Greek Hall Conversion, 1980 - Athchóiriú Halla na Gréigise, 1980
Item
Format
JPEG
Title
Greek Hall Conversion, 1980 - Athchóiriú Halla na Gréigise, 1980
Identifier
VHS0001
Depiction
Four men working on the floor structure of a hall
Description
Four men working on the conversion of the Greek Hall, with its tiered seating benches already seen to have been removed and work proceeding on removal of the substructure. Initially it was intended to become a flat-floored Council Chamber for Academic Council and Faculty meetings, but ultimately became the location for the administrative computing office.
The Greek Hall was the best-known of the three terraced lecture theatres in the Quadrangle and was particularly renowned to generations of students as the location for the robust Thursday-night meetings of the Literary and Debating Society (the 'Lit.& Deb.'), the Monday-night meetings of An Cumann Éigse agus Seanchais and other Society meetings. It was the venue for the visit of Donogh O'Malley, Minister of Education on December 7, 1967 to announce a £1.3 million grant to UCG, enabling the first significant physical expansion of the College in many years. The RTÉ Seven Days crew were present to record the event. The Minister first addressed the Literary and Debating Society (the Lit. & Deb.), at its invitation, here in the Greek Hall. During the packed meeting, some seats at the rear of the tiered lecture theatre collapsed, but luckily nobody was injured. The meeting then transferred to the Aula Maxima, where the grant was announced. With the advent in the early 1970s of the new Arts/Commerce and Science complex, with their large theatres able to accommodate the greatly increased student numbers, the Greek Hall (and the Latin Hall and Physics lecture theatres) fell into relative disuse, leading to this decision to convert it.
The Greek Hall was the best-known of the three terraced lecture theatres in the Quadrangle and was particularly renowned to generations of students as the location for the robust Thursday-night meetings of the Literary and Debating Society (the 'Lit.& Deb.'), the Monday-night meetings of An Cumann Éigse agus Seanchais and other Society meetings. It was the venue for the visit of Donogh O'Malley, Minister of Education on December 7, 1967 to announce a £1.3 million grant to UCG, enabling the first significant physical expansion of the College in many years. The RTÉ Seven Days crew were present to record the event. The Minister first addressed the Literary and Debating Society (the Lit. & Deb.), at its invitation, here in the Greek Hall. During the packed meeting, some seats at the rear of the tiered lecture theatre collapsed, but luckily nobody was injured. The meeting then transferred to the Aula Maxima, where the grant was announced. With the advent in the early 1970s of the new Arts/Commerce and Science complex, with their large theatres able to accommodate the greatly increased student numbers, the Greek Hall (and the Latin Hall and Physics lecture theatres) fell into relative disuse, leading to this decision to convert it.
References
NUACHT (internal official newsletter), Imleabhar 3, Uimhir 5, Márta 1980.
Contributor
Bibliographic Citation
C. Walsh, S. Mac Mathúna, 'Greek Hall Conversion, 1980 - Athchóiriú Halla na Gréigise, 1980', Visual History Retired Staff Collection, University of Galway Digital Collections, Asset Id 14701, Archival Record Id VHR
Spatial Coverage
Temporal Coverage
Period
1980s
Category
b&w
on-campus
indoors
on-campus
indoors
Language
English and Irish
Publisher
University of Galway Library
Rights
This image may be used for non-commercial purposes under CC BY-NC-SA see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/