor in Singapore knew the Rev. Michael Ferran, the Dean of the School of Divinity at Trinity and he suggested Ireland as an alternative: there was no food rationing in Ireland after the war, Irish people were very kind and friendly and they spoke English! As a school principal, my father knew the educational conditions in Ireland were excellent and well known. So it
was decided in 1947 at the age of 15 that I would be sent to Ireland for my education. Rev. Ferran kindly would be my guide and mentor. I was lucky to get admission to St Columba’s College in Dublin. There I would have to study diligently to gain admission to the famous Trinity College. It took three weeks for the P&O’s S.S. Carton to get from Singapore to Tilbury docks in London. We stopped in Columbo, Aden and Port Said on the way. I travelled 3rd class in a cabin for four people. I was seasick in the Bay of Biscay. As P&O was a western company, the cooking on board was western as well – so no rice. I often ate curry rice with the Indian staff instead, when they were cooking for themselves. We arrived at Tilbury in January 1948. The darkness and
Altogether, I spent eleven and a half years in Dublin among the friendly and kind Irish. The Irish were always going out of their way to help and to make me feel at home.” the cold came as a real shock. My immediate concern on arrival was simply trying to keep warm. The education agents who had looked after the various administrative issues of my move accompanied me from London to Liverpool, and then by boat to the North Wall in Dublin. Finally, I had arrived safely in Dublin to face the coldest winter, that of 1948. The whole of Dublin city was covered with snow. The winter of 1948 was in fact a particularly harsh one. My introduction to Ireland was not so much a baptism
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Class Notes | PROFILE of fire as a baptism of snow. It was also the same year when Ireland won the Rugby Triple Crown for the first of its two years in succession. Dr Jackie Kyle and Dr Karl Mullen were leading players on the Irish team. Altogether, I spent 11 and a half years in Dublin among the friendly and kind Irish. The Irish were always going out of their way to help and to make me feel at home. I was in St Columba’s for four years and six years studying medicine at Trinity. I worked then as an intern doctor in Dr Steeven’s Hospital and the Rotunda Hospital. During those years, I returned home only once to Singapore. I travelled with KLM on a special student discount. The fare was £360 return – a fortune in those days. Although it was by air, it still took three days. The plane flew from London to Amsterdam, on to Zurich, then Karachi and Bangkok, before landing finally in Singapore. My years living inside Trinity were full of wonderful memories and experiences and were the happiest years of my life. I was fortunate enough to live and study inside College, within walking distance of lecture theatres, the library, social and sporting activities. I studied diligently and struggled to pass
my medical examinations in College. I was better known as the Asian boxer. I took advantage of a boxing ring and the four courts within the College gym. Through my natural coordination, interest and training, I managed to represent the Combined Irish Universities in both boxing and squash. I am convinced that playing games and joining the various activities within the University was a wonderful means to integrate and really get to know the country and the people. I wonder how well Asian students mix in today when going overseas to study? Is there a danger that they keep to themselves and spend as much time as they have just studying, simply because they do not have to make the effort to mix in nowadays? I hope not, for if they do, they will have missed a unique opportunity to add a whole new dimension to their lives – which in my case at least, has been the source of so much fun and happiness. I find sport is common ground, the space we can all share and celebrate. Sport is our opportunity to unite as one, regardless of language, religion, race, or age.
My years living inside Trinity were full of wonderful memories and experiences and were the happiest years of my life. I was fortunate enough to live and study inside College, within walking distance of lecture theatres, the library, social and sporting activities.
Dr David Yeo M.B., M.A. (1958), second from the right, with (from left) Dr Stanley Quek M.B., M.A. (1970), Mr Seng Chye Yam M.Sc. (1957) and Dr Hwee-Leng Lim M.B. (1958) at a function at the Irish Ambassador’s Residence in Singapore, March 2011.
The 1952 Trinity Boxing Team, David
Yeo is the first man on the left in
the back row.
Dr David Yeo M.B., M.A. (1958).
