Visual History Retired Staff Collection IMAGES

Item Set

Items

• Watching the cycle race, summer 1959
  This photograph was taken on Fahy's Field at the 1959 Co. Galway Sports Meet, in which students and staff of UCG participated. It captures the atmosphere of a local sports event in the 1950s. None of the people seen here have been identified.
• Ballina Chamber of Commerce, 1971
  This photograph is remarkable for showing two future Presidents of Ireland early in their careers. Mary Robinson, née Bourke, a native of Ballina, was Ireland's first woman President, elected in 1990 and serving in that office until her resignation in 1997. Michael D. Higgins, originally from Limerick and a graduate and staff member in UCG/NUIG, was elected to the office of President in 2011 and re-elected in 2018. Seen here, from left: Unidentified; Labhrás Ó Nualláin; Mary Robinson, née Bourke; Unidentified; Unidentified; Michael D. Higgins.
• Labhrás Ó Núalláin competing in a cross-country race, Phoenix Park, 1945
  Among the competitors pictured here is Labhrás Ó Nualláin (3rd from left), who was later appointed Professor of Economics in UCG. This cross-country race took place in the Phoenix Park in 1945. Seen here are competitors from Edinburgh [?] University and Trinity College Dublin. After World War 2, this event on 15 December 1945 was the first inter-university cross-country fixture between competitors from Ireland and Britain. It resulted in a win for Trinity over Glasgow University. At the dinner hosted by Trinity College, Professor Pearson of the Medical Faculty proposed a toast to the King, during which Labhrás remained seated.
• UCG Medical Society Dress Dance, February 1965
  This, the first UCG Medical Society Dress Dance, was organized by Eoin Ó Dochartaigh. It took place in the Warwick Hotel ('The House that Jack Built'), Salthill, in February 1965. The undergraduates in the photo were all Final Year Medical students. The Warwick was for many years a centre of social activity including student dances. It was demolished in 2019. Pictured here, from left to right: Back row: Des Collins, Gus O’Gorman, Noel Browne, Ger Cloherty, Dick O’Connell, Kieran O’Connor, Bill Curtin. 3rd row: Peadar O’Kelly, Terry Kavanagh, Bart Moloney, Brendan Healy, Myles McEvilly, Eoin Ó Dochartaigh, Tim Sheridan, Charlie Kickham, Luke Clancy, Louis Byrne, Terry Langan, Donal McGoldrick, Karl Fung. 2nd row: Staff members Jimmy Cranny, Dr Jim Doyle, Prof. Stephen Shea, Prof. Neil McDermott, Prof. Bill McHugh, and student John O’Donnell. Front row: Kieran Tobin, Moya O’Donnell, Anne O’Shaughnessy, Milano twins (Nana and Nina), Doreen Dunleavy, Eithne O’Gorman, Marion Vujevich.
• President Reagan and Séamus Keating, 2 June 1984
  President Ronald Reagan, accompanied by First Lady Nancy Reagan, visited NUI Galway on 2 June 1984. There he received an honorary doctorate of laws from the National University of Ireland, presented to him by Dr T.K. Whitaker, Chancellor of the NUI. On the same occasion he was presented with the Freedom of the City and a resolution scroll by Mayor Michael Leahy. On the right in this photograph is Séamus Keating, present in his official capacity as City and County Manager. The scaffolding seen in close-up supported the platform and covering erected for the occasion. The event was attended by many staff of the University, while others, objecting to President Reagan's policies, either remained away or engaged in protests off-campus. Both the event on the University campus and the protests in the city drew major media attention. Security on the ground was at a noticeably high level (Galway Advertiser), while significant numbers of aircraft were seen and heard over Galway in the course of the day. In the context of efforts to end violence in the North of Ireland, to which he referred on each day of his visit to Ireland, President Reagan made particular reference to President Colm Ó hEocha's role as chairman of the New Ireland Forum, whose Report had recently been published but 'was being largely ignored internationally, so his [President Reagan's] references to it were deeply appreciated in Government circles' (Dwyer 2014). The White Houses's official video and transcript of President Reagan's address on the occasion, held in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, are available online.
