COLUMBAN HALL ON SEA ROAD - SEPTEMBER 2017

THE UNIVERSITY CAMPUS [GALWAY CITY]


The University opened for teaching in 1849 as "Queen's College Galway" with 68 students. A year later it became part of the Queen's University of Ireland. The Irish Universities Act, 1908 made this college a constituent college of the new National University of Ireland, and under a new charter the name of the University changed to "University College Galway". It was given special statutory responsibility under the University College Galway Act, 1929 with respect of the use of the Irish language as a working language of the University. It retained the title of University College Galway until the Universities Act, 1997 changed it to the "National University of Ireland, Galway".

Located close to the city centre, it stretches along the River Corrib. The oldest part of the University, the Quadrangle with its Aula Maxima was designed by John Benjamin Keane; it is a replica of Christ Church, one of the colleges at the University of Oxford. The stone from which it is built was supplied locally

More modern parts of the university sprang up in the 1970s and were designed by architects Scott Tallon Walker. The 1990s also saw considerable development, including the conversion of an old munitions factory into a student centre. Under the early 21st-century Presidency of Iognáid G. Ó Muircheartaigh, NUI Galway announced details of plans to make the University a "campus of the future" at a cost of around €400 million. Ó Muircheartaigh's successor James J. Browne continued with that plan.