# List of University of Galway people

The following is a list of University of Galway people, including notable alumni and faculty members of the University of Galway and its forerunners: Queen's College, Galway (QCG) created in 1845 as a college of the Queen's University of Ireland; University College, Galway (UCG) chartered in accordance with the Irish Universities Act, 1908 as a university college of the National University of Ireland; and National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI, Galway and later NUI Galway without the comma), a constituent university of the National University of Ireland and newly named since the Universities Act, 1997 until 2022.

## Alumni
### Politicians

* Michael D. Higgins - 9th President of Ireland
* Enda Kenny
* Eamon Gilmore
* Frank Fahy
* Joseph Brennan
* Séamus Kirk
* Michael Kitt
* Pat "the Cope" Gallagher
* Heather Humphreys
* Michael Ring
* Lisa Chambers
* Barry Cowen
* Anne Rabbitte
* Sylvester Barrett
* Mark Clinton
* Paul Connaughton Jnr
* Ciara Conway
* Rose Conway-Walsh
* Brendan Griffin
* Fidelma Healy Eames
* Jim Higgins
* Lorraine Higgins
* Seán Kyne
* Patrick Lindsay
* Farrell McElgunn
* Bobby Molloy
* Rónán Mullen
* Ronan Moore
* Carol Nolan
* Derek Nolan
* Maureen O'Carroll
* Pádraig Ó Céidigh
* Trevor Ó Clochartaigh
* John O'Mahony
* Pat Rabbitte
* Seán Sherlock
* Madeleine Taylor-Quinn
* Mary Upton
* Pat Upton
* John Dallat - SDLP politician
* Aisling Dolan

### Government officials

* Henry Arthur Blake - Governor of Hong Kong (1898-1903)
* Antony MacDonnell, 1st Baron MacDonnell - Colonial Administrator
* Charles James O'Donnell - Colonial Administrator
* John Sheehy - Colonial Official
* William Alfred Browne - Civil servant

### Diplomats

* Noel Dorr
* Pádraig MacKernan

### Law

* John Atkinson
* Joseph R. Fisher
* Mark Heslin - judge of the High Court
* Likando Kalaluka - Attorney General of Zambia in 2015
* Walter Lewis
* Robert McCall
* John Monroe
* Thomas O'Shaughnessy
* Andrew Reed
* Guy Rutledge
* Mathilda Twomey - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Seychelles
* Raymond West - High Court Judge in British India
* Máire Whelan - Attorney General of Ireland, Judge of the Court of Appeal

### Military

* Major General Michael Beary - UNIFIL Commander
* General Bindon Blood - British military commander
* Major General Kieran Brennan - Deputy Chief of Staff (Ops) and former Kilkenny hurler
* Lieutenant General Sean McCann - Former Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces
* Vice Admiral Mark Mellett - Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces
* Brigadier General Maureen O'Brien - First woman to attain the rank of Lt Colonel (Army Line), Colonel and Brig Gen in the Irish Defence Forces
* Commandant Cathal Berry - Former Deputy Commander of the Army Ranger Wing and Head of the Military Medical School

### Religion

* Samuel Angus - Theologian
* Brendan Kelly - Bishop
* Fintan Monahan - Bishop
* Robert Moore - Theologian
* Michael Lenihan O.F.M. - Bishop of La Ceiba, Honduras (2011-present)
* William Mahony S.M.A. - Bishop of Ilorin, Nigeria
* Wilfrid Napier O.F.M. - Cardinal, Archbishop of Durban
* William Slattery O.F.M. - Archbishop of Pretoria
* George Thomas Stokes - Clergyman of the Church of Ireland and Historian

### Literature

* Emily Anderson- Linguist
* Gerald Dawe - Poet
* James Hardiman - Librarian
* Mike McCormack - Writer
* Eamonn McGrath- Writer
* Ronan Moore - Writer
* W. F. Marshall - Poet
* Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh - Poet
* Breandán Ó hEithir - Writer
* Valentine O'Hara

