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A record of the main speeches given by the Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Patrick J Prendergast Academic Year 2013 - 2014 Contents Page Page Title 1 Address at the Launch of the Parnell Summer School 6 Welcome Address at the Samuel Beckett Summer School 9 Welcome Address at the Irish Transport Research Network 4th Annual Conference 12 Address at the celebration of the election to the RIA of Peter Simons, Kevin Devine & Michael Gallagher 15 Address at the announcement of Ireland Professor of Poetry 2013-2016 18 Address at the Inaugural Medieval Ireland symposium “The Geraldines and Medieval Ireland: the Making of a Myth” 22 Address to new Students 28 Welcome Address at the New Staff Induction Day 30 Address at the Launch of the Masters in Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship 35 Opening Address at the Interdependence Celebration and Forum 37 Words of Welcome at the 2013 Naughton Awards 38 Address at reception in honour of Naughton Scholars 42 Address at the 32nd Conference of Rectors & Presidents of European Universities of Technology “A new type of university-industry partnership: making the Knowledge Triangle a reality” 49 Address at the Public Forum Seanad Debate 52 Address at the Trinity Social Entrepreneurship Speaker Series Sonal Shah: “Fostering social innovation and enterprise: lessons learnt from the White House” 55 Address at the Rooney Prize for Literature 58 Address at the Grattan Scholars’ Programme 61 Address at the Launch of Trinity Tales: Trinity College Dublin in the Eighties 63 Address at the SFI-International Strategic Co-operation Award (ISCA) India Programme & Lady Shri Ram College Debaters 66 Address at New Fellows Dinner 71 Opening remarks: session on “Higher Education and Strategic Knowledge Creation” at KAIST, Korea. 72 Address to the Chinese Academy of Engineering 90 Welcome Address at the Web Summit Reception 93 Transcript of Provost’s Interview on RTÉ Radio with Séan O’Rourke 100 Address at the Launch of A Mystic Dream of 4 by Iggy McGovern 103 Address at the F.ounders Dinner 106 Address at the Book Launch of How Irish Scientists Changed the World by Séan Duke 110 Opening Address at the Trinity Global Graduate Forum 126 Address at the Book Launch of An Illustrated Collection of Limericks for Engineering and Engineers and Physicists by Annraoi de Paor 130 Public Opening of the Sculpture in Honour of Ernest Walton 133 Address at The EIT’s Innovative Approach to Education: Nurturing Talents Across Borders 141 Book Launch of Cracking the Code by Catherine O’Connor 143 Launch of Innovation & Entrepreneurship Strategy 147 Address at Occupational Therapy – 50th Anniversary Celebration 150 Address at the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony 151 Address at the Honorary Degree Dinner 156 Address at the Strategic Plan 2014-2019 Town Hall, Vision, Mission, and Values 161 Welcome Address at the Premiere of Antimidas or Bankers in Hades Opera by Evangelia Rigaki 163 Welcome Address at the 12th Annual CSCB Symposium 166 Welcome Address at the Future Directions for the Irish Economy Conference 169 Address at the Trinity College Dublin Innovation Award 2013 172 Address at The Success of FP7 at Trinity College Dublin 176 Address at the Trinity College School Placement Partnerships 179 Address at the Announcement of Seamus Heaney Professorship of Irish Writing 2012 183 Welcome Address at Careers with the EU: Opportunities for Irish Graduates Symposium 186 Address at the Launch of Green Week 187 Address at Identities in Transition – Constitutional Peace Building 190 Address at Cultural & Creative Innovators 194 Address at the Student Economic Review Debate 2014 hosted by the University Philosophical Society 196 Address at the Opening of the Trinity College Geology Microscopy Laboratory 199 Address to the Captains and Presidents of Clubs and Societies 203 Welcome Address at ENVIRON 2014: 24th Irish Environmental Researchers Colloquium 206 Address at the reception to celebrate the appointment of Michelle Tanner as President of the European Network of Academic Sports Services (ENAS) 209 Address to the Upper Sixth Form Students for International Women’s Day 214 Provost’s Speaking notes for the unveiling of the bench for RB McDowell 216 Welcome Address to the All-Ireland Linguistics Olympiad 219 Address at the Inauguration of Sir Donnell Deeny as Pro-Chancellor 223 Address at the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Breakfast Briefing 226 Welcome Address at the COIMBRA Group Policy Seminar: Interdisciplinarity in the Humanities 230 Trinity Global Graduate Forum (TGGF) Webinar 237 Address at the Book Launch of Walter Starkie by Jacqueline Hurtley 241 Address at the Identity Initiative: Town Hall Meeting with Staff and Students 246 Address at the Malaysia Trainer Programme Reception 248 Opening Address at the Conference on George Berkeley 251 Address at the Scholars’ Dinner 2014 256 Address at Trinity ENGAGE, University of the Third Age (U3A) & Age Action Open Forum 258 Address at the Thomas Davis