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ALUMNI | In Memoriam
r o t c i V n Joh
Luce
1921 - 2011
J
.v. LUCE, former vice-Provost and celebrated classicist, died in February 2011 at the age of 90. A Senior Fellow emeritus, he was the 62nd vice-Provost of the University from 1987 to 1989, a position which his father also held between 1946 and 1952. John victor Luce was born in Dublin in 1920. He was one of three children of Arthur Aston Luce and his wife Lilian (née Thompson). His father taught him the Greek alphabet when he was five. Educated at Baymount School, Dublin, and Cheltenham College, he entered Trinity College in 1938 to read Classics. He was elected a Foundation Scholar in his first year, a remarkable achievement. He took a double moderatorship in Classics and Philosophy, and was awarded gold medals for both subjects. He followed his bachelor’s degree in 1942 with a master’s in 1945. After three years as a Junior Lecturer at Trinity, he became a research student at Oxford, and from 1946 to 1948, he lectured in Greek at Glasgow University. Elected a Fellow of Trinity in 1948, he was then appointed in 1963 reader in Classics. Having served as Tutor and then Senior Tutor, in 1971 he became assistant Professor of Classics and in 1984 was appointed Erasmus Smith Professor of Oratory, in effect a personal chair in the School of Classics. He was Senior Dean from 1977 to 1985 and vice-Provost from 1987 to 1989. He also acted as the Public Orator at the College from 1972 to 2005. Active in Trinity life from his student days, he was auditor of College’s Classical Society from 1942 to 1943. A former chairman of Trinity Week committee, he was for many years honorary secretary of the Trinity Trust (formerly the endowment funds). He captained the College Hockey, Squash Rackets and Cricket Clubs, and played for the Phoenix Cricket Club First 11. He won six caps playing hockey for Ireland, and was selected for Oxford to play in the annual colours match against Cambridge. Later, as chairman of the Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC), he did much to improve College’s sports facilities. The End of Atlantis: New Light on an Old Legend (1969) is the best known of his many books. The Atlantean mystery has prompted the publication of some 25,000 books putting forward a variety of hypotheses, as well as numerous
J.V. Luce in the Senior
Common Room beside
a portrait of his father A.A
. Luce.
pamphlets, articles and websites. Other notable works included The Quest for Ulysses (1974), Homer and the Heroic Age (1975) and An Introduction to Greek Philosophy (1992), which Brian Fallon described as a “model of exposition and clear, non-specialist language.” He was also the author of Trinity College Dublin: The First 400 Years (1991). In 2000, he received the Runciman award for Celebrating Homer’s Landscapes (1998). He was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 1973 and to honorary membership of the Royal Dublin Society in 1992. He was elected president of the Classical Association of Ireland in 1995. Three years later, he was co-opted as patron of the Irish Institute for Classical Studies. A keen fisherman, he spent his free time in Westport, Co Mayo and also enjoyed playing chess. He is survived by his wife Lyndall (née Miles), daughters Kristina, Jane and Alice, brother Frank, sons-in-law Philip, Geoffrey and Greg and six grandchildren. Extracted from obituary in The Irish Times, 19 February 2011.
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In Memoriam
In Memoriam | ALUMNI
The University extends its condolences to the family and friends of the following alumni who died in the past year. Alderdice, David M.A. (1950)
