List of NUI Galway people

The following is a list of NUI Galway people, including notable alumni and faculty members of NUI Galway and its forerunners; Queen's College, Galway created in 1845 as a college of the Queen's University of Ireland and University College, Galway chartered in accordance with the Irish Universities Act, 1908 as a university college of the National University of Ireland.

Alumni

Literary

• Emily Anderson – linguist and translator of the letters of Mozart and Beethoven
• James Hardiman – librarian
• W. F. Marshall – poet
• Breandán Ó hEithir – writer
• Valentine O'Hara – authority on Russia and the Baltic States

Scientific

• Alexander Anderson – physicist; former President of Queen's College and University College Galway; first person to suggest the existence of black holes^[1]
• Edward Divers – FRS, chemist
• Charles Joseph Gahan – coleopterist
• Frank Gannon – former Director General of Science Foundation Ireland
• Sir Joseph Larmor^[1]
• John A. McClelland – FRS, physicist
• A. G. Melville^[1]

Academia

• Louis Cullen – Professor of Irish History at Trinity College's Department of Modern History, described by Nicholas Canny (see #Faculty) as "the most prolific, most wide-ranging, and the most enterprising historian of his generation in Ireland"^[2]
• John Hegarty – Provost of Trinity College Dublin^[3]

Engineers

• Michael O'Shaughnessy – Chief Engineer of San Francisco, commissioned the design and construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and oversaw rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake and fires^[1]
• Alice Perry - the first woman in Ireland or Great Britain to graduate with a degree in engineering.^[4]

Medical

• Alfred Keogh – twice Director General Army Medical Services (1905-1910 and 1914-1918)^[5]
• Mick Molloy – appointed first ever IRB Medical Officer in 2005^[6]

Economic

• J. E. Cairnes – wrote The Slave Power, which influenced Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln and Karl Marx^[1]

Legal

• John Atkinson
• Joseph R. Fisher – barrister; editor of the Belfast News Letter; author; Unionist commissioner on the Irish Boundary Commission
• Walter Lewis
• Robert McCall
• John Monroe
• Christopher Nealon – lawyer, jurist, and political commentator
• Thomas O'Shaughnessy
• Andrew Reed
• Guy Rutledge
• Carmel Stewart – High Court Judge^[7]
• Raymond West – High Court Judge in British India
• Máire Whelan – Attorney General of Ireland^[7]

Ecclesiastical

• Samuel Angus – theologian^[8]
• Robert Moore – theologian
• Wilfrid Napier – Cardinal, Archbishop of Durban^[9]
• George Thomas Stokes

Business

• Nicky Hartery – Chairman of CRH plc, Ireland's largest industrial company^[10]
• Declan Kelly – founding partner and co-CEO of Teneo^[11]
• Ronan Lambe – co-founder of clinical research and biometric services company ICON; Europe's former Chief Operating Officer at the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology^[12]
• Pat Wallace – former Director of the National Museum of Ireland^[13]

Finance and banking

• John Hourican – investment banker; former CEO of Bank of Cyprus; former chief executive of Markets and International Banking for The Royal Bank of Scotland (from which he resigned over the Libor scandal)^[14]
• Seamus McCarthy – Comptroller and Auditor General of Ireland^[15]

Military

• General Bindon Blood – British military commander
• Captain Richard Crofton George Moore Kinkead R.A.M.C – killed in World War I; son of Professor R. Kinkead; professor of midwifery at UCG^[5]
• Lt Gen Sean McCann – former Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces^[16]
• Admiral Mark Mellett – Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces
• Major General Michael Beary – UNIFIL Commander
• Major General Kieran Brennan – Deputy Chief of Staff (Ops) and former Kilkenny hurler

Political and governance

Many of the leading lights of Ireland's Labour Party have been educated at NUI Galway. Left to right are Pat Rabbitte, Michael D. Higgins and (shaking the hand of Rabbitte) Higgins's successor Derek Nolan. The party's former Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore, is among other prominent Labour figures to have been educated at the university.

• Henry Arthur Blake – Governor of Hong Kong (1898-1903)
• William Alfred Browne – civil servant
• John Oliver Burke – diplomat^[17]
• John Dallat – SDLP politician
• Noel Dorr – diplomat, Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs^[17]
• Eamon Gilmore – former Tánaiste and Leader of Labour Party
• Fidelma Healy Eames – Senator
• Lorraine Higgins – Senator
• Michael D. Higgins – ninth President of Ireland
• Enda Kenny – 13th Prime Minister of Ireland
• Patrick Lindsay – Government Minister
• Antony MacDonnell, 1st Baron MacDonnell – Colonial Administrator^[18]
• Pádraig MacKernan – diplomat, Irish Ambassador to the United States and France, EU and Secretary General of the Department Foreign Affairs^[17]
• Bobby Molloy – Government Minister
• Rónán Mullen – Senator
• Derek Nolan – Member of Parliament for the Labour Party
• Trevor Ó Clochartaigh – Senator
• T. P. O'Connor^[18]
• Charles James O'Donnell – Colonial Administrator
• Frank Hugh O'Donnell
• Sean Ó hUigin – diplomat^[17]
• Tadhg O'Sullivan – diplomat^[17]
• Pat Rabbitte – Leader of the Labour Party
• John Sheehy – Colonial Official
• Seán Sherlock – Member of Parliament for the Labour Party
• Madeleine Taylor-Quinn – Senator
• Mary Upton – Member of Parliament for the Labour Party

