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University Life
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About University of Galway
About University of Galway
Since 1845, University of Galway has been sharing the highest quality teaching and research with Ireland and the world. Find out what makes our University so special – from our distinguished history to the latest news and campus developments.
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Colleges & Schools
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Business & Industry
Guiding Breakthrough Research at University of Galway
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Community Engagement
Community Engagement
At University of Galway, we believe that the best learning takes place when you apply what you learn in a real world context. That's why many of our courses include work placements or community projects.
News & Events
New technique for Parkinson’s stem cell brain repair brings promise for patients
Research funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation uses hydrogel to improve therapy Foundation awards grant support for further development of hydrogel following results Neuroscientists at University of Galway have made an exciting discovery that could revolutionise stem cell-based brain repair therapy for Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative condition in which brain cells slowly degenerate and die leading to a progressive deterioration in a person’s ability to control movement. It is estimated that there are 8.5 million people living with the condition worldwide, and 12,000 people in Ireland alone. Brain repair for Parkinson’s involves replacing the dead cells by transplanting healthy brain cells back into the brain. With recent advancements in regenerative medicine and stem cell technology, “induced stem cells” can now be used as a source of healthy cells. Induced stem cells are reprogrammed from adult cells, such as skin cells, and can be converted in the laboratory into the appropriate type of brain cell required for repairing the Parkinson’s brain. However, these skin cells-turned brain cells need to be transplanted into the brain at a very early stage in their conversion, and the vast majority of the cells do not continue to convert -once in the brain - into the mature cells that are required for the therapy to work. In work funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) and Science Foundation Ireland, published this week in the Journal of Neural Engineering, the team in the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at University of Galway have shown that transplanting the immature cells in a collagen hydrogel dramatically improves both their survival and maturation in the brain. Commenting on the research finding, the lead neuroscientist on the project, Professor Eilís Dowd, said: “Our hydrogel nurtures, supports and protects the cells after they are transplanted into the brain, and this dramatically improves their maturation and reparative ability. Ultimately, we hope that continued development of this promising gel will lead to a significant improvement in brain repair approaches for people living with Parkinson’s.” The Michael J. Fox Foundation awarded $300,000 to continue the development of the hydrogel. The new research aims to understand how the immune system in the brain reacts when cells are transplanted alone versus when they are transplanted in combination with the hydrogel. The research will continue to be led by Professor Dowd, in collaboration with colleagues from CÚRAM - the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Medical Devices based at University of Galway, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Melbourne. Professor Dowd’s ongoing research in this field is featured in the short documentary Feats of Modest Valour which won the coveted Scientist Award at the Imagine Science Film Festival in New York, as well as the Professional Documentary Award at the Raw Science Festival in California. Ends
News Archive
Two University of Galway researchers receive SFI Public Service Fellowship funding
University unveils MBA scholarship in honour of local entrepreneur Colm Feeney
Diabetes researcher honoured with global recognition
Monday, 11 March 2024
UNESCO Chair in Child and Family Studies Professor Pat Dolan honoured with Maria Grzegorzewska University Medal University of Galway Professor Pat Dolan is to be awarded the Medal of the Maria Grzegorzewska University in Warsaw for life-long achievements in the field of children’s rights. The honour is being bestowed as part of celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair at the university – named in memory of the Polish-Jewish paediatrician, educator, author and children’s rights advocate who is believed to have perished in a Nazi death camp with almost 200 children from his orphanage. Professor Dolan was awarded the UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement in 2008. As co-founder, with Professor John Canavan, of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre in 2007, and former Director of the Institute for Lifecourse and Society, Professor Dolan’s extensive body of work is highly relevant to the lived lives of children, youth and families in particular those experiencing social exclusion, adversity and mental health challenges. He has pioneered youth research by placing young people at the heart of his work and also by promoting a fresh outlook on the importance of empathy in education. For more than 10 years, Professor Dolan has worked with Oscar-winning actor