The University of Limerick (UL), the first university to be established since the foundation of the Irish state, came about through determined local campaigns. This sumptuously illustrated volume celebrates UL’s fiftieth anniversary, presenting fifty contributions from or about people associated with the university.

A wide diversity of writings ranges from scholarly essays to students’ tweets, through poems, presentations and personal memoirs. Voices include those of Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Donal Ryan, Denise Chaila, President Michael D. Higgins, Donnah Sibanda Vuma, Paul O’Connell, Dr Sindy Joyce, Bill Whelan, Mary O’Malley, Noel Hogan of The Cranberries, Kathy Rose O’Brien and the late Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin. Also celebrated in these pages are UL’s catering and grounds staff, with teachers, researchers and inspirational current and former students, some of whom have overcome immense obstacles to gain an education. As with many mosaics, the individual pieces are often remarkable, but the effect is best experienced in the totality. The book builds into a characterisation of a diverse and inclusive twenty-first century university: a place where there are beautiful buildings but no ivory towers.