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About Colm Ó hEocha
- Colm Ó hEocha (; 19 September 1926 – 19 May 1997) was an Irish scientist and educationalist, who served as president of University College Galway and Chairman of the New Ireland Forum. Ó hEocha was born in Dungarvan, County Waterford, in 1926.
- His father, Séamus Ó hEocha, known as An Fear Mór, was headmaster of the Irish-language college at An Rinn (Ring), and had become famous as a roving teacher of Irish for the Gaelic League.Ó hEocha enrolled at University College Galway in 1945, and obtained his B.Sc.
- and M.Sc.
- in chemistry under the direction of Professor Thomas Dillon.
- He was subsequently awarded a scholarship which enabled him to continue his studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he obtained his Ph.D.
- He is a University of California, San Diego Alumnus, also receiving his Ph.D.
- from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.
- Returning to Galway in 1955, he became a lecturer in biochemistry, and was appointed the first Professor of Biochemistry at the university in 1963. Ó hEocha successfully built up the Department of Biochemistry throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and was notably successful in attracting external research funding to the college.
- He was appointed Chairman of the Irish Science Council in 1967. In 1975, following the retirement of Dr Martin J.
- Newell, Ó hEocha was elected to the presidency of the college.
- His term in office coincided with a rapid expansion in the numbers of students attending the institution, doubling during his 21-year tenure, and a corresponding increase in staff numbers.
- A lecture theatre in the Arts Millennium Building is named in his honour. The Fine Gael–Labour Party coalition government established the New Ireland Forum in 1983 as a mechanism to allow the constitutional nationalist parties on the island of Ireland to develop an agreed approach to a settlement of the Northern Ireland issue.
- Ó hEocha was nominated by the Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, to chair the forum.
- Ó hEocha's skill in this role is widely credited with bringing the forum to a constructive conclusion. Dr Ó hEocha retired as President of UCG on his 70th birthday in July 1996.
- He was, by then, the longest-serving university president in Ireland. Ó hEocha also served as Pro-Vice Chancellor of the National University of Ireland, Chairman of the Arts Council, and Chairman of the Interim Local Radio Commission.
- He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and a recipient of honorary degrees from Queen's University, Belfast, the University of Dublin, and the University of Limerick.
- He was an honorary life member of the Galway Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and was awarded the Freedom of the City of Galway in 1995.
- The Government of France appointed him a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur in the early 1980s.Ó hEocha died at his home in Galway on 19 May 1997.
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