Arts

• Keith Barry – performing artist^[19]
• John Coll – figurative sculptor
• Garry Hynes – Tony Award-winning Director and Druid Theatre Company founder^[20]
• Mick Lally – actor, icon of theatre^[21]
• Harry McGee – journalist^[22]
• Seán McGinley – actor^[23]
• Leo Moran – guitarist^[24]
• Marie Mullen – actress^[25]
• Colm Murray – sports-reader known for his horse racing expertise^[26]
• Nora-Jane Noone – actress^[27]
• Sean O'Rourke – of Today with Sean O'Rourke fame^[28]
• Gráinne Seoige – newscaster and entertainment presenter^[29]
• Martin Sheen – Hollywood actor, enrolled at NUI Galway in 2006 for one semester to study philosophy, English literature and oceanography^[19][30]

Sports

• Niall Burke – hurler^[31]
• Anthony Cunningham – hurler
• Ciaran Fitzgerald – former British and Irish Lion and Triple Crown-winning Ireland rugby captain^[32]
• Cormac Folan – Olympic rower^[1]
• Paul Hession – Olympic sprinter^[1]
• Olive Loughnane – Olympic racewalker and World Championships gold medalist^[1]
• Alan Martin – Olympic rower^[1]

Faculty

• Professor Alan Ahearne – economist working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)^[33]
• Nicholas Canny – historian and noted authority on early modern Ireland and Britain
• Ada English – one of the first female psychiatrists in Ireland
• Michael D. Higgins – later became the ninth President of Ireland^[24]
• William King – geologist who was the first (in 1864) to propose that the bones found in Neanderthal, Germany in 1856 were not of human origin, but of a distinct species: Homo neanderthalensis, the name of which he proposed at a meeting of the British Association in 1863, with the written version published in 1864^[34]
• George Johnstone Stoney – physicist who introduced the term electron as the "fundamental unit quantity of electricity"; first Professor of Science at the then new university; elder brother of Bindon Blood Stoney^[35]

