Founded in 1795, Maynooth College has a singular place in the history of the Irish Church, and indeed the Catholic Church globally. Its beginning was as a small seminary of thirty students and ten professors, most of whom were fleeing the ravages of the French Revolution. It has been the subject of riots in the streets of London and has played host to kings and popes. Its buildings have created one of the loveliest of university campuses and its chapel is among the highest free- standing structures in Ireland. It expanded rapidly, becoming a Pontifical University, a constituent college of the National University of Ireland and, at one time, the largest seminary in world. It has educated many thousands of students and led the way in many branches of the arts and sciences. But, beyond that, for its large number of alumni, found across all sectors of society internationally, it is a tapestry of rich memories. This book is a contribution to this rich tapestry. It is a compilation of pen pictures, personal reminiscences and sketches on aspects of the college’s life and history. The contributors have all been associated with Maynooth in many different spheres, either as students or staff, and in many cases both. Some have offered images of their time at Maynooth; others, portraits of characters and personalities they encountered there. These pages are part history, part folk history, part aide-me?moire. For some, it will be an introduction to a place they have heard about but never known. For others, it will be a reminder of their time in the college, evoking memories of their own story and the stories of those who journeyed with them. For everyone, it will open up this historic center of learning and tell the tales of those who walked its Pugin-designed buildings.

Major John MacBride, who was Born in Westport, County Mayo in 1868, was a household name in Ireland when many of the leaders of the Easter Rising were still relatively unknown figures. As part of the 'Irish Brigade', a band of nationalists fighting against the British in the Second Boer War, MacBride's name featured in stories in the Freeman's Journal and Arthur Griffith's United Irishman. The Major went on to travel across the United States, lecturing audiences on the blow struck against the British Empire in South Africa. His marriage to Maud Gonne, described as 'Ireland's Joan of Arc', led to further notoriety. Their subsequent bitter separation involved some of the most senior figures in Irish nationalism. MacBride was dismissed by William Butler Yeats as a 'drunken, vainglorious lout; Donal Fallon attempts to unravel the complexities of the man and his life and what led him to fight in Jacob's factory in 1916. John MacBride was executed in Kilmainham Gaol on 5 May 1916, two days before his forty-eighth birthday.

Paul McGrath is Ireland's best loved sportsman and also its least understood. An iconic football presence during a professional career stretching over 14 years, he played for his country in the European Championship finals of 1988 and the World Cup finals of 1990 and 1994. But, behind the implied glamour of life in the employ of great English clubs like Manchester United and Aston Villa, McGrath wrestled with a range of destructive emotions that made his success in the game little short of miraculous. That story has until now never been told. It is a story that runs from a hard, hidden childhood spent in Dublin's orphanages all the way to the pain of two marriage break-ups and the struggle to cope with life after football. Quite apart from his all too public struggle with alcoholism, the story runs through the surreal highs and calamitous lows of a life lived habitually on the edge of chaos. It is not just a football story. It is an extraordinary human story that is certain to surprise with its candour. Here, for the first time, read about the father he never met; the mother whose love never died; the routine loneliness and ritual bullying endured by a black kid growing up behind closed doors in 1960s Dublin; the emotional breakdown suffered on leaving that institution; the recovery that - remarkably - brought him all the way to Old Trafford; the rollercoaster ride that followed. Here, the guilt, fear, self-loathing are all laid bare in a story fired with hope and determination for the future. It may well be the most candid sports book ever written.