2011 October E-zine

What's New?	Events	News	Branch Updates	Alumni Interview	Notices	Website Watch

What's New?

A Welcome from the New Provost
As the 44th Provost of Trinity, but also as a fellow graduate, I am delighted to have this opportunity to say hello to you. Trinity’s alumni are dispersed in some 130 countries around the world; we celebrate your achievements and recognize that, together, we are the inheritors of something special here in Trinity. I am determined to maintain our unique student experience, and ensure it thrives and remains relevant in today’s society.

A priority for my Provostship is to build on John Hegarty – my predecessor's - great work in deepening the College’s relationships with its alumni. Trinity remains a close community – even after recent expansion it remains very human in scale in that many staff and alumni know each other well. But Trinity is also a community ‘of the mind’ because even alumni who rarely visit the College often think of their time here, and remain in contact with friends from their student days. Wherever you live, whether it’s Ballyhaunis, Boston, or Bangalore, you appreciate how unique Trinity is, and that stands for something important indeed vital to the world.

To build on our existing connections and reconnect with others across the globe will be central to our future success. One of my first duties on taking office was a speaking at the Alumni Weekend last August. I was bowled over by the warmth, the interest, and the passion so many of our alumni have for this great institution.

I look forward to meeting many of you in the years to come; I welcome invitations to branch meetings and other alumni events.
With warm regards
Patrick Prendergast
Provost

Trinity Today
We’ve just mailed our latest edition of Trinity Today to all alumni. It’s full of highlights from around campus and interesting stories from our graduates. If you can’t wait to get your copy in the post take a look online. In this year’s edition we’re asking alumni how the College can improve its relationship with you. Tell us your ideas and be in with a chance to win an iPad 2 and other prizes.

TBA Presidential Breakfast
The Trinity Business Alumni (TBA) will host a breakfast debate on Tuesday, 18 October 2011 at 7:30am when a number of presidential candidates including Gay Mitchell and Sean Gallagher will debate their vision for the Presidency. Attendees will have the opportunity to question candidates on their track record and objectives for the future. Book your place or find out more.

 

Events

Douglas Hyde Series
The Douglas Hyde Gallery presents a series of ten weekly discussions focusing on key elements in the Gallery’s recent exhibition programme. The discussion groups take place every Tuesday at 5pm. Numbers are limited so please confirm your attendance with the Gallery in advance.

Troubled Magnificence: France under Louis XIV
A new exhibition launches in the Library next week, Troubled Magnificence: France under Louis XIV, looking at various aspects of French life in the seventeenth century including taxation, warfare, trade and religion. The exhibition runs from 12 October to 1 April 2012.

Under Louis XIV France became the most powerful land power in Western Europe. Considerable territorial expansion was achieved through a series of wars which were hugely expensive in lives and money. By the end of the reign in 1715 the state was almost bankrupt.

Despite the warfare, there were immense cultural achievements: in drama the works of Corneille, Molière and Racine; in architecture the building of the palace of Versailles; in music, the operas of Lully. In common with many other countries, there was repressive legislation against religious non-conformists who in France were the Huguenots. This culminated in 1685 in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes of 1598 which had granted limited toleration.
The exhibition is entirely drawn from the very rich visual and textual resources of Trinity College Library which has the finest collection of seventeenth-century French books in Ireland.

Michael Purser Book Launch
The Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast will host a special reception to celebrate the launch of “Beyond Buenos Aires & La Rosa con El Clavel” by Michael Purser on Wednesday, 19 October at 6:30pm in the Senior Common Room. The proceeds from the sale of books will go to the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP). Confirm your attendance online.

R.B. McDowell Memorial Services
A memorial service for R.B. McDowell, former Junior Dean and Associate Professor of Modern History, will be held on campus on Thursday, 20 October at 5:15pm in the Chapel, Trinity College Dublin.

There will also be a memorial service held in London in Southwark Cathedral, London Bridge on Friday 27 January 2012, at 3pm. Please contact Ciara Power or on +353 1 896 1379 to confirm your attendance at the London memorial.

Surface Tension in Science Gallery
6.775 billion people currently occupy this planet and rely on exactly the same 1% of available freshwater as every previous generation. How can our planet’s natural systems sustain this and what does this tension mean for our future? Surface Tension: The Future of Water is a new exhibition at Science Gallery, which will explore the complex tensions surrounding the future of water. 

An Evening of Ghost Stories & A Pleasing Terror
John Connolly and Dr Darryl Jones, Head of the School of English and editor of “Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James” will host two talks this October. The first, “An Evening of Ghost Stories” takes place on Thursday, 20 October in the National Library Dublin with tickets available directly from the National Library. The second event “M.R. James: ‘A Pleasing Terror’” takes place on Friday, 21 October in the Queens Film Theatre Belfast at 7pm. Find out more on the Belfast Festival website.

Charles Dickens: A Life with Claire Tomalin 
Author Claire Tomalin will talk about her new biography of “Charles Dickens - Dickens: A Life”, on Tuesday, 25 October at 7pm in the Synge Theatre, Trinity College. Admission is free however booking is essential. Please contact the Penguin Ireland office or on 01 661 7695 to reserve a seat.

Trinity Tales Launch
“Trinity Tales, Trinity College Dublin in the Seventies'” - is a collection of fascinating recollections, impressions and musings by Trinity College students in the seventies and including U2 manager Paul McGuinness, director of the Gate Theatre Michael Colgan, novelist James Ryan, writer Robert O’Byrne, High Court judge Fidelma Macken, publisher Antony Farrell, Dillie Keane of Fascinating Aïda, Mary Harney, Liz O’Donnell and others, who have in different ways shaped the Ireland of today. The book will be launched on 2 November at 6pm in the Long Room. Find out more or reserve your place online.

TBA Dinner in Camera
The Trinity Business Alumni (TBA) will host a Dinner In Camera with Barry O’Leary, CEO of the IDA on Thursday 10 November in the 1592 Restaurant in Trinity. Mr. O'Leary will share his experiences of working in the IDA for over 30 years in most of its business areas including two periods totalling 15 years in Germany, latterly as Director of IDA Europe. Book your place or find out more.

For a full schedule of events in TCD, please see www.tcd.ie/alumni/events   

News

Campus News

Sports News

Campus News

Project Highlights Human Rights Issues for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

CRANN Signs €130,000 Partnership Agreement with Merck Millipore

Chemistry Student Wins Trinity Heat of Idea to Product Competition

Research Highlights Links between Metabolism and Cancer Cell Death

Competition Showcases How PhD Research Can Enable National Recovery

School of Business Signs Partnership Agreement with Global Alternative Investment Organisation, CAIA

Sports News

Sports Scholarship Student Wins at World Rowing Championships

DU Camogie Club Update

Ladies Hockey Newsletter

DU Golf Club Scotland Tour 2011

Natayla Coyle Breezes Through Qualification at World Pentathlon Championships in Moscow

DUFC (Rugby) work with Solas Sport and Jobcare

Run in the Dark Reminder
A ‘Run in the Dark’ will take place this November to raise funds for The Mark Pollock Trust in aid of Mark Pollock B.A. (1998) adventure athlete. More...

 

Branch Updates

Wicklow Branch Dinner
The Wicklow Branch will host a dinner on Friday, 4 November in the Royal St. George Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire at 7:30pm. The cost is €40 which includes a welcome champagne reception. There is a maximum limit of 36 people and formal wear is preferred. To confirm your booking or for further information contact Neville Whisker or on 085-7714493.

DUWGA Annual Dinner
The Annual Dublin University Women Graduates Association (DUWGA) will take place on Thursday, 10 November in the University Club, Stephens Green. The guest of honour this year will be Professor Louise Richardson, M.A. (1980) Principal and Vice Chancellor of St Andrews University in Scotland. Amongst other publications, she is author of ‘What Terrorists Want’, a comprehensive and intellectually rigorous account of terrorism written after the 9/11 attacks. For more information please contact Kristina Odlum.

