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2015 Press Releases

UCC to go Nationwide

5 Mar 2015
Pictured: Dr Michael Murphy, UCC President during an interview with Nationwide Presenter Mary Kennedy (Picture by Kathy Bunney)

UCC will be the sole focus of RTÉ's Nationwide programme this Friday 6 March 2015 at 7pm.

The UCC-themed episode will feature a variety of colourful events and interviews showcasing its rich history, research excellence, innovative teaching methods and vibrant student life.

UCC Criminology student Joanne O'Riordan, a scholar on the UCC Quercus Talented Students’ Programme and one of only seven people worldwide with Tetra-amelia syndrome (see documentary ‘No Limbs No Limits’), will discuss her experience of university life. Students from music, law and science as well as Dr Michael Murphy, President of UCC and Mark Stanton, UCC Students’ Union President, will also be interviewed.

Student and harpist Fiachra Ó Corragáin is among the contributors, having composed a piece in honour of Nationwide called ‘Planxty Mary Kennedy’ to be premiered on the programme. He is based out of the School of Music and Theatre at UCC. He could not be completing his PhD on ‘new composition in the traditional idiom’ in a better place as UCC was the home of the late Seán O’Riada, the most influential figure in the revival of Irish traditional music during the 1960s, and other luminaries such as Micheál Ó Suilleabháin and current staff member Mel Mercier. 

Those who cannot wait until the programme airs on Friday 6 March at 7pm can catch a sneak peak of Fiachra's special composition here as filmed by Ruth McDonnell, UCC

Among the research segments to be showcased will be the work of Professor Noel Caplice, Director of the Centre for Research in Vascular Biology at UCC and Chair of Cardiovascular Sciences and his team, who are behind a new device that promotes the bypass of arterial obstructions, potentially removing the need for major surgery. 

UCC’s celebration of the bicentenary of mathematical genius George Boole will also form a central segment on the programme. The first Professor of Mathematics at UCC, Boole is often described as the ‘father of the information age’. His appointment at UCC in 1849 provided the opportunity to develop his most important work, 'An Investigation of the Laws of Thought'. His legacy surrounds us everywhere, in the computers, information storage and retrieval, electronic circuits and controls that support life, learning and communications in the 21st century.

University College Cork

Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh

College Road, Cork T12 K8AF

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