### Academics

* William Bindon Blood - first professor of civil engineering at Queen's College Galway
* Alexander Anderson (physicist) - Physicist; former president of Queen's College and University College Galway
* J. E. Cairnes - Economist
* Louis Cullen - Professor of Irish History at Trinity College
* Edward Divers - Chemist
* Charles Joseph Gahan - Coleopterist
* John Hegarty - Provost of Trinity College Dublin
* Máire Herbert MRIA – Professor of Early and Medieval Irish at University College Cork
* Ethna Gaffney - scientist and first female professor at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
* Alfred Keogh - Director General Army Medical Services (1905-1910 and 1914-1918)
* Thomas J. Laffey - Mathematician known for his contributions to group theory and matrix theory.
* John A. McClelland - Physicist
* Mick Molloy - IRB medical officer
* Michael O'Shaughnessy - Chief engineer of San Francisco
* Alice Perry - First woman in Ireland to graduate with a degree in engineering

### Media

* Patsy McGarry - Journalist
* Harry McGee - Journalist
* T. P. O'Connor
* Frank Hugh O'Donnell
* Conor Pope - Journalist
* Cillian Fennell - Former head of programming at TG4 and producer
* Pat McGrath - Correspondent
* Colm Murray - Sports-reader
* Siún Nic Gearailt - Television newsreader
* Eimear Ní Chonaola - Journalist and television news anchor
* Sean O'Rourke - Presenter
* Gráinne Seoige - Television news anchor

### Arts

* Keith Barry - Performing artist
* Seán McGinley - Actor
* Nora-Jane Noone - Actress
* Martin Sheen - Actor
* Éabha McMahon - Singer
* Leo Moran - Guitarist
* John Coll - Figurative sculptor
* Pádraic Breathnach - Actor, first manager of Galway Arts Centre and co-founder of Macnas
* John Concannon - Director of "Ireland 2016" (official commemorations of the centenary of the Easter Rising)
* Garry Hynes - Co-founder Druid Theatre Company
* Ollie Jennings - Founder of the Galway Arts Festival, co-founder of Macnas;
* Mick Lally - Co-founder Druid Theatre Company
* Marie Mullen - Co-founder Druid Theatre Company
* Nicola Coughlan - Actress

### Sports

* Enda Colleran - Gaelic football
* Iarfhlaith Davoren - Association football
* Daithí Burke - Hurling
* Niall Burke - Hurling
* Conor Cleary - Hurling
* Joe Connolly - Hurling
* Joseph Cooney - Hurling
* Anthony Cunningham - Hurling
* Cyril Farrell - Hurling
* Pat Fleury - Hurling
* Francis Forde - Hurling
* John Hanbury - Hurling
* Aidan Harte - Hurling
* Conor Hayes - Hurling
* Seán Loftus - Hurling
* Jeffrey Lynskey - Hurling
* Joe McDonagh - Dual player, Gaelic games administrator and 32nd President of the Gaelic Athletic Association
* Cathal Mannion - Hurling
* Pádraic Mannion - Hurling
* Conor Whelan - Hurling
* Cian Lynch - Hurling
* Eoghan Clifford - Paralympic cyclist
* Cormac Folan - Rower
* Paul Hession - Sprinter
* Olive Loughnane - Racewalker
* Neville Maxwell - Rower
* Ciaran Fitzgerald - Rugby union
* Fiona Everard - National champion runner

### Business

* Nicky Hartery - Chairman of CRH plc
* Declan Kelly - Founding partner and co-CEO of Teneo
* Pádraig Ó Céidigh - Airline developer

### Finance and banking

* John Hourican - Investment banker; former CEO of Bank of Cyprus
* Seamus McCarthy - Comptroller and Auditor General

## Faculty

* John Breslin - engineering professor and entrepreneur
* Nicholas Canny - historian and noted authority on early modern Ireland and Britain
* Ada English - psychiatrist
* Gerard Jennings - physics professor
* Thomas Kilroy - playwright, novelist, former Professor of English at the university
* William King - geologist
* Joseph Larmor - physicist, Professor at Queen's College Galway 1880-1885 and later Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge
* Alexander Gordon Melville - comparative anatomist, Professor at Queen's College Galway 1849-1882
* George Johnstone Stoney - physicist who introduced the term electron as the "fundamental unit quantity of electricity"; first Professor of Science at the then new university; elder brother of Bindon Blood Stoney
* D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson - professor of Greek at UCG from 1862 and father of biologist Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson