£8 million Albert Reynolds Veterinary Hospital proposed for Belfield campus
By The University Observer Archives | Jul 30 2018
Originally published in Volume II, Issue 11 on 16th April 1996 by Observer Reporters. A Northern Irish businessman, Edward Haughey, has donated £1 million to UCD to build a Veterinary Hospital on campus on condition that it be named ‘the Albert Reynolds Veterinary Hospital’. The donation made in honour of Reynolds’ contribution to the Northern Irish peace process, comes from a man who former Taoiseach Reynolds made a senator just before he left office in 1994. It is hoped that further money for the hospital, which is expected to £8.5 million, will come from the EU and the British government (there is no Vet school in Northern Ireland). The donation is something of a coup for the college authorities who have stated policy of bringing the outlying faculties is currently located in Ballsbridge. Senator Edward Haughey is chairman of Northbrook Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company and has the longest entry in the recently published directory of business interests of members of the Oireachtas. Haughey said that it was appropriate that the building should be named after Reynolds because of his work for peace and the high proportion of students from Northern Ireland in UCD’s Vet Faculty. Describing Senator Haughey’s offer as a “magnificently generous donation”, the President of the College, Dr Art Cosgrove said; “I know Senator Haughey would like this new building to be dedicated to a person, who, in years to come, will be recognised as someone, who played a key role in the shaping of modern Irish history.” Reynolds is scheduled to appear in UCD this week for a Kevin Barry Cumann debate on the peace process.