List of University of Galway people

The following is a list of University of Galway people, including notable alumni and faculty members of the University of Galway and its forerunners: Queen's College, Galway (QCG) created in 1845 as a college of the Queen's University of Ireland; University College, Galway (UCG) chartered in accordance with the Irish Universities Act, 1908 as a university college of the National University of Ireland; and National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI, Galway and later NUI Galway without the comma), a constituent university of the National University of Ireland and newly named since the Universities Act, 1997 until 2022.

Alumni

Politicians

• Michael D. Higgins - 9th President of Ireland
• Enda Kenny
• Eamon Gilmore
• Frank Fahy
• Joseph Brennan
• Séamus Kirk
• Michael Kitt
• Pat "the Cope" Gallagher
• Heather Humphreys
• Michael Ring
• Lisa Chambers
• Barry Cowen
• Anne Rabbitte
• Sylvester Barrett
• Mark Clinton
• Paul Connaughton Jnr
• Ciara Conway
• Rose Conway-Walsh
• Brendan Griffin
• Fidelma Healy Eames
• Jim Higgins
• Lorraine Higgins
• Seán Kyne
• Patrick Lindsay
• Farrell McElgunn
• Bobby Molloy
• Rónán Mullen
• Ronan Moore
• Carol Nolan
• Derek Nolan
• Maureen O'Carroll
• Pádraig Ó Céidigh
• Trevor Ó Clochartaigh
• John O'Mahony
• Pat Rabbitte
• Seán Sherlock
• Madeleine Taylor-Quinn
• Mary Upton
• Pat Upton
• John Dallat - SDLP politician
• Aisling Dolan

Government officials

• Henry Arthur Blake - Governor of Hong Kong (1898-1903)
• Antony MacDonnell, 1st Baron MacDonnell - Colonial Administrator
• Charles James O'Donnell - Colonial Administrator
• John Sheehy - Colonial Official
• William Alfred Browne - Civil servant

Diplomats

• Noel Dorr
• Pádraig MacKernan

Law

• John Atkinson
• Joseph R. Fisher
• Mark Heslin, judge of the High Court
• Likando Kalaluka - Attorney General of Zambia in 2015
• Walter Lewis
• Robert McCall
• John Monroe
• Thomas O'Shaughnessy
• Andrew Reed
• Guy Rutledge
• Mathilda Twomey - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Seychelles
• Raymond West - High Court Judge in British India
• Máire Whelan - Attorney General of Ireland, Judge of the Court of Appeal

Military

• Major General Michael Beary - UNIFIL Commander
• General Bindon Blood - British military commander
• Major General Kieran Brennan - Deputy Chief of Staff (Ops) and former Kilkenny hurler
• Lieutenant General Sean McCann - Former Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces
• Vice Admiral Mark Mellett - Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces
• Brigadier General Maureen O'Brien - First woman to attain the rank of Lt Colonel (Army Line), Colonel and Brig Gen in the Irish Defence Forces
• Commandant Cathal Berry - Former Deputy Commander of the Army Ranger Wing and Head of the Military Medical School

Religion

• Samuel Angus - Theologian
• Brendan Kelly - Bishop
• Fintan Monahan - Bishop
• Robert Moore - Theologian
• Michael Lenihan O.F.M. - Bishop of La Ceiba, Honduras (2011-present)
• William Mahony S.M.A. - Bishop of Ilorin, Nigeria
• Wilfrid Napier O.F.M. - Cardinal, Archbishop of Durban
• William Slattery O.F.M. - Archbishop of Pretoria
• George Thomas Stokes - Clergyman of the Church of Ireland and Historian

Literature

• Emily Anderson- Linguist
• Gerald Dawe - Poet
• James Hardiman - Librarian
• Mike McCormack - Writer
• Eamonn McGrath- Writer
• Ronan Moore - Writer
• W. F. Marshall - Poet
• Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh - Poet
• Breandán Ó hEithir - Writer
• Valentine O'Hara

