'The potential is obvious'

MY EDUCATION WEEK:Ed Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick

FROM 1845, WHEN Limerick failed to get one of the Queens Colleges that went to Cork and Galway, a campaign for a university in Limerick simmered. Eventually, in the 1960s, it flared into a boisterous national campaign organised by the Limerick University Project Committee. After the tragic death of Limerick’s minister for education, Donogh O’Malley, in 1968, the government yielded, but refused to establish a constituent college of the NUI in the image of Cork or Galway; instead, an institute of higher education was announced. Although mention was made of “Ireland’s MIT”, and parallels were drawn with the new University of Technology at Eindhoven, in The Netherlands, Limerick was not impressed.

After most of the 1960s in the US, where at age 24 I became the youngest assistant professor in Iowa State University, an associate of the US Atomic Energy Laboratory at Ames, also in Iowa, and then director of the energy research laboratory at Virginia Tech, my wife and I decided to come back to Ireland to rear our family. I applied for the few jobs that were on offer and was appointed chairman of the planning board and director of the proposed Institute for Higher Education in Limerick.

I arrived in Ireland on January 1st, 1970, and met the minister for education, Pádraig Faulkner, that morning. He disclosed that the 1970 budget for the Limerick institute was only £5,000 (my salary was £4,000), and there was no provision for staff, office or even a telephone. Taking this job seemed like a serious misjudgement. The Department of Education was reluctant to see me go to Limerick until I had been suitably conditioned. After spending my first week in its clutches I decided to escape to Limerick and check things out.

MONDAY, JANUARY 5th, 1970

I pay a courtesy call on the president of University College Cork, Dr Donal McCarthy, before going to Limerick. His body language, and what he says, leave me in no doubt that the fledgling project in Limerick should not expect much support, encouragement or even goodwill from him. Indeed, since he perceives that Limerick is not going to have a university-level institution, he seems intent on immediately establishing a UCC presence there at Mary Immaculate College, the primary teacher training college. Clearly, Dr McCarthy sees the Limerick project as a territorial threat and had opted to be confrontational rather than helpful. I leave his office knowing that I must be wary of UCC’s plans for Limerick.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 6th

Attempt to help settle Stephanie and the two children into an apartment in Cork offered by my parents until we find a house in Limerick.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7th

A decrepit train rattles to a halt in the grim Limerick railway station. Pádraig Ó Cuilleanáin of the Department of Education is on the platform to greet me.

He briefs me on the pitfalls that lie ahead. The Limerick University Project Committee has been effective at regional and national level, organising mass demonstrations, raising funds, pursuing ministers, putting pressure on local TDs and generally getting national headlines. Many feel that Limerick has been fobbed off, and their hopes for a university have been dashed. The fact that an unknown lad of 29 has been appointed to run the proposed institute hardly inspires confidence.

It appears many of those I wish to meet are sick – or just do not wish to see me. However, the mayor, Stephen Coughlan, does. He is said to be recuperating in St John’s Hospital. The mayor is propped up in bed when we arrive; full of life, a warm character. He gives me a great welcome and assures me of his commitment and support.

Next we walk up Henry Street for a meeting with Sr Loreto, the principal of Mary Immaculate. She wishes me well, but without enthusiasm. It seems she knows which side her bread will be buttered on. The UCC side.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 8th

Tom McDermott, Limerick city manager greets me. He speaks of his plans for the city and of the good work being done by Joe McHugh, director of the regional development organisation, and agrees to make introductions. Then we’re off to Shannon to meet Paul Quigley and his dynamic team at Shannon Development. Here is a reservoir of talent and fresh thinking that I can depend on.

Back to Limerick to give a press conference to a large and curious group of national and regional reporters. Afterwards, I meet Margaret Lyddy and Jim Lyons of the Limerick university project committee. They give me a civil but reserved reception. After bacon, egg and sausages in Hanratty’s, I go through the cold, dark streets to meet Mr Finnan, president of the trades union council at the Mechanics Institute. I spend the rest of the evening with him and his colleagues discussing my mission, sitting before a roaring coke fire that provides the room both with intense heat and its main source of light. When, at length, I stand to leave they tell me, to my great satisfaction, that I have the full backing of the council.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 9th

I begin my round of meetings with religious leaders. I am unable to meet the Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick, Robert Wyse Jackson, because he is ill. Rev William Mills leads the Presbyterian community in Limerick. He is affable and somewhat surprised, I suspect, that not only have I sought to meet him but am doing so before meeting the bishops. Then I meet Dr Henry Murphy, the Catholic bishop, who appears kind, but avoids expressing a view on whether the proposed institute is likely to come to very much. As chairman of Mary Immaculate, it appears he needs to keep UCC on side.

I meet the acting manager of Limerick County Council, DQ Dudley. He thinks the council would consider making its unused office at 71 O’Connell Street available as a temporary office. We cross the road and take a look. It is in a bad way, with old filing cabinets, broken desks and chairs, mouldy papers and telephones littering the floor. Paint peels from the damp, unheated walls, and plaster has fallen off the ceilings.

Then Joe McHugh and I set off to visit some of the potential campus sites, with Joe outlining the options as we go. There appears to be a strong case for locating the campus somewhere north of the city between Shannon and Limerick. Mungret College, which has just been closed by the Jesuits, is also a contender. We discuss King’s Island, the site of the ancient city, and then look at a large site close to the Raheen industrial estate and a riverside site at Shannon Banks.

Then, not long after the search begins, it is over, as far as I am concerned. We visit Plassey on the banks of the Shannon a couple of miles upstream of the city. We walk down the gently sloping fields towards the great river and its islands, through the remains of gracious parkland, past the stumps of recently-cut trees, and along an overgrown canal bank to the remains of a watermill.

We walk up again to Plassey House on its gentle mound above the river and enjoy magnificent views of the city westward, the Clare hills to the north, and distant Keeper Hill to the east. The crumbling old house is used by the National Rehabilitation Institute to care for young people. When we walk through the open hall door, they scurry away and peep curiously from rooms along the corridor and from the upstairs landing. A chill wind blows through the broken windows. Buckets collect rainwater dripping through the ceilings. Electric wiring, apparently ripped from the walls, hangs across some rooms, suspending a damp array of childrens clothes. The potential is obvious and I decide this has to be the site. We could make an early start in a renovated Plassey House and plan a magnificent campus there.

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, JANUARY 10th & 11th

In Cork, with families and friends trying to explain what an institute for higher education is, and why I had done nothing about finding a house in Limerick.

Based on extracts from Ed Walsh’s memoir Upstart: Friends, Foes and Founding a University, published this month by The Collins Press.

This week I was. . .

READING

The Two Culturesby CP Snow; mounds of official reports and two papers: The Engineer and Ireland's Industrial Growthby Armin C Frank, Jr and Scientific Creativityby Calvin W Taylor

LISTENING TO

Not much more than the radio news headlines

CLICKING

Only my pen in frustration