18.11.2024
NUI First World War Centenary Roll of Honour and Essays
Edited by Ronan McGreevy and Emer Purcell
Associate editor Tom Burnell
6pm Thursday 14 November 2024
On 14 November 2024 at 18:00, National University of Ireland launched NUI First World War Centenary Roll of Honour and Essays, edited by Ronan McGreevy and Emer Purcell, with Tom Burnell as Associate Editor.
In 1919, the National University of Ireland compiled a war list of all students, graduates, and staff of University College Cork, University College Dublin, and University College Galway, who had died or served in the Great War. As part of NUI’s Decade of Centenary programme, the original roll of honour is reprinted in this volume along with a collection of essays. A substantive introduction, accompanied by a selection of individual personal profiles by Irish Times journalist, Ronan McGreevy, brings the men recorded in the roll to life. In addition to NUI’s list, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland’s Honour Roll is also reproduced along with an essay by Patrick Casey, Kevin Cullen, and Joe Duignan, examining NUI doctors who served during the war. For the first time, a list of the chaplains from St Patrick’s College Maynooth is presented and their lives examined. Fionnuala Walsh discusses NUI’s women students, graduates, and staff and explores the ways in which they contributed to the war effort.
The evening began with a welcome address by Dr Patrick O’Leary, Registrar of NUI. He spoke about the contents of book, and how he it honours the past and the past students of NUI. But that it also contained lovely vignettes that will stimulate curiosity and further reading. He then introduced, Dr Maurice Manning, former NUI Chancellor, who officially launched the book.
NUI and its graduates played a significant role in the events leading up to the
foundation of and the shaping of the new State. But NUI was also of its time. It did
not speak with one voice. Its Senate was a Home Rule Senate and some of its staff
– most notably Tom Kettle – and many of its graduates volunteered to serve in
the Great War. Many died and some who returned did not find the new Ireland a
congenial place. But they are no less a part of the story of those years as their
classmates and colleagues who chose differently.
Dr Maurice Manning,
former NUI Chancellor
Dr Manning also took the opportunity to comment on the loss of Dr Gabriel Doherty to the history community in Ireland.
I had the honour and privilege to work with Gabriel Doherty for over
ten years as he was a member of the Expert Advisory Group on the Decade
of Centenaries. Gabriel was a fine historian who gave so generously of his time
to local history. I wish to offer my sincere condolences to his friends and colleagues
in UCC, and to his wife and family.
Dr Maurice Manning,
former NUI Chancellor
He also noted the loss of Eamonn Phoenix of Queens University Belfast, and commented upon how sad it was to have lost two gifted historians, and two young men too soon.
The students, staff, and graduates of NUI who fought in the war, and contributed
to the war effort more broadly, are honoured by being brought to life vividly in this
book. It chronicles another of the many ways in which the communities of the NUI
institutions contributed to over 100 years in the story of Ireland.
As the fifth book in our Decade of Centenaries publication series, it also
showcases an important current university contribution to today's Irish society
- broadening our understanding of the era in which the state was ultimately formed.
As I look forward to my term as the institution's Chancellor, I commit to sustaining
NUI's special role in recording and interpreting our past.
Professor Michael B. Murphy,
NUI Chancellor
The book is a roll of honour about NUI graduates who were involved in the war
In reality it is a portrait of middle-class Ireland’s participation in that conflict.
The students, graduates and staff within this book were not compelled as
James Connolly put it by ‘economic conscription’. They had everything to
lose from participating in this war and 80 of them lost their lives.
Ronan McGreevy,
journalist with the Irish Times and co-editor of the book
Dr Emer Purcell, Publications Manager, NUI, and co-editor of the book thanked her fellow editors Ronan McGreevy and Tom Burnell for their scholarship and enthusiasm, the contributors for writing such engaging essays, and all those who were involved in the publishing and printing of the book. She then brought the formalities of the evening to a close and invited everyone to enjoy the reception,
This book is the fifth in NUI’s Decade of Centenaries publication series.
Sales and distribution Four Courts Press www.fourcourtspress.ie
Images from the evening
Further information from:
Dr Patrick O'Leary
Registrar
National University of Ireland
49 Merrion Square
Dublin 2, D02 V583
Ph: 01 4392424
www.nui.ie
Twitter: @NUIMerrionSq
Facebook: National University of Ireland
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