Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh

The death has occurred from cancer of Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh (née Whelan) BA (1988), HDip in Ed (1989), MA(History) ‌(1991).

In a ‘recollection’ for An Cumann Staire (http://www. cumannstaire.com/media/recollections/), she wrote: ‘I arrived in UCG in October 1985 and immediately joined the History Society, along with the Athletics club and the Literary and Debating Society; all three have fed into my activities for the last quarter of a century’. During her time at UCG, Margaret was an active member and officer of An Cumann Staire, UCG AC and Lit & Deb, representing the University in track and field and in The Irish Times Debating Competition. She served as Clubs Officer of UCG Students’ Union (1989- 90). A prolific researcher, a resilient athlete and a talented presenter, she published six books and more than sixty articles, won national athletics medals in Ireland and New Zealand, and a silver medal for Ireland in the Hammer at the European Masters’ Games in Sweden (2008), and taught in Ireland, New Zealand and the US (where she was a Fulbright scholar at Boston College (2000-01)).Having obtained a PhD from UCD (1999), she published a seminal biography of Kathleen Lynn: Irishwoman, patriot and doctor; Business archival sources for the local historian (jointly with her husband Ciarán); a biography of Edward Hay based on her first class honours MA from UCG; Quiet revolutionaries Irish women in education, medicine and sport, 1861-1964; Gender and medicine in Ireland 1700-1950 (edited with Margaret Preston); His Grace is displeased: selected correspondence of John Charles McQuaid (edited with Clara Cullen). She was engaged in research on a biography of Nano Nagle before her untimely death. She also contributed to bibliographies and wrote authoritative articles in the Encyclopaedia of Ireland (2003), the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), Enzyklopädie Migration in Europa vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart (2007), and the Dictionary of Irish Biography (2009).

When she was diagnosed, Margaret remarked that she was glad she had read the Stoics in first year Philosophy in Galway. One of those Stoics, Seneca, wrote: ‘as is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters’. This could be said of Dr Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh’s life (10 July 1967 – 17 December 2014).

She is survived by her husband, Ciarán, who is the Dean of Business in UCD.

Rest in Peace

2014

Máire Greene, BE 2005
Tom Tuohy, BComm 1976
Denis Carroll, HDip in Ed 1965
Victor Dillon, MIE 1974
Michael Hanley, BA 1988
Stella Coffey, HDip in Ed 1975
Mary O’Hara, BComm 1960
Mary Keane, BComm 1967
Patrick Madigan, BA 1957
Matthias Hynes, BA 1988
Kieran Duffy, BA 1993
Sheila Harrison, BA 1974
Brian McDermott, BA 1983
Francis Britton, BE 1981
Donnchadh McGinley, BSc 2004
Diane Halley, LLB 2002
Timothy Naughton, BComm 1961

2015

Jack Toolan, BA 1990
Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh, BA 1988
Noel Colleran, BA 2010
Fidelma Burgess, BComm 1965
Patrick McHugh, MB, BCh, BAO 1967
Kieran Woodman, BA 1946
Irene O’Byrne, HDipHPr 1999
Eamonn Ralph, MB, BCh, BAO 1979
Tracey Melia, BA 2011
Philomena Keane, BA 1970
Cathal Torpey, BE 2005
Muireann Ní Bhrolchain, BA 1975
Winifred Cunningham, BComm 1975
Michael Kieran, BComm 1975
Maire Leonard, MD 2010