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UCD academics, Dr Angela Bourke, Professor Gabriel Cooney, Professor
Donald Cruickshank, Dr Alan Fletcher, and Professor Gerry O'Sullivan were honoured today (16th March 2004) when they were elected as members of the Royal
Irish Academy. Election to membership of the Academy is the premier distinction bestowed on
academics in Ireland.
Dr Michael Ryan, President of the Royal Irish Academy, said "Excellence is the only benchmark of the knowledge society.
Those elected as Members of the Royal Irish Academy today have raised the benchmark of
excellence in their respective fields internationally and bring honour on themselves and
Ireland by their achievements."
Of all the Irish universities (north and south), UCD had the highest number of new Academy members elected.
Dr Angela Bourke is a Senior Lecturer in Irish at UCD. Her interdisciplinary study, The Burning of Bridget Cleary: A True Story, has won several
awards. A frequent contributor to radio and television programmes, she was a
joint editor of the Field Day Anthology, vols 4 & 5: Irish Women's Writing and
Traditions. Other publications include some 45 articles and scholarly essays, and a collection of short stories,
By Salt Water. Her biography of Maeve Brennan will be published in May by Jonathan Cape.
Professor Gabriel Cooney, is currently Head of the Department of Archaeology at University College Dublin. His research spans a wide variety of topics within archaeology including material culture, landscape and the contemporary relevance and role of the discipline. He is an internationally
recognised authority on the Neolithic period. Professor Cooney is director of the Irish Stone Axe Project and is currently working
on the post-excavation analysis of a Neolithic stone axe quarry site on
Lambay. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1995. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal, World
Archaeology and the editor of the current issue (December 2003). He was the founding
editor of the journal, Archaeology Ireland (1987-97). He is the author of Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland (2000) and co-author of Irish Prehistory:
A social Perspective (1994/99) and The Irish Stone Axe Project Monograph 1 (1998).
Professor Don Cruickshank is Professor of Spanish at University College, Dublin. He is one of the leading
internationally recognised specialists in the literature of the Spanish Golden Age. His most important and
influential work belongs in the field of bibliography, textual criticism and the
book trade. His edition of Calderón's En la vida todo es verdad y todo
mentira, which appeared in 1971, is still arguably one of the best single editions
of a Golden-Age play ever published, the yardstick against which all other modern editions of Calderón's plays are measured.
Dr Alan Fletcher's area of specialism is English literature of the medieval and early modern periods. His three main areas of
expertise are sermon literature, manuscript studies and codicology, and late medieval and
early modern drama. He has made significant contributions in each of these areas.
Professor Gerry O'Sullivan's research career has been dedicated to the study of dense high temperature laser
produced plasmas in the extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray spectral regions. In the interpretation of his experimental work, Professor O'Sullivan has manifested considerable theoretical
insight and computational skill. In particular, he has been able to explain the complex line and continuum
emission spectra of the rare-earth elements. Owing to the extent and originality of his work Professor O'Sullivan is well recognised
internationally as a leading figure in modern X-ray and ultraviolet spectroscopy
The Royal Irish Academy is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the
sciences, humanities, and social sciences. It is the principal learned society in Ireland and has
approximately 320 members elected in recognition of their academic achievement.
Well-known Academy members include: Dr Garret FitzGerald; Nobel Laureate, Seamus Heaney; Mr Dermot Gleeson; Mr Peter Sutherland; Professor Joe
Lee; Professor Ronan Fanning; Mrs Mary Robinson, Professor David McConnell
(TCD Geneticist), Professor Richard Kearney; and President Mary McAleese.
For 217 years the Royal Irish Academy has been honouring Ireland's foremost academics by electing them as Members of the Academy.
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