Provost Patrick Prendergast announced College’s newly elected Fellows and Scholars this morning, in a pared-down version of the usual events of Trinity Monday in Front Square.
Students gathered outside the Exam Hall to hear the names being called out, but, due to the pandemic, social distancing was observed and there were significantly fewer people in Front Square than is typical for the announcement.
Some 73 Scholars were elected, a jump from last year’s 57 – and a higher number than expected, after a controversial decision to cap the number of new Scholars was scrapped.
Speaking on the steps of the Exam Hall, the provost said: “It’s nice to see so many here. Obviously we can’t have the crowds we would usually have because of the pandemic.”
The announcement of Trinity’s new scholars and fellows, he said, is the “most important of Trinity’s traditional celebratory occasions”.
“We should remember what Trinity Monday is really like, when we’re not in a pandemic”, he said. “Hopefully, this time next year, it’ll be a nice sunny day like this, and the crowds will be back in Front Square.”
Trinity refers to election to scholarship as “the most prestigious undergraduate award in the country”.
To be eligible for scholarship in most cases, a second-year undergraduate student must achieve an overall mark of 70 per cent or higher in a set of optional “searching” examinations held in January, with the majority of their papers also receiving a mark of 70 per cent or higher. The student must receive a mark of 65 per cent or higher in the remaining papers.
The exams were held online this year due to the pandemic.
Aside from the work required over Christmas, the scholarship examinations are perhaps best known for the perks that students receive for being successful in the examinations – Scholars are granted accommodation on campus or in Trinity Hall free of charge, have their tuition fees paid for and can attend Commons every day for free.
Some 13 academics were awarded Fellowships: Mary Cosgrove of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies, Jean Fletcher, Lina Zgaga, Adriele Prina Mello and Catherine Hayes, School of Medicine, David Hoey and Tríona Lally from the School of Engineering, Nicholas Johnson from the School of Creative Arts, David Kenny and Mary Rogan of the School of Law, Deirdre Madden from the School of English, Kenneth Pearce, from the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy and Jeremy Piggott of the School of Natural Sciences.
Professorial Fellowships were awarded to eight people: Aileen Kavanagh, a professor of constitutional governance, Iris Moeller, a professor of geography, Ortwin Hess, a professor of quantum nanophotonics, Omar Garcia, a professor of Spanish, Stephen David Thomas, the Edward Kennedy professor of health policy and management, Colin Doherty, the Ellen Mayston Bates professor of epileptology, Gerald Dickens, a professor of geology and mineralogy and Stephen Spence, a professor of mechanical engineering.
Fellowship is awarded to those who can prove “scholarship or research achievement of a high order” coupled with “evidence of the candidate’s contribution to the academic life of the College”, including effective teaching.
Four people were awarded honorary Fellowships: Maureen Harding Clark, Harry Clifton, Heather Hancock and Luke Drury.
Harding Clarke was the Judicial Visitor for Trinity for almost 12 years and currently serves as a judge on the Appeals Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia. Clifton is a writer who has taught at Bremen and Bordeaux universities where he is currently an adjunct professor of creative practice in Trinity. Hancock is the master of St John’s College, Cambridge and Drury is Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics in the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
Grace O’Connor Gollogley, Corey Alwell, Saúl Gallego Martínez, Órlaith Henry, Matthew Rowe, Katie Conlan, Nicola Stanley, Ian Creedon, Samuel Alarco Cantos, Pavel Petrukhin, Ronan Aljohmani, Sandra Nasrallah, Peter Suresh, Miren Tellechea, Lucy Holmes, Morghan Welt, Nicole Hennessy, Caoimhe Johnson, Conor O’Brien, Oscar Toomey, Anna Woodcock, Alfred Fletcher, Filip Bukowski, Anna Morrison, Ethan Hutchinson, Félix Vanden Borre, Deirbhile Clenaghan, Cormac Donnelly, Rhianna Dorrian, Ben Gannon, Sean Heeran, Ciara O’Reilly, Jane Brazil, Emmanuel Ntemuse, Michael Ryan, Shuyao Lu, Muireann Carton, Hugh Gallagher, Seán Fitzgerald, Luke Hamilton, Jing Xian Choo, Sophie Coalter, Emily Doyle, Simon Hollingsworth, Columb Kavanagh, Aidan Kelly, Eimear Kyle, Mary McLoughlin, James Prendergast, Liz Shi Yun, Bolanle Adebayo, Lucy Hackett, Robyn Kiernan, David Boylan, Esther Ogbebor, Zofia Dabrowska, Océane Cardot, Andrew Fleming, Nicola Maher, Claudia Friel, Iain MacLeod, Katie Hyland, Conor Maher, Ella McGill, Finn McGrath, Aisling Keller, Ella Roberts, Erika Carroll, Laura McEvoy Roantree, Aoibh Crimmins, Peggy MacHale, Maisie McGregor and Seán O’Leary were elected Scholars today.