References

1. "Interesting Facts And History About NUI Galway". Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
2. "Text of the introductory address delivered by Professor Nicholas Canny on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa, on Professor Louis Cullen" (PDF). 17 May 2002.
3. "NUI Galway Alumni Award for Law, Public Service and Government: Dr John Hagarty BSC 1969, PHD 1976 Provost, Trinity College Dublin". Archived from the original on 3 June 2015.
4. "The Institution of Engineers of Ireland". www.realizedvision.com. Retrieved 2016-05-24.
5. "University College Galway students in World War One". Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. Sir Alfred Keogh a former student of Queens College had held the highest rank within the Medical Corp. As Director General of the Medical Services, Sir Keogh closely assisted by another past pupil of Queens College, Peter Freyer, was responsible for the changes in the treatment administered by the medics for battlefield trauma. The first casualty of a total of fourteen killed in action during the Great War had been Captain Richard Crofton George Moore Kinkead R.A.M.C, son of Professor R. Kinkead, Professor of midwifery at U.C.G. Captain Kinkead who was attached to the 10th Hussars had been shot while attending the wounded just a few weeks after landing at Belgium during the first battle of Ypres.
6. "Molloy given new IRB medical role". BBC Sport. 12 October 2005.
7. "What Our Graduates Are Up To". Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
8. Dougan, Alan (1979). "Angus, Samuel (1881–1943)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Publishing (MUP). Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. He went on to the Collegiate School, Ballymena, then won a scholarship to Queen's (University) College, Galway, affiliated to the Royal University of Ireland (B.A., 1902; M.A., 1903).
9. "NUI Galway Graduate appointed Cardinal". 6 February 2001. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
10. "New man in CRH chair". Irish Independent. 12 May 2012. A native of Limerick, Mr Hartery graduated from UCC with a degree in electrical engineering in 1972 and later went on to receive an MBA from NUI Galway, before working for several American multinationals.
11. "Declan Kelly/Teneo Holdings". Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
12. "Honorary Degree Conferring Ceremony" (PDF). 2006. Dr Ronan Lambe graduated from NUI Galway with a B.Sc., and M.Sc. in 1959 and 1963 respectively.
13. Siggins, Lorna (20 September 1997). "Museum man torn between theme park and scholarship". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. He recorded the best Leaving Cert results in the county in 1966 and secured a scholarship to University College Galway.
14. Partington, Richard (7 February 2013). "John Hourican: an RBS timeline". Financial News. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Born in Ireland on July 24, 1970, Hourican attended the National University of Ireland in Galway, and Dublin City University, before starting work with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
15. "Seamus McCarthy, Comptroller and Auditor General". Standards in Public Office Commission. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015.
16. Byrne, Cormac (10 June 2010). "McCann takes over as Defence Forces chief". Evening Herald. Major General McCann lives in Newbridge, Co. Kildare but was born in Cork in 1950 and grew up in Tipperary where he was educated in Thurles CBS and in Cistercian College Roscrea. He attended college at University College Galway and is a graduate of the United States Command and General Staff College.
17. Finnegan, Patrick (26 June 2009). "TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS delivered on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, on PÁDRAIC MACKERNAN" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 May 2015. In 1959, Pádraic MacKernan came to Galway from his native Limerick and commenced studies as an undergraduate in UCG. [...] Paddy has maintained strong links with Galway and the University during his busy professional career and he is a worthy member of that cohort of Galway graduates, Tadhg O'Sullivan, Noel Dorr, John Oliver Burke and Sean Ó hUigin, who have pursued distinguished diplomatic careers in the service of their country.
18. Brillman, Michael (2009). "Bengal Tiger, Celtic Tiger: The Life of Sir Antony Patrick MacDonnell, 1844-1925". ProQuest. p. 334. T. P. O'Connor, Irish Member for Liverpool and a University College, Galway classmate of MacDonnell's ...
19. "CAIRDE" (PDF). January 2007.
20. "Druid's Garry Hynes to inspire Galway businesswomen". Tuam Herald. 23 February 2011. Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. Born in Ballaghadereen, Co Roscommon, Garry moved to Galway with her family in 1965. In 1971 she started an Arts Degree (History & English) in University College, Galway, now NUI Galway.
21. "NUI Galway President Pays Tribute to Actor Mick Lally". 31 August 2010. Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. A native of Tourmakeady, Co Mayo, Mick Lally, graduated from the University with a BA 1969, HDip in Ed 1970, and an Honorary MA in 1999 for his contribution to Irish theatre, at home and abroad. [...] His national and international reputation earned him the status as an icon of Irish theatre.
22. "Irish Times Journalist Harry McGee Appointed to NUI Galway Governing Authority; Údarás na hOllscoile". 19 March 2014. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
23. Smith, Andrea (15 March 2015). "Lunch with Sean McGinley: 'Acting can be a precarious business, but you learn to get over it.'". Sunday Independent. After school, Seán went to University College Galway, where he studied English and economics, and followed it up with a HDip.
24. "Saw Doctors are ready to rock in U.S.". The Irish Echo. 15 February 2012. Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. In one of their most obvious references to Irish society and culture, the band recorded a song entitled “Michael D. Rocking in the Dail” in 1994, celebrating the man who now holds the Irish presidency. Moran remains loyal to President Higgins, who taught him when he was a student at NUI Galway.
25. "Arts Tonight". RTÉ. 18 March 2013. Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. Vincent Woods meets actress Marie Mullen on her home ground of NUI Galway to talk about Druid, Galway and a life in theatre. [...] Actress Marie Mullen interviewed at her old alma mater, NUI Galway, with a student audience
26. "Aer Arann Alumni Award for Sports Achievement and Leadership" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 May 2015. BA 1972 [...] Following his Leaving Certificate in 1969, he enrolled as an Arts student in U.C.G. He graduated with an Arts degree in English, French & History in 1972 ...
27. Harrington, Katy (21 January 2013). "Always hiding in plain sight". Irish Independent. After school, she completed a science degree ("just", she adds under her breath) at NUI Galway and then moved to London, where she has lived for nine years.
28. "This much I know: Seán O'Rourke, Broadcaster". Irish Examiner. 13 February 2015. Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. When I went to University College Galway, it was always my intention to pursue a career in journalism on graduating.
29. Collins, Liam (11 January 2004). "Not the Nine O'Clock News for Sky's Grainne". Sunday Independent. Grainne Seoige was educated in Spiddal, Co Galway and studied English and Political Science in University College Galway before completing a Higher Diploma in Communications.
30. Steinberg, Jacques (10 April 2006). "'West Wing' Writers' Novel Way of Picking the President". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. And Mr. Sheen? At 65, he has decided to make good on a promise he made to himself long ago: to enroll, for the first time, in college. [...] he will began taking classes next fall — in English literature, philosophy and, he hopes, oceanography — at National University of Ireland in Galway
31. "Cunningham welcomes Galway return of Kavanagh and Callanan". 23 January 2013. Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. Cunningham must also plan without players like Niall Burke (NUI Galway) and Jonathan Glynn (UL) who are tied to colleges for the pre-season competitions
32. "Ciaran Fitzgerald". Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. He studied in University College Galway, gaining a BComm in 1973, and played for University College Galway R.F.C.
33. "NUI Galway economist appointed advisor to IMF". 16 June 2014. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015.
34. "William King". History of NUI Galway, the Science Faculty and associated scientists. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012.
35. Mulvihill, Mary (15 February 2011). "The man who 'invented' the electron". Archived from the original on 4 June 2015.