Remembering the Centre of That Life Farewell to the Terrace
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
A Supplement to THE IRISH TIMES Tuesday, May 15, 2007 8 Farewell to the Terrace A SPECIAL REPORT Remembering the centre of that life strange faces, handing over their fees and state exam results and receiving their student cards. This latter acquisition I fondly imagined to be the key to univer- sity life and to the wealth of pleas- urable experiences that awaited me in this student future. Two things struck me that first day. There were girls, loads of them, and there were clerical stu- dents and nuns, loads of them too. In fact, the arrival of the cler- ical students from the seminaries After spending 10 in the morning was like a crowd of black crows settling on the Ter- years studying race. This black crow is now a rara avis. Self-consciously, we medicine in UCD, began to explore this new “liber- ated” environment. We deferred Maurice Neligan to older students showing us the ropes and were easy prey for has happy those selling us useless or over- priced books and “must have” lec- memories of the ture notes. We learned early that most stu- campus, the pubs dents were habitually broke and Who then amongst us could that a sort of communistic view and the parties of money prevailed. If you had it, forget the pubs and cafes? you shared it. A dim view was taken of those who failed to get their round, or were adept at pro- Grafton St, Davy Byrne’s and ducing lit cigarettes from their pockets. enrolled as a medical stu- We gradually came to know Neary’s dent in UCD in Earlsfort Ter- our classmates from all over Ire- race in the autumn of 1955. land and abroad and came to Earlsfort Terrace in the 1960s, above, and Neary’s pub off Grafton street, above right IOnce I had decided to do socialise with our new college medicine, UCD had been the nat- groupings from clubs and classes, The airy ones were centred on group to discern which were societies also fostered the spirit dances were held. As regards the forget the pubs and cafes? Harti- we were UCD students from the ural choice for a Blackrock boy. rather than with the now dis- the Terrace and kept their brains male or female. of the college and it seemed a latter, many students simply gan’s and the Green Bar, the Terrace and the world had better Those were the days of the ban persed friends from school. free for the later complexities of The earthy group had a lot of rare soul that was not involved in would not be seen dead there. Golden Orient and above all the be aware that it was our oyster. on Catholic students entering Early on, I noticed that there life, by studying arts and law. The their student life located away some extracurricular activity. The rugby clubs’ “hops” and flat- Singing Kettle. Further afield, the The graduates of my time Trinity. It was a truly illiberal Ire- were two basic groups of stu- drama society and the literary from the Terrace. Future engi- It was a constrained space and land parties provided more attrac- Inca, the Kilimanjaro and Rob- spread through Irish life leaving land. dents – the airy ones and the and historical society (L&H) pro- neers and scientists were located could hardly be called a campus, tive social outlets. erts and, off two-way traffic their youthful prejudices behind. I did not know what to expect earthy ones. The latter group vided the fora for their exhibi- in the College of Science, Mer- but for us the immediate envi- The Crystal, Metropole and Grafton St, Davy Byrne’s and Even some of the airy group on my first foray to the Terrace, tended towards the sciences, med- tionism, as well as the hockey and rion Street (now Government rons were part of it. A back route Four Provinces provided more Neary’s. Generations of students became gainfully employed, where as an undergraduate and icine, dentistry, engineering, vet- beagling which exposed them to Buildings) and we medics, after from the Terrace led through the dubious venues, where some pur- skipped Friday lectures for more which says a lot about Newman’s postgraduate, I was to spend the erinary and, I suppose, the “ags” the open air. an initial year there, were redis- Iveagh Gardens to 86 sued “the other thing”, that in all relevant offerings in the Green concept of a university. The Ter- next 10 years. It was not without (agricultural students). Nobody Commerce sat uneasily in the tributed over the years to the var- St Stephen’s Green, where the honesty 90 per cent of us would Cinema. race is a fond memory to those trepidation that I left the cocoon was quite clear as to whether the middle, not quite sure of its stu- ious hospitals we had to attend. Students’ Union and committee have run from if proffered on a Colours matches in those days who studied and played there. of my boys’ secondary school and agricultural sorts really counted dent gender. Where were the Lectures, the library and the rooms of various clubs and socie- plate. That reality didn’t stop us were conducted with the ferocity entered a strange new world. as they spent much time away architects in such an arbitrary ultimate exams were the umbil- ties were located. all talking about it; in talk and of the Battle of the Boyne and for ❑ Maurice Neligan is a cardiac We registered by faculties and from the centre doing unspeak- grouping? It was hard enough in ical cord that bound us to the ter- There was also the Aula Max drink we were mighty men. the same reasons – them and us. surgeon and columnist in The I remember a long queue of able things to cows. that amorphous duffel coated race. The sports clubs and the where student theatricals and Who then amongst us could In fact it was everybody and us, Irish Times’ Health Supplement Pioneering graduates break through the ages aspirin can make the clot-forming The most globally recognised had gone to work with Siemens in the 1930s, and while the second 1975, and has since been used by Scientific blood platelets less sticky and UCD graduate is probably Tip- Berlin and, while there, he saw World War and the rise of diesel militaries all over the world and help protect people who are at perary-born physiologist Edward the potential of generating elec- trains effectively scuppered the for specialised emergency innovation has risk of a repeat heart attack. Conway, who studied medicine tricity from the Shannon. He con- technology’s growth, Drumm is service vehicles, including fire “His work has had a huge and later became professor of bio- vinced his employers and the still considered an important tenders at airports. “The main fea- always been impact on our understanding of chemistry and pharmacology at Irish government to undertake innovator, according to Byrne. ture is the uniqueness of the sus- inflammatory processes,” says Dr the college. He figured out how the project, which would cost “At that stage, the whole develop- pension system they designed. important in Patrick Felle, a senior lecturer in cells move ions across their mem- around one fifth of the national ment was at the leading edge and Each individual wheel has its own healthcare informatics at UCD. branes to generate electric poten- budget. A feat of engineering was he had an international profile in suspension,” explains Byrne, who UCD, writes Prof FitzGerald, who is now at tials, a fundamental process that born at Ardnacrusha that pro- terms of his achievements,” he took over Timoney’s post at Pennsylvania State University in underpins many events in the vided much needed employment says. “But it takes a whole lot of UCD. Claire O’Connell Philadelphia, also pointed out the body. and led to the ESB being estab- things for an invention to come to He notes that compared with potential heart-attack risks of Conway is thought to have nar- lished. fruition, and the politics of the former decades, research at UCD taking other types of non-ster- rowly missed out on a Nobel “He was the brains behind it day is important.” has now become more team- oidal anti-inflammatory drugs, Prize following his description in basically, he was the innovator A more recent UCD invention based, with a focus on commer- A low-dose aspirin a day can help which were eventually with- 1941 of how cells keep different for the whole project,” says that did blossom internationally cialisation. There’s a very strong keep a heart attack at bay, but it drawn from the market, adds Dr levels of ions on either side of Byrne. “At the time it was one of is a vehicle suspension system drive for innovation in UCD,” he was a UCD medical graduate who Felle. their membranes. the largest generation systems designed by the late professor of says. was central to figuring out why. Other pioneers of medical sci- “Conway did the original work developed internationally, it was mechanical engineering Seamus “Most of the projects have an And for innovations as diverse as ence include UCD chemistry on calcium channels and how a huge project. And for Ireland in Timoney. His team’s inde- objective. The question is asked: battery-driven trains, the graduate Dr Vincent Barry, who things get across cell mem- particular it was massive. Even pendent wheel suspension can this be commercialised? The Shannon hydroelectric scheme set about looking for a cure for branes,” says Dr Felle.