Cillian Murphy, who has won this year’s Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the eponymous father of the atomic bomb in the movie Oppenheimer. Professor Dolan and Cillian Murphy work together thanks to a shared interest in the role of empathy and social and emotional learning in building young people’s capacity to foster social connectedness. In 2022, Cillian Murphy and Professor Dolan co-edited IONBHÁ: The Empathy Book For Ireland in association with Gillian Browne of University of Galway and Mark Brennan, Pennsylvania State University in the US. The publication featured a range of well-known figures and people from all walks of life sharing their personal reflections on empathy. University of Galway President, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, said: “Professor Pat Dolan has made a strong and sustained contribution to children’s rights through his work as UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement and his associated work in teaching and research over a long career. He has pioneered new approaches to research, and new attitudes towards working with and for young people. He epitomises the spirit of our outlook at University of Galway, where we are committed to being here for our students and to serve the public good. The focus of Professor Dolan’s work and his track record of teaching, research and engagement, in addition to his support for other UNESCO Chairs around the world, is testament to a life-long commitment to the well-being of children and young people. I am delighted to see that he is being recognised with such a poignant honour from the Maria Grzegorzewska University.” Cillian Murphy, Patron of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at University of Galway, said: “I have spoken about the role empathy can play and it being the most important tool an actor can have. It is thanks to my association with the UNESCO centre at University of Galway that I can see the fundamental value of affording all young people the opportunity to learn the place and value of empathy.” Professor Anna Odrowaz-Coates, Chairholder of the UNESCO Janusz Korczak Chair and Vice-rector at the Maria Grzegorzewska University, said: “Professor Pat Dolan has an impressive track record of researching and promoting empathy in education. His work has a significant impact on promoting human rights in practice and on the well-being of children, youths and entire communities. We are delighted to be able to recognise his work as we mark the 20th anniversary of our own University’s UNESCO Chair which is named after the inspirational Janusz Korczak.” Professor Dolan will be formally honoured with the Medal of the Maria Grzegorzewska University at a special ceremony in June. The event will take place alongside the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre’s international conference, Promoting Equality through Family Support, on June 13th and 14th. Ends
Friday, 8 March 2024
US-based historian Kerby A. Miller’s donated collection made available to the public University of Galway has launched Imirce, a digital repository of thousands of Irish emigrant letters and memoirs dating from the late 1600s through to the mid-20th century. Featuring correspondence and other documents sent from North America, the collection offers an unparalleled insight into the personal reflections and lives of people as they wrote home to family and friends in Ireland. The Imirce project has enabled the creation of an online, publicly accessible archive of the Kerby A. Miller Collection - a unique record of personal correspondence from the Irish diaspora in the US. The archive includes approximately 7,000 letters, running to more than 150,000 documents, along with other important historical papers. It was collected over five decades of research by Kerby A. Miller, Emeritus Professor of History at University of Missouri and Honorary Professor of History at University of Galway, who donated the material to the University of Galway Library. The letters and documents provide valuable insights into universal themes and individual perspectives influenced by class, religion, gender and political circumstances. The collection is especially rich in the post-famine period from 1850-1950. Following the creation of the digital repository, University of Galway Library is actively seeking contributions of other emigrant letters, in particular those written in Irish in North America, and letters and memoirs produced in any language by emigrants from the Gaeltacht. Details about how to contribute to the collection are available at Imirce.universityofgalway.ie Samples and messages from letters, in the words as they written in the original author’s hand, are being shared as part of the launch: “We have too many loved ones in the Cemetery here to leave them … We have been here a long time - and it is home to us now.” - Jane Crowe, writing to her brother in Roscommon in 1959. “... old people are very little thought of in this country, not even There own families have any regard for them when they become played out from age and my own is no Exception as I could not get 1 penny from any of mine but what I can earn myself...” - ditch-digger Patrick McKeown, writing home in 1904. “Ah Nora, It makes my very heart break when I think right of home … oh Nora I hate to think of it because I do be that homesick and lonely.” - Galway women writing home in 1921. “I do not care any thing at all about gone home.” “I was born in old Ireland but I am quite happy sometimes I never think I was in old Ireland at all. I never (even) think of it ... for I do not