Editor’s Note

A chairde, I am delighted to present you with the 2022 edition of The Bridge, the alumni magazine for Maynooth University graduates and friends. Sometimes I am asked about the origins of the name “The Bridge,” or hear suggestions to change it, given the physical bridge that once connected the South and North Campuses was removed in 2011. It is an idea worth considering. Physical infrastructure that will never be known to thousands of MU alumni could very well be seen as irrelevant.

Still, I think—at least for now—that the nomenclature of this publication might also serve as a metaphor for its purpose. After all, bridges link us together. They connect bodies of land that would otherwise remain separate. This magazine is one way that we remain connected to you, our graduates. There is also tremendous value from telling the stories of Maynooth generations gone by to today’s students—to bridging the past with the present.

This past year, in particular, I found to be a year of re-emergence, after a long pandemic that left us changed in ways we will be coming to grips with for years to come. We reunited through a series of alumni events, on campus but also in Boston, Paris and London. We, as an alumni engagement team and with the President, made sure to take full advantage of these occasions—not only to meet and socialise, but also to tap your collective ingenuity. We gathered your ideas to inform the University’s next strategic plan. We heard your reflections of your time here, how we can enhance the experience of today’s students, how we can contribute to the daunting challenges facing the world, and how Maynooth can stand out among its peer institutions.

Your voices have been heard loud and clear, and in the pages ahead we try to capture some of the stories you’ve told us along the way. We also have tried to share some ways in which MU has played a key leadership role—particularly in responding to the crisis in Ukraine— by leading the Irish higher education response to helping Ukrainian students and researchers enter Irish universities, and by housing 1,200 Ukrainian guests on campus over the summer, and in so doing creating a model for others to learn from.

I hope you are as proud of your alma mater as we are, and that we continue building bridges with you in 2023.

Le meas,