Erskine, Janet M.A. (1971)
Marshall, William M.A. (1944)
Patton, Timothy M.A. (1961)
Allander, William M.A. (1937)
Faulkner, Frederick B.A. (1964)
Martin, Matthew LL.B., M.A. (1972)
Peake, Robert LL.B., M.A. (1964)
Allen, Arthur M.A. (j.o.), Ex-F.T.C.D. (1959)
Fawcett, Frederick M.A. (1949)
Matthews (née Moon), Joan B.A. (1946)
Pearson, William M.B. (1949)
Anderson (née O'Donnell), Mary M.A. (1979)
Fehily, Oliver B.COMM. (1951)
McAteer, John M.A. (1944)
Pigott, John M.A. (1950)
Archer, Thomas B.A. (1934)
Finlay, Hazel M.B. (1954)
McAuley, James M.A. (1951)
Pinkerton, Robert B.A. (1935)
Arthur, (née Corbett), Sarah M.A.,
FitzGerald, Garret LL.D. (h.c.) (1999)
McAvinchey (née Doran), Elizabeth
Prifti, John O.B.E., B.A. (1952)
A.R.I.C.S. (1973)
Fleury, Robert B.A., F.C.A. (1954)
B.A. (1974)
Rainsberry, Edward M.A. (1948)
Asmal, Abdul M.A. (j.o.), LL.D. (h.c.) (1966)
Foley, Frank M.Sc., M.A., M.I.E.I. (1937)
McCarthy, Callaghan M.Sc. (1998)
Reede, Samuel M.A., B.D. (1948)
Austin, (nee Proctor), Shirley B.A. (1949)
Fortune, Thomas B.Comm. M.A. (1953)
McCartney, William M.A. (1951)
Robinson (née Plunkett Dillon), Nora
Bacik, Karel B.A.I., C.ENG. (1962)
Foster, Frederic M.A.(J.O.), F.T.C.D. (1969)
McClure, Walter B.A. (1935)
B.A. (1946)
Barr, William M.A., B.D. (1944)
Frost, Helen B.A. (1999)
McDwyer, Helen M.A. (1976)
Robson, James B.A. (1967)
Barry, William M.SC. (1981)
Gardner, Ronan B.A.I., F.I.C.E., C.ENG. (1945)
McElwaine (née Gibbs), Frances
Rodrigues, Veronica B.A. (1976)
Beatty, Aidan B.A. (1979)
Geissel, Karl M.A. (1975)
B.A. (1958)
Roe, Robert B.A.I. (1946)
Bell, Niall B.A., B.SC. (1947)
Gibbens, Geoffrey, M.A. (1953)
McElwaine, Ian B.A. (1951)
Russell (née Webster), Dorothy M.B. (1940)
Best, Frederick M.A. (1940)
Gibson, Dorothea B.A. (1935)
McGowan, John M.Sc. (1974)
Sadlier, Laura M.Phil. (2009)
Bevan, Charles M.A. (1944)
Gilliland, Raymond B.A., B.Sc., Sc.D.,
McGowan, Ian M.A. (1962)
Sanderson (née Cole), Elizabeth
Blake, Ethel M.B. (1949)
M.R.I.A. (1940)
McKelvie, Colin M.A., F.L.S., M.I.Biol. (1973)
B.A. (1970)
Blood, Bindon B.A.I., M.A., C.ENG. (1957)
Gilmartin, Edward B.A.I., C.ENG. (1942)
McKenna, John B.A. (1977)
Sheehan, Patrick B.A.I. (1951)
Boland, Margaret B.A. (1943)
Girling, John B.A. (1973)
McKeon, James B.A. (1945)
Shire, William M.A. (1939)
Booker, William M.A. (j.o.) (1960)
Good, Donna B.A., M.Sc. (1990)
McLaughlin, William B.Comm. (1964)
Skerritt, David B.B.S., F.C.A. (1970)
Booth, Robert B.A.I. (1949)
Green, John B.A. (1980)
McLoughlin, Margaret M.A. (J.O.),
Slator, Edward M.A. (1941)
Brangam, George M.A. (1972)
Harty (née Seager), Elizabeth DIP.PHYS.,
M.SC. (1974)
Stanley, William Mus.B., M.A. (1978)
Brown, Robert M.D. (1944)
M.C.S.P. (1962)
McMillan, Alastair B.A.I., C.ENG. (1947)
Star, Ellie M.A. (1933)
Burns (née Myles), Elizabeth M.A. (1949)
Hawkins, John M.A.,B.D. (1935)
McQuitty, James O.B.E., Q.C., B.A. (ad eund
Steinberg, Jack M.B. (1945)
Burnstein, Nathaniel M.B. (1929)
Houston (née Adair), Florence B.A. (1940)
Oxon), LL.B., M.A. (1940)
Stewart, Patrick M.A.I., M.A., F.I.C.E.,
Byrne, Frederick B.COMM. (1953)
Houston, Thomas M.A., (1948)
McSparran, Samuel B.A. (1940)
C.ENG. (1951)
Caldwell, William M.A., M.D., F.R.C.PATH.,
Huggard, Eric B.A.I., M.A., C.ENG. (1941)
Metcalf, Simon M.A. (1966)
Strahan, Edith B.A. (1951)
F.R.C.P.I. (1940)
Irvine (née Last), Dorothy M.B., P.C.E.A. (1940)
Miles, Henry B.A. (1930)
Strain (née Johnston), Ethel M.B. (1944)
Carolan, Terence B.Sc. (Comp.) (1997)
Irwin, Albert M.A. (1938)
Milewski, Stanislaw M.B., M.A. (1954)
Tarlo, Hyman LL.B., M.A. (1943)
Carrick, William B.A. (1942)
Jeffers (née Clements), Margaret M.B. (1950)
Mitchell, Matthew B.A.I. (1967)
Taylor, William M.A. (1950)
Carter, Charles B.A. (1964)
