05.12.2025
This week NUI hosted its Annual Awards Ceremony in the RDS. We were
delighted to honour and recognise over 175 scholars from across the NUI federation, awarding more than €850,000 in grants, scholarships and prizes recognising excellence at every stage of academic life. From undergraduate achievers to leading researchers, the ceremony highlighted the breadth of talent across NUI universities.
In honour of Explore your Archives’ week, we are sharing a letter from the NUI archives that featured in our third Decade of Century publication Eoin MacNeill: The Pen and the Sword.
The letter, dated 13 November 1922, is from John Ryan to the Senate of the National University of Ireland requesting an extension to his Travelling Studentship. He acknowledges the work of Eoin MacNeill while detailing his own studies in Bonn. The scholarship afforded him the opportunity to study with international scholars, including the study of Old Irish with Rudolf Thurneysen, who provides a reference in support of his request.
Eoin MacNeill was a staunch supporter of a national university; he was a member of the first university Senate and remained an active member for many years thereafter. One of the foremost historians of his generation, he was foundation Professor of Early (including Medieval) Irish History at UCD. He was a Gaelic scholar and a politician; he was elected to the first Dáil from the NUI constituency in 1918.
John Ryan later held the Chair of Early (Medieval) Irish History at UCD, and he received funding from both NUI and UCD towards the publication of MacNeill’s festschrift, which he edited: Féil-sgríbhinn Eóin Mhic Néill: essays and studies presented to Professor Eoin MacNeill.
Ryan is best known for his monumental work on Irish monasticism, based on the research he conducted and knowledge he acquired whilst an NUI Travelling Student in Bonn. Irish Monasticism: Origins and Early Developments was first published in 1931, and such was its continuing relevance, it was republished in 1992 by Four Courts Press.
This years’ winner of the NUI Irish Historical Research Prize was Monasticism in Ireland, AD 900-1200 by Dr Edel Bhreathnach and published in 2024 by Four Courts Press. Catherine Swift, in a recent review of the book stated:
‘The book is a worthy successor to John Ryan’s work and one which, like his, is likely to become a key reference for at least another three generations’. Catherine Swift, Irish Catholic.
Edel Bhreathnach is a graduate of University College Dublin and was formerly Chief Executive Officer of the Discovery Programme. She has published extensively on a wide range of topics relating to medieval Irish history and culture.
Monasticism in Ireland, AD 900-1200, is available in all good bookshops and online from Four Courts Press: https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2024/monasticism-in-ireland-ad-900-1250.
******
NUI houses the archive of the University and the archive of the Royal University of Ireland.
Explore your archives week: Saturday 29th November – Sunday 7th December 2025
Explore Your Archive is a joint campaign delivered by The National Archives and the Archives and Records Association across the UK and Ireland. It aims to showcase the unique potential of archives to excite people, bring communities together, and tell amazing stories (www. exploreyourarchive.org).
Follow NUI on X