Maynooth Through the Ages 2024: Prof Vincent Comerford

'Tomás Ó Fiaich and Maynooth/Má Nuad, 1940s-1970s', by Prof Vincent Comerford.
Tomás Ó Fiaich was one of the most charismatic figures of the second half of the twentieth century in Ireland. He studied at Maynooth from 1940 to 1944 and returned in 1953 as lecturer, charged with introducing Modern History as a subject in the NUI degree program. From the late 1950s he began to make an impression outside the walls. He was chair of a government commission on the Irish language, editor of several journals, and in 1964 was elected to the senate of the NUI. When Dr Jeremiah Newman was appointed president of Maynooth in 1968, Fr. Ó Fiaich was made registrar. He was a key figure in the expansion and transformation of the College under Newman. As president from 1974 Tomás prevailed upon the trustees to look for independent university status for Maynooth. Advanced discussions with the department of Education took place, but before any conclusion Monsignor Ó Fiaich was appointed archbishop of Armagh in the summer of 1977. At the same time the college was sliding into a traumatic internal dispute that changed its immediate prospects. Independence, would have to wait for twenty years.
[Recorded in Maynooth University Library, 25th March 2024]