Jenkinson, David B.A., B.SC., PH.D.,
Mitchell, Derek M.A. (1972)
Thornton, Michael M.A. (1956)
Carter, Terence M.A. (1952)
F.R.S. (1950)
Monks, Grainne B.A. (1983)
Tolland, James M.A. (1961)
Casey, Ann B.Sc. (Mgmt.) (2002)
Jones, William M.A. (1943)
Moore, Brenda M.A., PH.D. (1966)
Troy, Eamonn AGR.B. (1964)
Casey, Ann B.Ed. (Home Econ.) (1992)
Kavanagh, Joseph B.Sc. (Mgmt.) (1981)
Moran (née Quirke), Myrtle B.A. (1953)
Uprichard, Joseph B.A. (1964)
Collins, (nee O’Brien), Lynda B.B.S. (1986)
Keating, Henry B.A. (1952)
Moss, Graham B.COMM. (1956)
Walsh, Anthony M.A., LL.B., BARRISTER-AT-
Congreve, Ambrose LL.D. (h.c.), C.B.E. (2002)
Kelly, Thomas M.Phil. (1999)
Myles, Patrick B.A. (1947)
LAW (1967)
Conn, Robert M.A. (1938)
Kennedy, William M.A. (1945)
Napier, Henry B.A.I. (ELEC. ET MECH.), M.A.I.,
Walsh, Paul B.A., S.C. (1967)
Conniffe, Denis PH.D. (1974)
Kincaid, Alexander M.B. (1955)
C.ENG. (1937)
Wann, William B.A., M.SC. (1946)
Connolly, Ivan B.A., M.SC. (1946)
Kirwan, Valentine LL.B., M.A. (1958)
Ní Shúilleabháin, Máire B.A. (1986)
Waterstone, John M.A.I., M.A.,
Connolly, Denis B.A. (1976)
Lamb (née Tobias) Helen, M.A. (1939)
Nicholl, Harold M.LITT., M.A. (1944)
C.ENG. (1950)
Cooke, Madeleine H.Dip.Ed. (1960)
Large (née McCormick) Audrey B.A. (1950)
Nixon, George B.A. (1930)
Weir, Hubert M.A. (1942)
Copeland, Cathal B.A. (1980)
Larmour, Denis B.Comm. (1948)
Noble, Arthur M.A. (1935)
Wheeler, George B.COMM., LL.B.,
Cox (née Kirwan), Jill LL.B., M.A. (1957)
Lawson, George B.A., M.B. (Q.U.B.) (1944)
Nowlan, David M.B. (1958)
M.A. (1954)
Craig, Maurice PH.D., F.T.C.D. (1944)
Leitch, Matthew M.B., F.R.C.S.ED. (1939)
O'Connor, James B.A.I. (1978)
White, John B.COMM. (1953)
Crowley, Daniel M.B. (1944)
Lemon, George B.A. (1961)
O'Connor, Desmond PH.D.,
Whiteside, Nesta B.A. (1938)
Daly, Josephine B.Sc. (PUBL.ADMIN.) (1980)
Lenihan, Brian B.A., BARRISTER-AT-LAW (1981)
L.R.C.P.&S.I. (1962)
Wilkins, William B.A.I. (1943)
Darcy, Sinead B.A. (1994)
Leslie (née Weir), Elizabeth M.A. (1942)
O'Connor, Hubert M.B., M.A.,
Williams, Gordon M.A. (1947)
Daunt (née Mcbride), Elizabeth (Emma)
Lewin (née McBride), Anna B.A. (1943)
F.R.C.O.G. (1959)
Williams, Richard B.A.I. (1956)
B.A. (1932)
Lewis, James M.A., F.R.S.A. (1964)
O'Connor, Miriam DIP.EURO.PTG. (1985)
Williams, Nigel B.A. (1985)
Davies, Barry B.A.I. (1954)
Lockhart, Robert M.A. (1946)
O'Dwyer, Edmond M.Sc. (1967)
Williams, John M.A. (1940)
Day, John M.A. (1951)
Loughman, Patrick H.Dip.Ed. (1958)
O'Gorman, Joseph B.DENT.SC. (1933)
Williamson, Ernest M.B. (1947)
de Romilly, Jacqueline LITT.D. (H.C.) (1984)
Lowry, Robert M.A. (1944)
O'Loghlin, Charles M.Sc. (1974)
Wilson, James M.A.I., M.A., C.ENG. (1956)
Despard, Eric B.D. (1940)
Luce, John M.A., LITT.D., S.F.T.C.D. (1942)
O'Morchoe, Charles M.A., PH.D., M.D.,
Wilson, Thomas M.A., CHAPLAIN,
Dolan, Hugh B.A. (1978)
Lynam, James B.A.I., LL.D. (h.c.),
SC.D., EX-F.T.C.D. (1953)
R.A.F. (1951)
Dolton (née D’Abreu), Lorna M.B. (1941)
C.Eng. (1951)
O'Reilly, Thomas M.Sc. (ECON.) (1976)
Woodhouse, Hugh M.A., D.D., F.T.C.D. (1934)
Earle, Brian M.D. (1942)
Macaulay, Dudley B.A.I., M.A. (1958)
O'Riordan, Michael B.COMM. (1957)
Edmondson (née Hanstock), Evelyn
MacSeoin, Valentine B.Sc. (COMP.) (1981)
O'Sullivan, Richard B.A.I., F.R.AE.S.,
B.Comm. (1939)
Maguire, Benjamin B.A., O.B.E. (1942)
C.ENG. (1928)
Ennis, Alfred M.A.,B.D. (1929)
Mahon, Maureen B.A. (1954)
Parke (née Dickson), Maureen B.A. (1936)
Based on information available to the Alumni Office for the period 1 August 2010 – 31 July 2011. Trinity Today | 75
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ALUMNI | Affinity Groups
DUWGA T
Dublin University Women Graduates Association