For a full schedule of TCD events visit www.tcd.ie/alumni/events   

 

Alumni Interview

Emily O'Reilly - Ombudsman

Name: Emily O’Reilly H.Dip. Ed (1980)
Degree: Graduate Diploma in Education

What are you doing with yourself these days?
Ombudsman and Information Commissioner.

Why did you choose your current career?
It chose me.

How do you like to spend your free time?
Herding teenagers.

What are your strongest memories of Trinity?
Not as draughty as Belfield...

Are you still in touch with other alumni?
Yes.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
Herding young adults.

Have you any advice for students or fellow alumni?
My Trinity undergrad daughter tells me the Ski Week is pretty memorable...

Notices & Class Notes

Dublin Centre for Clinical Research Scientific Meeting
The Dublin Centre for Clinical Research (DCCR) is holding its inaugural Scientific Meeting from 3:30pm on Friday, 14 October in the Stanley Quek Lecture Theatre in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute. In addition to presentations from Clinician Scientists and DCCR Disease Groups, Professor Barry Coller from Rockefeller Medical School will be making a keynote address entitled "The Joys of Translational Research - The Story of abciximab's Development"  To register your interest to attend either address please contact Molecular Medicine Ireland.  

Henry Grattan Public Lecture - The European Sovereign Debt Crisis
The Policy Institute, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, is pleased to announce a public lecture which will address the European Sovereign Debt Crisis one year on from Ireland's €85 billion EU-IMF bail out.  Speakers include Peter Boone, LSE, Michael Dooley, UCSC and Jean Pisani-Ferry, Bruegel. The talk will take place on Tuesday 25 October at 6:15pm in the Joly Theatre in the Hamilton Building. Find out more or reserve your place online.

 

Class Notes

Jan van Blankenstein M.A. (1962)
Jan graduated in 1962 and worked in banking and insurance until 1966. He joined the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs in 1967 (International division) and retired in 2002. He now lives in Vorrburg, The Hague and still rows (single and double scull) and attempts to do some oil painting.

Alec (Alexander) Rainey B.A. (1966)
Alec, a graduate of Modern Languages and Literature, recently published a new book “A Way of Life”. After training in cattle management with the ‘gauchos’ in Argentina, Alec emigrated to Australia in 1966 to work as a jackeroo on a vast cattle station in the Northern Territory, in the Barkly Tableland. There he camped out rounding-up cattle on horseback and branding calves for seven months. And he continued this way of life in succeeding years – on and off – in the Kimberley until 1974.

In the camp he made friends with some of his Aborigine co-workers, exchanging music with them. He played the Flamenco guitar. They sang songs and told him stories of the Dreamtime. They also taught him the art of fashioning stone spearheads and other skills related to survival (like finding wild honey and making fire). Alec has used extensive notes he took at the time to write this book, which is an account of those years.

Robin Knight B.A. (1966)
Robin has published his memoir "A Road Less Travelled" (ISBN 978-0-9568770-0-0; £20) which traces his life from childhood through university to a 28-year career as a globe-trotting, award-winning foreign correspondent for an American news magazine followed by a decade in international corporate communications. The book is available on amazon-co.uk or direct from Robin.

Medicine Class of 1972
The Class of 1972 is organising a reunion next August for their 40th anniversary and would like to get as many people as possible to attend. Please get in touch and contact anyone from the year with whom you are in touch. Eleanor Walsh

 

Eithne Treanor B.A. (1981)
Eithne was recently nominated for an Achievers Award from Emirate Woman magazine, celebrating women who are striving forward in the world of business, breaking boundaries and making their mark. Find out more or vote for Eithne. 

 

 

Eoin McNamee M.Sc., Ph.D. (2005)
Eoin received his M.Sc. from the Dept. of Physiology in 2004 and Ph.D. from the Institute of Immunology at TCD in 2008. He is now a junior faculty member at the University of Colorado Denver and has recently published a paper in the “Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences” which has received much attention in the US science media. More...

Would you like to share your news with fellow alumni?
Reach out to old classmates by submitting your news to Class Notes or read about fellow alumni on Front Gate Online.

 

Website Watch

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