Sir, – Thank you for your article "NUI Galway to change its name amid confusion over its proper title" (News, April 27th), which goes some way to explaining the history of the naming of the university which began its life as Queen's College Galway and is now choosing the name University of Galway. I was a student there in the 1970s , when it was known to all as University College Galway (UCG). I devoted most of my four years in UCG to activities in the areas of arts, theatre and journalism and, despite those constant delightful diversions, I still managed to pass with a BA in history, English and French and embark on a career of 40-odd years in education and examinations. I was always proud to have UCG named on my CV as my alma mater. I was upset some 20 years later to discover that someone, somewhere had stripped me of this academic birthright and had rebranded the UCG that I had known as NUIG. I don't know if UCG alumni were ever consulted about that, but I certainly wasn't. That change of name in the late 1990s was more meaningless than meaningful.
Ever since the name UCG was replaced by NUIG, all I could wonder at was how the likes of UCD and UCC could continue to operate with their perfectly serviceable titles while UCG couldn’t! Good luck with University of Galway, a name change which seems like a step in the right direction, as well as a tacit admission that NUIG was not such a great idea after all. Ollscoil na Gaillimhe abú! – Yours, etc,
PÁDRAIC HARVEY,
An Cheathrú Rua,
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Co na Gaillimhe.