Countdown to Gala Week as University of Limerick marks 50th anniversary

BEFORE the 1970s the University of Limerick (UL) was a skeleton of the colossus it is today.

In September of 1972, 114 people walked through the gates of the National Institute of Higher Education (now UL), becoming the facility's first students.

Fast forward to today and there are approximately 17,000 students attending UL, well over double the population of Newcastle West.

It’s a big year for UL as they mark half a century as a third-level institution and to celebrate this, head of the History Department at UL, Dr David Fleming has come on board as the chairperson of the UL50 Anniversary Planning group to help set up exhibitions and events to mark the historical year.

The leading exhibition marking the occasion is called A University of Our Time and is running until May 2023 and curated by Dr Zara Power of UL’s History Department. The exhibition is on display in the old Millstream Restaurant in UL.

“You can’t miss the exhibition. There’s a lot of old pictures from the early years and it even has the mace [used in conferring ceremonies],” Dr Fleming said

“It also has one of the first purchases ever made by the university which was a blackboard eraser. It was kept, and found.

“There’s a lot of little quirky things,” Dr Fleming added.

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Another exhibition which is in the Glucksman Library on the campus called 50 Years of Pioneering Women at the University of Limerick Past and Present shows how women advocated for equality within the university and society.

“It’s a small exhibition compared to the other one.

“Women made up a large proportion of the professional support staff at UL and they’re often forgotten so the exhibition is there to help remember them,” Dr Fleming said.

This exhibition is curated by Dr Martin Walsh and will be running until May 2023.

The upcoming Gala Week is one of the standout events celebrating UL50 taking place at the end of November.

Sounding Sionna: A Celebration of Music at UL is one of the more exciting events from the Gala Week taking place on November 24; tickets can be bought on the University Concert Hall’s website.

“We’re also going to be planting 50 trees in a particular location on the campus. UL has always been to the fore in protecting its natural environment.

“The trees that were planted 40 or 50 years ago have now proven their worth in keeping CO2 emissions down so we hope these will do the same one day,” Dr Fleming concluded.

There are also a number of internal events celebrating the university’s fiftieth anniversary with one of the more enjoyable events being the University’s Fittest Faculty competition, inspired by the popular RTÉ show Ireland’s Fittest Family.

There are plenty more events to come, leading up to Christmas and in the new year according to Dr Fleming but so far he says the UL50 celebrations have been a major success.