he Dublin University Women Graduates Association (DUWGA) was founded in 1922 and was instrumental in increasing and promoting the status of women in College. Its aim was, and still is today, to enable women graduates to keep in touch with each other and with the University. Almost 90 years on, membership of the DUWGA is open to women graduates of any recognised University. We are affiliated to the Irish Federation of University Women (IrFUW) the International Federation of University Women (IFUW) and the University Women of Europe (UWE). Our members attend national and international conferences and meetings of these groups and we are also members of the National Women’s Council of Ireland. On a practical level, DUWGA is involved in the organisation of a national Public Speaking competition for girls under 15 and this is in conjunction with the other women graduates’ associations in UCD, Cork, Galway and Queen’s Belfast. In 2010, DUWGA hosted the annual IrFUW conference in Dublin on the theme of Meitheal, Community Connections, and we had a wide range of speakers including Senator David Norris and Presidential candidate Mary Davis. We hold our annual dinner in November and recent speakers have included the broadcaster Áine M. Lawlor B.A. (1984). This year we are looking forward to welcoming the viceChancellor and Provost of St. Andrews University, Scotland, Prof. Louise M. Richardson M.A. (1980). We value and maintain our links with College in a number of ways, such as our support for the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP). We award an annual bursary to the highest achieving Junior Freshman on the course and look forward to joining in the 2012 celebrations of the 10th anniversary of TAP. We organise a lunch for returning Scholars every Trinity Monday and we host the Graduate Reunion teas in August. We run a variety of cultural events for our members and guests such as gallery visits and theatre outings. In addition, we organise lectures with guest speakers throughout the academic year.
e the DUWGA committee members befor in. annual IrFUW Conference in Dubl
This year we have had a tour of the new Long Room Hub building in TCD, a visit to the newly opened Glasnevin Museum and a garden party with poetry readings hosted by our vice-President veronica Campbell B.A., M.Phil. (1993). Regular lunchtime outings take place to Bewleys Café Theatre and the well-established and expanding Poetry Group meet weekly in our rooms in Fenian Street. One of our most popular events is our Christmas talk, preceded by the Carol service in the Chapel and Commons. The newly appointed director of the National Library, Fiona Ross B.A. (1987) gave us a most interesting and entertaining talk last December. In terms of our social commitments, we fund and maintain a bursary fund which provides a small grant to a number of women graduates. This year we donated to the charity SAFE (Support for Afghan Further Education) whose aim ties in with the work of the IFUW to empower women and girls through lifelong education. Through the IrFUW and the virginia Gildersleeve Fund, we also contribute to a number of projects in developing countries. As we head into our 90th year, we recognise the achievements of the past whilst acknowledging the need to plan for the future. We are always delighted to welcome new members so why not visit our website www.duwga.ie and see what we have to offer! You can also email us at tcd.duwga@gmail.com. kristina odlum b.A. (1976) President DUWGA
Afghan school chi
Affinity Groups allow alumni with similar interests to maintain links with the College and each other. For information on other TCD Alumni Affinity Groups, please see www.tcd.ie/alumni/groups
ldren helped by the
SAFE charity.