• Padraig Ó Céidigh (Paddy Keady) relaxing with his dog
  Pádraig Ó Céidigh, Professor of Zoology, was generally accompanied by his faithful companion to lectures and other academic events, as well as on social outings such as this one. The story is often told that when the dog was refused entry to the Library, on the grounds that he had no user card, Paddy Keady returned with him the next day, having somehow registered him as a student and obtained a card. The dog was granted admittance.
• Tennis courts, University of Galway, c. 1920s
  The two tennis players in the photo may be Rita Carlos, mother of Patrick Larkin, and her sister Nina Carlos. The tennis courts in front of the Engineering Building (now Block E) were later made into a carpark. The UCG Tennis Club was founded in the 1960s and in 2007 was re-established as a competitive intervarsity team. Instead of the long vanished courts pictured here, the University Tennis Club's members now have access to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club's facilities.
• Relaxing at Mace Head, Carna, 1958
  At the time this photo was taken, Frank Gaffney (left) and Tom O'Connor (right), of the Physics Department, were engaged in measuring atmosphere composition on the edge of the North Atlantic. Frank Imbusch records that: 'Tom O’Connor joined the staff of the UCG Physics Department in 1956 with a MSc degree from UCD and having spent a period in Atmospheric Physics research at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. With the assistance of Frank Gaffney, the Department’s technician, Tom set up a research facility to continue this research in UCG. In addition, a small weather station collecting daily weather reports was set up on campus, and Frank Gaffney collected and recorded the data. As Tom recalled in a 1999 article in 'From Queen’s College to National University' : “In the summer of 1957 I cycled around the coast of Connemra looking for a site for a research station which would receive air from the Atlantic Ocean which had not crossed over local sources of contamination such as roads or houses. An excellent site was located at Mace Head on the Ard peninsula west of Carna looking oit at the uninhabited Mac Dara’s Island and across the mouth of Bertraghboy Bay towards Roundstone to the northwest. Winds from the sector180 degrees N to 300 degrees N reach the site without passing over local sources of man-made pollution. A disused World War 11 coastal lookout post was leased and renovated, electricity was installed, and measurements of ionization equilibrium in maritime air began there in 1958. This work was strengthened and expanded when I was awarded the first research contract between University College Galway and an Office of the US Forces in Europe on the origin of very small particles or condensation nuclei in the atmosphere as a result of photochemical reactions of trace gases from natural sources” (T. OConnor, p. 208). Much work had to be done on the “excellent site” mentioned by Tom. He and Frank Gaffney cleared the site, which involved moving stones and boulders to improve accessibility to the station. Electricity had to be installed and windows repaired before equipment could be brought in. Eventually, in 1958, research activity began at the Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station. The present complex is a far cry from the small coastal look-out station that was its first home. In 2008 the Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station celebrated the 50th anniversary of its establishment, and Tom O'Connor and Frank Gaffney were both present. Indeed retirement did not stop him recording the daily weather data in NUIG. He only stopped recording weather readings in 2012.' (Frank Imbusch) The remarkable growth of the facility, which began as 'a small coastal lookout post adjacent to the present Mace Head station', took place in a series of steps. In 1975, the original site pictured here was augmented by 'the purchase of a larger (3 hectare) site at Mace Head [...] for use as a background baseline research station. The ruins of a cottage on the site were refurbished for use as a laboratory in 1985 and a standard meteorological recording system was installed there. From the beginning it has housed the most sophisticated of sensitive gaseous and aerosol particulate instrumentation.' In 1989-90 the cottage was extended and another laboratory was added on the shoreline. The facility, managed by the Ryan Institute, University of Galway, 'is the globally acknowledged clean background western European station, providing key baseline input for intercomparison with levels elsewhere in Europe.' ('History of Mace Head', 2008)
• Archaeology field trip, 1946
  Members of the Archaeological Society 1946. Back row: Unidentified; Unidentified; Patrick McSweeney; Eamon Joyce; Noel Keane. Middle row: Ms Gillespie; Aideen Timoney; Pete McCaffrey; Unidentified; Mrs Molloy (née O'Malley); Unidentified. Front row: Tadhg O'Sullivan; Ms Coyle; Carmel Kelly; Dr Colm Ó hEocha (later President); Cecily McNally (reclining); Daiden Fahy (with headscarf); Unidentified; Unidentified. Colm Ó hEocha and Daiden were married some 10 years after this photograph was taken and Colm was appointed Professor of Biochemistry in 1963. He was President of the University from 1975 to 1996. Archaeology Society outings attracted students taking Archaeology as a subject for their degree and other people who were simply interested in the general area. The impetus for these excursion from the late 1940s on came from Michael Duignan who was appointed to the Chair of Celtic Archaeology in 1945.