Commemoration 262 Address at the Book Launch of ‘Medicine in Trinity College Dublin’ by Davis Coakley 266 Introduction of Professor Van C Mow’s Lecture 268 Address at the Launch of the Freyne Library 272 Address at the Gorey Community School End-of-Year Awards Ceremony 276 Welcome Address at the Brazilian Training Programme 279 Address at John Sheahan: Storying his Life 281 Opening Address at the Symposium on Dementia & Caregiving 285 Opening Address at the TIDI Conference “Imagining Land: Significance of Land in African Economics, Politics and Culture” 287 Address to the Baden-Badener Unterneher Gespräche Delegation 290 Address at the St Columba’s Day Celebrations at St Columba’s College 294 Address at the Panel Discussion on EIT/KIC Strategic Vision for the Mid and Long Term 297 Address at The Augustan Space: Rome AD14 – Dublin 2014 300 Address at Campus ENGAGE Higher Education Charter on Civic and Community Engagement 303 Address at the Celebration of the Election to the RIA of Rose-Anne Kenny, Padraic Fallon, Andrew Bowie, Mani Ramaswami and Ciaran Brady 307 Opening Address at Campus ENGAGE Symposium ‘Campus- Community Partnerships: Conversations for Change in Ireland’ 311 Address at Provost’s Teaching Awards 2014 316 Opening Address at the Launch of Hay Festival Kells 2014 318 Address at the Tutors’ Reception 2014 320 Address at the Honorary Degree Dinner 325 Address at the Launch of Solar-Terrestrial Observatory 329 Welcome Address at the 25th International Liquid Conference 2014 332 Address to Alumni in Sydney, Australia 338 Address to Alumni in Melbourne, Australia 344 Speech at the World War One Roadshow Closing Ceremony 346 Address at the British Association for Jewish Studies ‘Jews and Political Discourse from Antiquity to the Modern Period’ Sunday, 11th August 2013 Parnell Summer School Avondale House, Rathdrum, Co Wicklow Good afternoon, It’s a very great pleasure to be here this afternoon, in front of this beautiful house, to launch the Parnell Summer School. I thank the President of the Society, Donal McCartney, the academic director Felix Larkin, and the other organisers for inviting me. Like, I am sure, every university in the country, Parnell features strongly on Trinity curricula – on the history curriculum of course, but also on the politics curriculum, and on the literature curriculum via Yeats and Joyce. Every educated person must know something of this towering figure; through him we evaluate the political, social and cultural history of late 19th century and early 20th century Ireland. Parnell was not of course a Trinity man – although I learned recently that he did benefit from a Trinity tutor in 1864 when he took grinds before going to Magdalene College in Cambridge. His tutor was the classicist, J.G. Meyer, famous for his humour and his digressions. He found Parnell a “thoroughly gentlemanly and intelligent pupil” – an assessment apparently more positive than most of Parnell’s Cambridge tutors.* I was gratified to learn that the young Charles Stewart Parnell trod our cobbles, and that there was a long Parnell family tradition of attending Trinity. His grandfather, Sir John Parnell was a Trinity graduate who rose to be Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1785, but was fired from his post for opposing the Act of Union. And it was the Trinity Fellow John Galbraith who initiated Parnell’s public life by proposing him for membership of the Home Rule League in 1874. But probably the most significant Trinity-Parnell connection comes from the contribution of our historians, and graduates, to Parnell scholarship. Writing in the Garden Room of the Provost’s House, the great F.S.L. Lyons completed his seminal biography in 1977, three years into his term as Provost – an achievement which fills me with some awe, I must admit, now that I know the demands of provostship! Lyons’ brilliant student, Roy Foster, published, at the young age of 27, Charles Stewart Parnell, the Man and his Family. And previous to this, our distinguished graduate, Conor Cruise O’Brien, published in 1957, Parnell * Recounted by Alice Milligan in review of Barry O’Brien’s biography in Shan Van Vocht. 2 Jan 1899. 1 and his Party. This legacy has meant a kind of ‘special relationship’ between Trinity and Parnell scholarship, and it’s in this context that I’m proud, as Provost, to open this Summer School. One of the School’s aims is to explore the relevance of Parnell and his politics to contemporary Ireland - hence the theme this commemorative year: ‘John F. Kennedy and the Irish-American connection’. This fascinating theme relates to Parnell in an obvious historical sense because Parnell’s political genius – a genius for ‘balancing’ as F.S.L. Lyons calls it – was to connect Irish-America into parliamentary politics, and maintain that connection. But the theme also relates, in a broader sense, because it touches on issues of civic duty, of human rights, of peace studies, and of public attitudes to private morality, all of which concern both Kennedy and Parnell, and which will be the subjects of papers and panel discussions this week.