1924

University at risk

It is being pointed out that each student in Galway is costing the country the country considerably more than a student in Dublin costs, and it is being urged that Galway has not the facilities for a great university centre.

It is being said – and we regret to learn that a Minister of the Government born and reared in County Galway is giving countenance to the idea – that we have produced no experts in the higher branches of agriculture in the West and therefore we should not have an agricultural college.

Do those who control for the moment university education in Ireland seriously suggest that students who are equipped for the professions at Galway, who, in proportion to their numbers would stand comparison in brilliance with either Dublin or Cork, would go to Dublin in the Galway college were to close its portals.

To close Galway college would merely shout out higher education from the people of Connacht. Those who are talking in secret against Galway must be very well aware of this fact.

Is Connacht to be deprived of its college because the cost per student in the smallest and poorest province is higher? Are our medical students to be taken to the slums of Dubin?

Pictured: The late Brendan Grace, comedian, and his wife Mary at the Galway Races in August 1996.