Kristina Odlum (nee Luce) B.A. (1976) and Alice Stokes (nee Luce), B.A. (1981) with their mother Lyndall Luce (graduate of St. Andrews & former DUWGA President.
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Affinity Groups | ALUMNI
Trinity Business alumni
reaching out to New Members
T
he 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. The association has over 2,000 members in Ireland and abroad and is currently seeking to reach out to new members. All Trinity graduates working in the business arena are encouraged to join – membership is free to alumni and offers a host of benefits. The aim of the TBA is to provide graduates with an opportunity to connect and network via a series of high calibre events and in the last year the TBA has hosted a number of events including: » a select pre-election breakfast debate with finance spokespeople from the main political parties » a stimulating panel discussion with leading entrepreneurs in Ireland including Technology entrepreneur Dylan Collins and Bobby Kerr of Insomnia and RTÉ’s Dragons’ Den » In Camera Dinners with Willie Walsh, CEO of British Airways and Shane O’Neill, Chief Strategy Officer of Liberty Global and former Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan TD who passed away during the year, and Bob Smith, CEO of Pulse Tidal » A special evening examining the business value of Irish culture with guest speakers Eugene Downes, CEO of Culture Ireland, Declan Collier, CEO of the Dublin Airport Authority and Stuart Mc Laughlin, CEO of Business to Arts » A business breakfast on the theme of Analytics—Creating your own Upturn, hosted by Paul Pierotti, Accenture.
Events attract a mix of graduates involved in a range of business disciplines from large companies, small and medium enterprises, start-ups and more, across all sectors. All are welcome and the TBA committee endeavours to meet personally as many new members at each event as is possible. Keeping up to date with TBA news is simple. The dedicated TBA LinkedIn and Facebook groups enable members to connect online and to learn about upcoming events, which can be booked quickly and easily at www.tba.ie. If you are a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and currently working in the business arena we would encourage you to join the TBA. Membership is free. Members can attend as many or as few events as they wish, subject to availability. Its easy to join – just visit our website www.tba.ie or join the TBA group on LinkedIn or Facebook. As a further incentive, ahead of each of the next three TBA events, we will draw the names of two new members out of a hat to attend that event as special guests of the TBA. The current President of the TBA is David O’Donnell, Partner and Head of the Corporate Department, Mason Hayes+Curran.
Elle O’Driscoll, Joanna O’Driscoll B.A. (2004), Louis Mooney LL.B. (Ling. Germ.) (2002), at the Business Value of Irish Culture discussion. From left to right: At the Mason Hayes Curran/ TBA business breakfast on entrepreneurship were (back row) Shane Ross TD B.A. (1980), Dylan Latimer B.A. (2002), Alan Foy B.B.S., M.A. (2004), David O’Donnell, Colm Meagle and (front row) Dylan Collins B.A. (2002), Michael Murphy M.A. (1979) Kevin Neary and Bobby Kerr.
corporate partners
ley endan Fraw nlan and Br tmas party. ui Q rie le ris Va 1) at the Ch M.B.A. (198
From left to right: Brian Hayes, Joan Burton TD, and the late Brian Lenihan B.A (1981) with President of the TBA, David O’Donnell at the pre-election debate. Selina Cartmell, Rowena Neville and Naomi McMahon B.B.S. (2005) at the Business Value of Irish Culture discussion.
