News and Events
Tina Neylon Receives Prestigious Bertram Windle Award from ACE at UCC
Adult Continuing Education (ACE) at University College Cork presented its annual Bertram Windle Award to Tina Neylon, Founding Coordinator of the Lifelong Learning Festival at an award ceremony in City Hall on the 28th of September. Tina Neylon was presented with the award in recognition of for her exemplary contribution to lifelong learning as Founding Coordinator of the Lifelong Learning Festival.
Tina, whose career has included editing the books pages for the Irish Examiner, editing the Holly Bough for three years, and writing about the arts, started a new post in 2004, as part of the mission to make Cork a learning city. She worked as Coordinator of the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival which she ran successfully for 14 years. The festival grew from offering 60 events the first year to 600 events in 2017, under her stewardship.
Tina's work was one of the contributing factors in Cork being presented with a prestigious UNESCO Learning City Award in 2016. Cork was one of only 12 cities in the world that were nominated for this exclusive award. The following year, Cork hosted the third UNESCO International Conference on Learning Cities
The Bertram Windle Award, created in 2017 in celebration of ACE’s 70th anniversary, was developed to recognize outstanding contributions to Adult Education, lifelong learning and advocating access for non-traditional students. Bertram Windle was a doctor, a scientist, an archaeologist, an anthropologist, a writer and president of University College Cork. During his time in Ireland between 1904 and 1919, he had a major impact on the development of higher education and the development of the National University of Ireland.
In addition to the award presentation on the evening, Dr Josephine Finn from the Department of Adult and Community Education at Maynooth University delivered to Alfred O'Rahilly Public Lecture. The Alfred O’Rahilly Lecture is an annual event initiated in 2016 to celebrate ACE's 70th anniversary. This lecture series aims to explore the public mission of the university, with a particular focus on adult education, lifelong learning, access, and community engagement.