Hidden History of UCD : New Blog

1968

A new blog dedicated to collating the radical and social history of UCD.


Did you know that Charles Haughey, as a UCD student helped to instigate a riot by burning a Union Jack during Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) celebrations in 1945 in Dublin’s City Centre?

.... in February 1969, 140 UCD students occupied the administrative wing, used a loud speaker system to address fellow students and distributed leaflets from the ”liberated zone of UCD"?

... during Rag Week in 1969, UCD students "raided" RTE?

... Richview Lodge, where the School of Architecture is now based, used to be a Masonic Boys’ School and various freemasony symbols can still be seen around the building today?

... students and the Gardai fought pitched battles up and down the concourse outside the Arts Block and restaurant in 1975 during a protest against the visit of the Taoiseach and US Ambassador?

... the establishment of the Pool Hall ‘The Trap’ and the building of a bus shelter at the No.10 terminus in Belfield only came about due to student direct action?

.... an eighteen year old was stabbed to death at Ireland's first punk festival held in UCD's canteen in 1977?

... in 1977 as part of Rag Week celebrations, over one hundred UCD students invaded Trinity College, the College of Surgeons and Kevin Street College causing £3,200 worth of damage?

--

http://ucdhiddenhistory.wordpress.com/

wexican

Interesting stuff.

bnt

Good stuff. I've subscribed to the RSS feed, will read more later. If you're looking for ideas, I bet you could find some interesting stuff on Cardinal Newman, the first Rector of UCD, a convert from Anglicanism who blew in from England to help organise the "Catholic University of Ireland". He's on the verge of being Canonized as a saint, because the current Pope likes his writings, despite it being known that he had long-term male companions for most of his life. :cool:

The_Minister

Any cites on Newman being gay?

delta_bravo

Did you write that series of articles in the Tribune 1968?

1968

delta_bravo wrote: »

Did you write that series of articles in the Tribune 1968?

I did.

For the blog, i re-edited, fully referenced and added some pictures to the original seven articles.

bnt

The_Minister wrote: »

Any cites on Newman being gay?

Depends on what you accept as a citation. Nothing from the man himself, and expect nothing from any Catholic sources. The Vatican likes him now for his writings, and the Vatican writes its own histories. The Guardian's Peter Tatchell claims to have been tipped off that there was a homophobic motive behind the attempt, last year, to move Newman's remains from where he was buried next to his last companion, Ambrose St. John.

As for whether it matters, I have no strong interest either way, except as another example of Vatican hypocrisy. If that's what made Newman a happy man, I would never complain, or think less of him than I do now (if that is possible).

The_Minister

Peter Tatchell believes in the "sexual rights" of 14 year olds, and was one of the main complainers about that Snickers ad that got banned in Britain. I'd take anything he says with a pinch of salt.

I just get a bit sceptical about these things, allot of historical people are "outed" after their deaths, with what I would consider little enough evidence.

Tom65

My father, who was there in the early 1970s, said he heard stories about someone being caught with IRA bomb making material and/or guns in their locker. I've never found anything about it, but I've always wondered if it's true.

Look into that

Dionysus

1968 wrote: »

A new blog dedicated to collating the radical and social history of UCD.


Did you know that Charles Haughey, as a UCD student helped to instigate a riot by burning a Union Jack during Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) celebrations in 1945 in Dublin’s City Centre?

.... in February 1969, 140 UCD students occupied the administrative wing, used a loud speaker system to address fellow students and distributed leaflets from the ”liberated zone of UCD"?

... during Rag Week in 1969, UCD students "raided" RTE?

... Richview Lodge, where the School of Architecture is now based, used to be a Masonic Boys’ School and various freemasony symbols can still be seen around the building today?

... students and the Gardai fought pitched battles up and down the concourse outside the Arts Block and restaurant in 1975 during a protest against the visit of the Taoiseach and US Ambassador?

... the establishment of the Pool Hall ‘The Trap’ and the building of a bus shelter at the No.10 terminus in Belfield only came about due to student direct action?

.... an eighteen year old was stabbed to death at Ireland's first punk festival held in UCD's canteen in 1977?

... in 1977 as part of Rag Week celebrations, over one hundred UCD students invaded Trinity College, the College of Surgeons and Kevin Street College causing £3,200 worth of damage?

--

http://ucdhiddenhistory.wordpress.com/

Good stuff, 1968. I read somewhere that by burning the Union Jack Haughey was reacting to Garret Fitzgerald and company raising it over TCD? (or vica versa)

Also, in the 1940s (1948?) tens of thousands of students went in a march commemorating the former UCD medicine student, Kevin Barry. No source, but I read it in some UCD brochure. The nearest I get get in confirmation is this Amharc Éireann programme in 1960 entitled 'U.C.D. Students Honour Kevin Barry': http://www.tcd.ie/irishfilm/showfilm.php?fid=36987

Dionysus

And is the story about UCD's design being influenced by a need to prevent a student riot à la Paris in 1968 true or a myth?

Raphael

It's a myth. While the university was built after the riots, the design was submitted and accepted before them

1968

Dionysus wrote: »

Good stuff, 1968. I read somewhere that by burning the Union Jack Haughey was reacting to Garret Fitzgerald and company raising it over TCD? (or vica versa)

Haughey and co. burning the Union Jack was in reaction to TCD students raising one over a Tricolour. But Firzgerald had nothing to do with it, he was a UCD student at the time!

Dionysus wrote: »

Also, in the 1940s (1948?) tens of thousands of students went in a march commemorating the former UCD medicine student, Kevin Barry. No source, but I read it in some UCD brochure. The nearest I get get in confirmation is this Amharc Éireann programme in 1960 entitled 'U.C.D. Students Honour Kevin Barry': http://www.tcd.ie/irishfilm/showfilm.php?fid=36987

Very interesting. I knew of the UCD Kevin Barry connection and the fact that it was Frank Ryan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ryan_(Irish_republican), another former UCD student who campaigned to get erect the famous Kevin Barry Window (http://www.ucd.ie/campusdevelopment/announcements/281008_kevin_barry_window.html)

But i didn't know of the 1948 UCD commemoration. Cheers for the heads up.

bnt

I like the list of upcoming articles - should be fun and educational. :pac:

If I may make a small suggestion regarding the site: Wordpress.com has various themes you can try out, including some that look a lot nicer than the basic theme you have at the moment. Since it's a blog about history, how about the Quentin theme, for that Edwardian look? (Under Appearance / Themes on the Dashboard.)

1968

Anyone know anything more about this?

In the mid-1990's a young female student drunkenly wandered through a building site on campus, fell and was impaled to death on steel reinforcement rods.

Cheers for the comments and suggestions bnt.

Gingy

1968 wrote: »

Haughey and co. burning the Union Jack was in reaction to TCD students raising one over a Tricolour. But Firzgerald had nothing to do with it, he was a UCD student at the time!

According to Fitzgerald himself on the Haughey program a few years ago, he was on College Green celebrating VE Day, no mention of Union Jacks.

1968

I've made some more updates including an interesting one on the 1981 Student Bar drugs raid which made The Irish Times's front page.

http://ucdhiddenhistory.wordpress.com/

simonrooneyzaga

heroin!