The “most revolutionary changes” that have happened in St Patrick’s College Maynooth since its foundation have all taken place in the last 50 years, Bishop Dermot Farrell said as he launched a new publication celebrating the college’s 225th anniversary.
The Bishop of Ossory, who is a former president of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, said the “Universities Act of 1997 represented the most significant and all-embracing piece of university legislation passed since the foundation of the Irish state”.
The act established the National University of Ireland, Maynooth as one of the seven universities in Ireland. The University today caters for over 11,000 students.
Maynooth was founded in 1795 as a small seminary of thirty students and ten professors but it expanded rapidly, becoming a Pontifical University, a constituent college of the National University of Ireland and, at one time, the largest seminary in world. In 1966 it admitted its first lay students.
We Remember Maynooth: A College Across Four Centuries is edited by Salvador Ryan and John-Paul Sheridan and incorporates a miscellany of recollections to mark this year’s anniversary of the foundation of the college.
Contributions range from the academics, religious, artistic and politicians and include essays by Archbishop Eamon Martin, former Minister Mary O’Rourke, playwright Frank McGuinness, and musician and composer Fr Liam Lawton.
Bishop Farrell said Maynooth had brought a message of hope to so many people down through the centuries from students to staff and visitors alike.
He said the publication was a “very fitting celebration of the 225th anniversary” and commended it to all who would like to understand the historical development of Maynooth College.
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