Founding University of Limerick president marks fiftieth year with 'vital archive' of papers

FOUNDING president of University of Limerick Dr Ed Walsh has presented a ‘vital archive’ of his papers to the university.

These papers recount the history of setting up UL from the eyes of Dr Walsh.

Exactly 50 years to the day since then Taoiseach Jack Lynch performed the official opening of the National Institute of Higher Education (NIHE), UL’s forerunner, Dr Walsh handed over the archive of work diaries from almost three decades at a ceremony on campus yesterday, Tuesday September 27.

The main component of the papers being presented to UL President Professor Kerstin Mey and the Glucksman Library on the campus comprises of 28 and a half years of Dr Walsh’s diaries.

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The over 300 diaries recount significant events from the time of setting up the NIHE and UL.

Dr Walsh noted that he and current UL President Professor Kerstin Mey were due to speak at the ceremony “precisely 50 years to the hour from the time the Taoiseach performed the official opening in 1972”.

The exhibition launch of A University of Our Time: University of Limerick, 1972–2022, also took place yesterday which is a year-long public exhibition, one of the many events to mark the anniversary of the establishment of the University.

“I used to have a diary in my wallet and when anything that I thought was of significance was
happening, good or bad, I wrote it down. In the early days I was very conscious that, if we
succeeded in what we were trying to do, it would be seen in hindsight as quite significant,” Dr Walsh explained.

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“I am also giving two discs to the President, one that has a chronological sequence of
events for 28 and a half years, and the other is based on topics. People frequently contact me to ask ‘are you sure about this or that’, and I go to this database and I discover very often the answers,” Dr Walsh added.

President Mey thanked Dr Walsh for the “treasure trove” of papers he was handing over and hailed “the importance of his leadership for the foundation and establishment of the University" and the importance and excitement that he has handed his papers to UL.

The exhibition, curated by Dr Zara Power of UL’s Department of History, is a “wonderful immersion in the journey taken through the first steps of establishing our founding institution,” Professor Mey said.