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ALUMNI | Branches
F
rom switzerland to singapore, Boston to Brussels, wherever life takes you, there is a Trinity alumni Branch for you. Branches organise activities and social events on behalf of alumni within the region. They also provide a channel of communications between their members and the University which means that even if you are living away from home you can keep in touch with College news. Branch events range from casual get-togethers to black tie events, from career networking to 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. all branches welcome new members. Please see the named contact for your region . If there is no branch in your area and you would like to set one up, please contact alumni.relations@tcd.ie for further information.
ion Further informat s including report ch an br nt ce on re t of activities and a lis ts is even upcoming branch .tcd.ie/ w w w on available alumni/groups
Alumni brAnChes BRANCH CONTACTS Usa & CaNaDa aLBeRTa Dr Thiru Govender tgovender@shaw.ca BosToN Tomas John Ryan tcdbostonalumni@gmail.com CHICaGo Ms Jacqui Kane jacquekan@aol.com CoNNeCTICUT & RHoDe IsLaND Maraidh Thomson maraidh@gmail.com GReaTeR NeW YoRK Ms aileen Denne-Bolton tcdalumninyc@gmail.com MID-aTLaNTIC Ms Brenda Kelliher tcdalumni@comcast.net NeW YoRK – UPsTaTe Mr Ronald Ferguson rferguso@twcny.rr.com
oNTaRIo Mr John G Payne trinitydublin@rogers.com PHILaDeLPHIa Mr Paul Maguire pmaguire@maguirehegarty. com saN FRaNCIsCo Dr Thomas G Browne thomas.browne@tcd-ussf. com VaNCoUVeR IsLaND Mr Patrick H. Wesley hickland@telus.net
soUTH aMeRICa aRGeNTINa Mr Juan (sean) M McCormick smcc@srgl.com.ar MeXICo Mr stephen TL Murray stephenmurray@yahoo.com
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Branches | ALUMNI
IReLaND aNTRIM + DeRRY Mr stanley & Mrs Joy White CoRK Mr Gerry Donovan donov@eircom.net FeRMaNaGH Ms Janet Goodall janetgoodall@aol.com KILDaRe Mr Michael J McCann tcd-kildare@infomarex.com NoRTHeRN IReLaND (BeLFasT) Mr William Devlin william.devlin@btinternet.com WICKLoW Dr eamonn Darcy emdarcy@eircom.net
GReaT BRITaIN
eDINBURGH Mr Christopher Haviland c.p.haviland@btinternet.com GLoUCesTeRsHIRe Mr Jonathan Moffitt jonathan_moffitt@ blueyonder.co.uk LoNDoN Ms Moira Gill gill.moira@gmail.com LoNDoN - TCD DINING CLUB Ms Marian McKeown marian.mckeown@ montagu.com MIDLaNDs (easT) Ms Rosemary May may.inglewood@ woodhouse-eaves.co.uk NoRTH oF eNGLaND Mr Martin Byrne ByrneMPJ@hotmail.com
CaMBRIDGe Mr R andrew Fox-Robinson ra.f-r@virgin.net
oXFoRD Mr Martin Gaughan martinigaughan@yahoo. co.uk
DeVoN + CoRNWaLL Mr Michael Clapham linacre101@yahoo.co.uk
YoRKsHIRe Mr Peter Fisher p.fisher@dsl.pipex.com
aFRICa easT aFRICa Mr Gerard Cunningham gerard.cunningham@unep.org KWaZULU-NaTaL John Conynham johnc@witness.co.za LIBYa Dr Mohamed Daw mohameddaw@gmail.com RePUBLIC oF soUTH aFRICa Mr anthony G Marshall smith marsmith@iafrica.com
eURoPe BeLGIUM Mr sean MacMahon trinityalumnibrussels@ gmail.com FRaNCe Ms Pamela Boutin-Bird pamela.boutin@free.fr GeRMaNY Mr James Löll loellj@gmail.com Ms elisabeth Mayer elisabeth.mayer@zuv.unierlangen.de Mr Dominic epsom Dominic.epsom@bmw.de ITaLY Ms Deirdre Beecher beecher_165@hotmail.com
asIa CHINa Chinese alumni association (Dublin based) Tao Zhang zhangt@tcd.ie sHaNGHaI Mr David Martin martindcp@gmail.com HoNG KoNG Ms Heidi Chan heidi.chan@nabasia.com
sPaIN Ms emma Naismith emma.naismith@gmail.com
INDIa Bangalore Mr sai Prakash sai@erinindia.com
sWITZeRLaND Mr Malcolm Ferguson malcolm.ferguson@ieee.org
NeW DeLHI Mr Rahul P. Dave rpdave@yahoo.com
aUsTRaLIa & NeW ZeaLaND
JaPaN Mr Leo Glynn tcdjapan@ yahoogroups.com MaLaYsIa Malaysian Irish alumni association www.miaa.org.my PaKIsTaN Mr Mahomed Jaffer mjaffer584@yahoo.com sINGaPoRe Ms Catherine Bannon Catherine.Bannon@dfa.ie Irish Graduates’ assoc. of singapore www.igas.org.sg/ index.php
soUTH aUsTRaLIa Mr Patrick Bourke pmbourke@chariot.net.au
aUsTRaLIaN CaPITaL TeRRIToRY Mr Tim Beckett tim.beckett@anu.edu.au
VICToRIa Mr Ciaran Horgan chorgan@internode.on.net
NeW soUTH WaLes Mr Dylan Carroll dylancarroll@gmail.com
WesTeRN aUsTRaLIa Mr alex o’Neil alexoneil@bigpond.com
QUeeNsLaND Mr Derek Fielding dfielding1@optusnet.com.au
