Labhras O Nuallain revisits Manchester

Eoin, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Niamh, Dr Liam Harte at St Kents.

It was a happy experience for me to be able to visit Manchester, the birthplace of my father, where he lived for 21 years before migrating to Ireland in late 1933. We had a book launch there at the end of the Manchester Irish Festival, and in St Kentigerns Irish Social Club, I delivered a presentation on his life and times before a fine group of enthusiastic Irish language students.

Labhras 1960s

Frances, Labhras, 1938. Honeymoon in Jersey

Club Manager Kevin Fitzpatrick had everything laid on to welcome us and Dr Liam Harte, a NUI Galway graduate and a Senior History Lecturer in the University of Manchester, had come along to launch the book.

1971,Mary Robinson and Labhras, EEC Forum, Ballina. President Higgins on right.

I owe thanks also to Tony Hennigan of the Mayo Manchester Website for making the visit possible  and who took the top pic.

Some of the Manchester-Irish Group

A visit to the palatial Manchester Public Library was a highlight too. Knock to Manchester is now a fast and efficient flight.

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Two Presidents remember Labhras O Nuallain

At the inaugural Distinguished Lectures series  of the new  Institute for Lifecourse and Society at NUI Galway, 0n 30 November  2015, President Michael D. Higgins gave the Address.  During his speech he spoke warmly of the late Labhrás Ó Nualláin, former Professor of Economics, whom he had known and worked with as a student in Galway in the 1960s and ’70s. The President  praised his work on the Social and Economic problems of the West of Ireland and his efforts to tackle  the massive emigration of the times, which led to the formation of the Social Sciences Research Unit,  a precursor for the new ILAS on the NUIG Campus.   NUI Galway  President Jim Browne, also referred to Labhras’s autobiography and gave a short resumé of his life and of his time in Galway. U t Institute for Lifecourse and Society.