From Campus

The National University of Ireland, Galway was established in 1845 as Queen's College. It bills itself as "one of Ireland's foremost centres of academic excellence. With over 15,000 students, it has a long established reputation of teaching and research excellence in each of its seven faculties - Arts, Science, Commerce, Engineering, Celtic Studies, Medicine & Health Sciences, and Law."

If you attended college and NUI Galway, you would inevitably come across the old quad, and be duly impressed by the high, grey stone walls. The Gothic tone of architecture (I think?) creates a medieval air.



Then you would look up, and be blown away by the grandeur that so often characterized Gothic (I think) architecture.


It feels like this building has always been here.

What does it looks like inside? Let's walk through the gate.


All four sides are surrounded by rows of windows. There is perfectly manicured green grass with sidewalks to take you any which way. You can see the scale by noticing the door. The walls are quite tall.

The quad may be seen in full, although not in detail, from this aerial view of campus taken in 2004. It's in the lower left corner.



The unnaturally blue water is the River Corrib, where many rowing crews practice nearly every day. They're fantastic to watch in action.

If you majored in business and economics, you might have a class held in this room.


The building is called the Friary, because it was an old church, or I don't know what. It is far from the old part of campus, so it would seem that as the college grew larger, it incorporated the church and turned it into a campus building. There are stained-glass windows, as you can see. The room is quite high-tech, although you are sitting in a room which must be more than 200 years old. It's the same in the Friary computer lab, where I am now.

I think it's highly interesting to see for one's self where ancient meets modern. It does so all over this island in dramatic fashion.