Kavanagh Celtic Civilisation Entrance Scholarship

The Kavanagh Celtic Civilisation Entrance Scholarship acknowledges the contribution made by Séamus Kavanagh (Caomhánach) to Celtic Studies. Professor Kavanagh (1900 – 1989) was appointed as a lecturer in Celtic languages in UCC in 1940, having spent a number of years studying comparative philology and ancient languages in Britain and Germany. He was appointed Professor of Celtic Languages and Celtic Philology in UCC in 1946, a post he retained until his retirement in 1970. It was during this period that he laid the foundations for the institution of the Department of Early and Medieval Irish which came into being in 1973 with the appointment of Professor Pádraig Ó Riain. Professor Kavanagh devoted his life to a study of the earliest sources for Old Irish and this gave rise to his monumental work, A lexicon of the Old Irish glosses in the Würzburg manuscript of the epistles of St. Paul, ed. Dagmar Wodtko (Vienna, 2001). This lexicon is an unparalleled and invaluable resource for scholars of Old Irish language and literature.

To mark Professor Kavanagh’s contribution to Celtic Studies and his role in the history of the Department of Early and Medieval Irish, a scholarship fund has been established for the annual award of two scholarships of €250 each to incoming first year students who are registered for 15 credits of Celtic Civilisation, based on their overall performance in the Leaving Certificate examination.

• Two scholarships of €250 each are awarded annually to incoming first year students who are registered for 15 credits of Celtic Civilisation, based on their overall performance in the Leaving Certificate exam.
• The Scholarships are tenable only in University College Cork, for the first year of a full-time primary degree programme at University College Cork in the session following the Leaving Certificate Examination on which the award is based.
• Scholarships shall be awarded in order of merit in accordance with the standard UCC scoring system for Leaving Certificate results as set out under regulations for admission in the University Calendar. 
• If the holder of a Kavanagh Celtic Civilisation Entrance Scholarship withdraws from the programme for which they have registered or fails to continue throughout the year to meet the attendance and other requirements for the programme including examination entry, they may be required to repay to the University the whole or part of the scholarship.
• No application form is required for the Kavanagh Celtic Civilisation Entrance scholarships. Successful students will be notified directly.