Seán Ó Murchú Lecture Series

From 30th March to 25th May, the Centre for ACE (Adult Continuing Education) at UCC will host a publish lecture series in memory of former ACE Director Seán Ó Murchú as part of the Centre’s 75th anniversary.

Seán Ó Murchú was appointed the first departmental director of ACE in 1967, holding this position until 1990. Under his leadership, ACE saw a period of considerable expansion to the course offering across Munster. Ó Murchú also worked closely with his counterparts in Galway to develop adult education in the West of Ireland. In Galway, among the people he worked with was a young Michael D. Higgins. In 1969, Ó Murchú was instrumental in the founding of AONTAS, Ireland’s national adult education association, and served as its Chair for a number of years. This public lecture series seeks to celebrate Seán Ó Murchú’s contribution to ACE by continuing his ethos of outreach and accessibility to learning.

Full Lecture Series 30th March - 25th May from 7pm-9pm. 

The lecture series will include speakers from other institutions and organisations in Ireland and the USA will run until May. Lectures are open to the public and will take place in UCC’s new Student Hub building from 7-9pm on the relevant dates. The list of speakers in the series include:

30 March: Dr. Larysa Samosonok, Director of the Project Office of the NGO ‘Vzayemodiya—Plus’, Former Vice-Rector of Donetsk National University of Economics, Ukraine (Dora Allman Room, UCC)

6 April: Don Tracy, Director of Corporate & Community Education for the Continuing Education Division at Austin Community College (Council Chambers, City Hall, Cork)

13 April: Dr. Séamus Ó Tuama, Director of ACE at UCC (The Shtepps, UCC)

27 April: Dr. Stephen O’Brien, Lecturer, School of Education, UCC (Dora Allman Room, UCC)

4 May: Dr. Helen Murphy, Head of School of Lifelong Learning, WIT (Dora Allman Room, UCC)

11 May: Dr. Josephine Finn, Adult & Community Education, Maynooth University (Dora Allman Room, UCC)

18 May: Dr. Alan McCarthy, Post-Doctoral Fellow, ACE, UCC (Dora Allman Room, UCC)

25 May: Dr. Niamh O’Reilly, Chief Executive Officer, AONTAS (Dora Allman Room, UCC)