NeW ZeaLaND Mr Douglas C. Rawnsley rawnsley@ihug.co.nz
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PROFILE | One-on-One
One-on-One Clinical Professor of Neurology orla hardiman gets up close and personal! what made you decide to become a doctor? I cannot really remember. It happened when I was about five years old and never really went away. I was a complete aberration – there are no medics in my family. My other love was classical history. I still have notions about becoming a historian in my old age. what does your typical day consist of? Reading, writing and editing papers, and grants most mornings. Then clinical meetings, clinics, ward rounds, more meetings, then reading, writing and editing papers, and grants. I usually cook dinner for whomever is around at home in the evening, followed by more reading, writing and editing papers, and grants... I use my bicycle to get around. how long have you been in your current role? I have been a consultant in Beaumont Hospital for 15 years. My academic position at TCD started in 2007.
what is your earliest memory? Climbing up the wheel of the pram to lift my baby brother. My intentions were entirely honourable, but grossly misinterpreted by my mother. what single thing (that does not cost the earth) would improve Trinity? More bicycle racks at the Lincoln Gate end. your favourite building in Trinity? The Long Room. I love the sense of history there. what period of history would you most liked to have lived in? On balance, I think I would probably settle for now. Women did not get much of a look-in in my profession until recently. Although I would not mind having dinner with Elizabeth I, or spending a day looking around 3rd century B.C. Athens, in between the wars.
what is your favourite time of the year in Trinity? Early summer, when there is a heady combination of anticipation and dread.
is the glass half full or half empty? Yes.
when and where were you happiest? In the here and now.
who would play you in a movie? I quite fancy myself as Meryl Streep. Except taller – me, that is.
what is your greatest fear? Mental incapacitation.
if you had to be stuck on a desert island with someone who would it be? Robin Lane Fox, the classical historian. He also writes a gardening column, which could be a distinct advantage. He might know something about edible cacti.
what is the trait that you most deplore in academics? Pomposity. what is the trait that you most deplore in students? Their taste for loud rap music.
what is the last book that you read? Amo Amas Amat and All That by Henry Mount in hardback, and at the same time Tony Judt's Reappraisals on my Kindle. how do you relax? I'm partial to music and reading, with chocolate. Any guilty pleasures that you would like to share with us? Chocolate. Dark. With Chilli. what do you like most about your job? The combination of challenge and diversity. And working with extremely clever young people who prevent any creeping complacency. what has been your greatest achievement? My four children, of whom I am immensely proud. is there a motto that you live by? I like Mark Twain's dictum "If you tell the truth, you do not have to remember anything.”
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TRINITY ALUMNI EVENTS
2011/12
When were you last
in College?
Make new friends or reunite with former classmates at the numerous events on campus or at our branch events worldwide. A diverse programme of lectures, dinners and networking events awaits you.
Highlights this year include: Christmas Homecoming
Career Network
Pimms in the Pav
TCD Alumni Weekend
A popular festive event that attracts both Dublin-based graduates and those returning from overseas to kick start the Christmas celebrations.
A June social evening in the Pav Bar where alumni can enjoy Pimms, great views of the cricket, live music and a fun prize raffle.
A lecture series designed for job seeking alumni, delivered by experts in career planning and development takes place every January.
Each August, alumni are welcomed back onto campus for a weekend of activities culminating in an evening banquet with the Provost.
Find out more about these, and a host of other events on our website – www.tcd.ie/alumni/events
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