entend ever to see it.” - Thomas McCann, writing in October 1894. The Imirce digital repository was developed by an interdisciplinary team, led by Professor Daniel Carey (School of English, Media and Creative Arts), Cillian Joy (University of Galway Library) and Professor Breandán Mac Suibhne (Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge), with the archival work managed by Digital Archivist Marie-Louise Rouget. Professor Breandán Mac Suibhne, Director of the Acadamh and historian at University of Galway, said: “Letter-writing was long the primary means of communication between Irish emigrants to North America and family and friends at home. The Imirce database allows researchers - amateur and professional - to access an extraordinary collection of emigrant letters and memoirs assembled over half a century by historian Kerby A. Miller and it provides a repository in which people can share copies of letters in their possession. Imirce is at once an important resource for scholars and a potent connection, across time, between the descendants of emigrants to North America and the people and places around Ireland that their forebears left behind." Daniel Carey, Professor of English at University of Galway, said: “As an Irish American whose relations left Ireland for America during the Famine, I find this collection a profound record of the experience of emigrants, recorded in their own voices. The challenges of settling in a new country come to life in these letters, through reflections on ordinary events and major upheavals. We see how they kept their relationships going across great distances and reported home on how they were faring in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and so many cities and towns across the continent.” Cillian Joy, Head of Open and Digital Research, University of Galway Library, said: “This is an exciting moment for the University of Galway Library as we launch this important digital resource to the public. In the spirit of open access, we invite scholars of Irish and North American history and members of the public alike to explore the material and the stories they tell.” The University has released an initial tranche of material from the Imirce project, with more letters and memoirs to be published over the rest of the year. The Imirce digital repository project was supported with funding from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and the University of Galway Strategic Fund. The Kerby A. Miller Collection Professor Miller donated his vast research collection related to Irish emigration to North America and Irish diaspora identities to the University of Galway Library in 2021. From the early 1970s, when researching his landmark Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (Oxford, 1985), Miller transcribed writings by emigrants from Ireland to North America held in libraries and archives. Furthermore, looking beyond those repositories, he placed notices in Irish national and local newspapers asking people to send him treasured correspondence, which he and research assistants then copied, transcribed and returned. Following the publication of Emigrants and Exiles, Miller continued to collect such material. The result is a vast collection of transcripts of the writings of craftsmen, especially weavers and spinners, miners, domestic servants, farmers, and canal, railroad, mill and construction workers. The collection also includes transcripts of correspondence collected by historian Arnold Schrier when working on his Ireland and the American Migration, 1850–1900 (Minneapolis, 1958). Ends
Wednesday, 6 March 2024
Students who achieved a distinction in their higher level Irish Junior Cycle examination have been presented with a Special Irish Recognition Award from University of Galway. Some 140 students from 40 schools in Donegal, Clare, Mayo, Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon and Galway attended a special event at the University to recognise and celebrate their achievements. The students are among the 3.1% of students across the country who achieved a distinction in the higher level T2 Irish paper, or the 4% of students who achieved a distinction in the higher level T1 paper in the 2023 Junior Cycle examinations by scoring between 90% and 100%. University of Galway Deputy President and Registrar, Professor Pól Ó Dochartaigh, welcomed the students and their families to campus and congratulated the teachers and principals while recognising the hard work being done in the schools. “As part of our commitment to fostering and nurturing a bilingual campus environment and advancing our leadership role in higher education and research in the Irish language we are thrilled to present these awards. These accolades honour students who have excelled and achieved distinction in their Junior Cycle examinations. For the second consecutive year, we celebrate their outstanding accomplishments, underscoring the significance of the Irish language not only within University of Galway but also in the broader educational landscape and among communities dedicated to promoting Irish as a vibrant, living language.” The importance of thriving Irish-speaking communities in the Gaeltacht and beyond is recognised in the University’s first Irish language strategy, A Strategy for the Irish Language 2021-2025, which was launched in July 2021. The communities were recognised at the inaugural event in 2023 and again in 2024 this year with the University fulfilling its role in leading higher education in the Irish language and showing Irish speakers respect, as is set out in the Strategy. Ends