University of Limerick set to honour its founding president Dr Ed Walsh

“Founding president of the University of Limerick Dr Ed Walsh is among the five ‘exceptional individuals’ to be conferred with honorary doctorates by the university in a ceremony later this year …” (more)

[Limerick Leader, 26 February]

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Fixing the education system

“Madam, – Ed Walsh’s article (Education Today, January 25th) pioneers a bizarre new approach to education excellence – starving Irish schools and pupils of even more resources …” (more)

[Bernie Ruane, Irish Times, 7 February]

Finding the muscle to fix our failing education system

“It is time to stop commissioning reports and tiptoeing around the teacher unions. Ireland is being left behind with an inferior school system and it’s up to the new Minister for Education to stop the decline …” (more)

[Ed Walsh, Irish Times, 25 January]

From the archives

“The creation of the first new universities since the founding of the State was announced in 1989 with the upgrading of the National Institutes of Higher Education in Limerick and Dublin …” (more)

[Christina Murphy, Irish Times, 13 January]

University of Limerick doctorate is ‘greatest honour’ says founding president Ed Walsh

“It has been 12 years since Dr Edward Walsh left the university he founded, but yesterday he was finally presented with an honorary doctorate from UL …” (more)

[Limerick Leader, 29 September]

University honours its founder

“The founding father of the University of Limerick was among five people honoured at a conferring ceremony yesterday. An honorary doctorate was conferred on Ed Walsh, the founding president of the University of Limerick, the first new university established in the history of the State …” (more)

[Kathryn Hayes, Irish Times, 29 September]

Tough talk – or a joke at teachers’ expense?

“It has at last dawned on me why media reports on the views of Dr Edward Walsh, a fairly well known public figure, are almost always accompanied by the description ‘founding president of the University of Limerick’. Some of his opinions and suggestions are so silly that editors and programme directors must feel it necessary to remind us he was, after all, a university president …” (more)

[Eamon Tuffy, Irish Examiner, 15 April]

‘Pampered teachers acting like spoiled children’

“As the teachers’ unions hold annual conferences around the country, the founding president of the University of Limerick has launched a blistering attack on teachers describing them as ‘a pampered group’ who are ‘behaving like spoiled children’ …” (more)

[Claire O’Sullivan, Irish Examiner, 7 April]

Putting Clare in University of Limerick title ‘would weaken standing’

“The founding president of the University of Limerick, Dr Edward Walsh, has voiced his opposition to a motion to change its name to the University of Limerick and Clare …” (more)

[Anne Sheridan, Limerick Leader, 12 March]

Ed Walsh won’t chair boundary committee

“The founding President of the University of Limerick, Dr Ed Walsh, has ruled himself out of the running as a possible candidate to chair the independent committee which will examine the possible extension of the city boundary …” (more)

[David Hurley, Limerick Leader, 30 December]

Limerick leader is true original

“Dr Ed Walsh occupies a unique space in Irish public life. He speaks as an academic, yet has been at loggerheads with the university system for his entire career. He flouts tradition while sporting a waistcoat and using a fountain pen. He loves the cut and thrust of public debate, but privately finds it difficult to deal with opposing views or even small talk. Walsh can make hard work of a cup of coffee, says one colleague. The founding president of the University of Limerick lays claim to many firsts in Irish life. He was the first to introduce large scale philanthropy into education funding here, through his relationship with Chuck Feeney. His was the first university to offer tailor-made graduates to industry; a move credited with kicking off the migration of US software multinationals to Ireland. He brought us the values of the US higher education system; a culture that was strongly resisted at the time, but is ubiquitous now …” (more)

[Irish Times, 10 February]