• Chemistry Department, UCG, September 1965
  This photograph of the staff of the Chemistry Department was provided by Professor Elizabeth E. Lee, affectionately known as 'Nellie', who died 18 April 2018. She was the daughter of Myles and Penelope Lee, Mainguard Street, Galway, 'a family renowned for its intellectual capacity and musical talent' (Eileen Scanlon). Among Nellie Lee's interests outside her career in Chemistry was her passion for camogie. Having been a noted player, in 1965 she became President of the UCG Camogie Club and her support for the sport was warmly appreciated by generations of students. People pictured here, from left to right: Standing: M. Muldowney, B. Hanniffy, S. Cusack, D. O'Hare, Micheál Ó hEidhin, L. Murtagh, Bro. Creggy, H. Lawless, Seated: Seán Ó Cinnéide, E. Lee, P.S. Ó Colla, P.A. Finan.
• UCG Men's Athletics Team, 1968
  In 1968 the University's Athletics team took part in the inter-university competition, as they had done since it was first held in 1873. Some of the team seen here were not wearing the UCG Athletic strip because of a shortage of singlets.  Pictured, from left to right: Back row: D. Geraghty, J. Sheil, P. O'Callaghan, M. Conlon, K. Naughton, [?] , Fr Tom Kyne. Middle row: C. Cunnane, B. Geraghty, L. Ó Murchú, J. Scanlon, M. Coleman, V. McNicholas. Front row: [?], N. Matthews, H. Rowan, [?], [?]. The first intervarsity athletics competition was held in 1873, on the Mardyke in the Cork Cricket grounds. 'This was not only the first intercollegiate athletics meeting held in Ireland, but also the world’s first national intervarsity athletics meeting' (Athletics Ireland), as distinct from an athletics competition between two universities, inaugurated by Cambridge and Oxford in 1864.  In 1968, the year of this photo, UCG had 4 athletics successes, all of them in women's events. Fionnuala Lysaght won the Women's 100m in a time of 15.5 seconds, and the 400m in 64.6 seconds;  in the Cross-Country Women's Individual competition Marion Keating  came first and the Women's Team won the team competition.
• Aran book launch, Kilronan pier, April 1994
  The central figure in this photo is Dara Beag Ó Fatharta, a native of Baile na Creige on Inis Meáin. A familiar sight to visitors to Dún Chonchubhair and much appreciated by them, he was 'always dressed in the traditional homespun trousers, aran jumper, waistcoat, tweed cap and crios' (Jackie Uí Chionna). Also pictured here are, among others: Jeff O'Connell (left, brown jacket), Pacella Uí Chonaola (right of Jeff), Dara Ó Conaola (left of centre, dark sweater), Anne Korff (right of centre, green trousers), Breandán Ó Madagáin (right, background, white beard),  This is one of 31 photos taken by Frank Imbusch at the launch of The Book of Aran on Inis Mór, Aran Islands, in 1994. Like many other book launches held in different parts of the country, this was a celebration of how the University's research contributes to local and regional life, and also underlines the importance of promotional events and social interactions off the main campus. It was attended by many islanders and mainlanders, including a considerable number of NUIG staff, most of whom travelled by bus to Rossaveal and by boat from there to Kilronan. In 1994, Gordon D'Arcy, one of the contributors to the book, described the experience  of bringing the first copies of the book across Galway Bay to the islanders ('Aran Delivery'). Among others present at the launch that day were Frank and Mary Imbusch, Michael D. and Sabina Higgins, Proinsias de Rossa, John de Courcy Ireland, Joe O'Halloran, Seosamh Ó Cuaig, Paul Walsh, Paddy Keady (Pádraig Ó Céidigh), and the book's editors, John Waddell, Anne Korff and Jeff O'Connell.