Academics

• William Bindon Blood - first professor of civil engineering at Queen's College Galway
• Alexander Anderson (physicist) - Physicist; former president of Queen's College and University College Galway
• J. E. Cairnes - Economist
• Louis Cullen - Professor of Irish History at Trinity College
• Edward Divers - Chemist
• Charles Joseph Gahan - Coleopterist
• John Hegarty - Provost of Trinity College Dublin
• Máire Herbert MRIA – Professor of Early and Medieval Irish at University College Cork
• Ethna Gaffney - scientist and first female professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
• Alfred Keogh - Director General Army Medical Services (1905-1910 and 1914-1918)
• Thomas J. Laffey - Mathematician known for his contributions to group theory and matrix theory.
• John A. McClelland - Physicist
• Mick Molloy - IRB medical officer
• Michael O'Shaughnessy - Chief engineer of San Francisco
• Alice Perry - First woman in Ireland to graduate with a degree in engineering

Media

• Patsy McGarry - Journalist
• Harry McGee - Journalist
• T. P. O'Connor
• Frank Hugh O'Donnell
• Conor Pope - Journalist
• Cillian Fennell - Former head of programming at TG4 and producer
• Pat McGrath - Correspondent
• Colm Murray - Sports-reader
• Siún Nic Gearailt - Television newsreader
• Eimear Ní Chonaola - Journalist and television news anchor
• Sean O'Rourke - Presenter
• Gráinne Seoige - Television news anchor

Arts

• Keith Barry - Performing artist
• Seán McGinley - Actor
• Nora-Jane Noone - Actress
• Martin Sheen - Actor
• Éabha McMahon - Singer
• Leo Moran - Guitarist
• John Coll - Figurative sculptor
• Pádraic Breathnach - Actor, first manager of Galway Arts Centre and co-founder of Macnas
• John Concannon - Director of "Ireland 2016" (official commemorations of the centenary of the Easter Rising)
• Garry Hynes - Co-founder Druid Theatre Company
• Ollie Jennings - Founder of the Galway Arts Festival, co-founder of Macnas;
• Mick Lally - Co-founder Druid Theatre Company
• Marie Mullen - Co-founder Druid Theatre Company
• Nicola Coughlan - Actress

Sports

• Enda Colleran - Gaelic football
• Iarfhlaith Davoren - Association football
• Daithí Burke - Hurling
• Niall Burke - Hurling
• Conor Cleary - Hurling
• Joe Connolly - Hurling
• Joseph Cooney - Hurling
• Anthony Cunningham - Hurling
• Cyril Farrell - Hurling
• Pat Fleury - Hurling
• Francis Forde - Hurling
• John Hanbury - Hurling
• Aidan Harte - Hurling
• Conor Hayes - Hurling
• Seán Loftus - Hurling
• Jeffrey Lynskey - Hurling
• Joe McDonagh - Dual player, Gaelic games administrator and 32nd President of the Gaelic Athletic Association
• Cathal Mannion - Hurling
• Pádraic Mannion - Hurling
• Conor Whelan - Hurling
• Cian Lynch - Hurling
• Eoghan Clifford - Paralympic cyclist
• Cormac Folan - Rower
• Paul Hession - Sprinter
• Olive Loughnane - Racewalker
• Neville Maxwell - Rower
• Ciaran Fitzgerald - Rugby union
• Fiona Everard - National champion runner

Business

• Nicky Hartery - Chairman of CRH plc
• Declan Kelly - Founding partner and co-CEO of Teneo
• Pádraig Ó Céidigh - Airline developer

Finance and banking

• John Hourican - Investment banker; former CEO of Bank of Cyprus
• Seamus McCarthy - Comptroller and Auditor General

Faculty

• John Breslin - engineering professor and entrepreneur
• Nicholas Canny - historian and noted authority on early modern Ireland and Britain
• Ada English - psychiatrist
• Gerard Jennings - physics professor
• Thomas Kilroy - playwright, novelist, former Professor of English at the university
• William King – geologist
• Joseph Larmor - physicist, Professor at Queen's College Galway 1880-1885 and later Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge
• Alexander Gordon Melville - Comparative anatomist, Professor at Queen's College Galway 1849-1882
• George Johnstone Stoney - physicist who introduced the term electron as the "fundamental unit quantity of electricity"; first Professor of Science at the then new university; elder brother of Bindon Blood Stoney
• D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson - Professor of Greek at UCG from 1862 and father of biologist Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

References