UCD Historian Paul Rouse Visits Donabate CC!

30th April 2015

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We were delighted to welcome Paul Rouse to Donabate Community College on the 14th April. Paul is a UCD lecturer in the school of History and Archives. He is a director of InQuest.ie which is an independent research group. He is also director of the Century Ireland project which is an online newspaper that tells the story of Ireland one hundred years ago. As such, it was a fantastic privilege to welcome him to speak to the Transition Year students about his experience of being a historian, about how he came to this career path and then passionately to tell us about the story of Noel Browne.
However, the students of history in Transition Year also presented to Dr. Rouse. They are working using the digital census records, particularly the 1911 census. They have used the census records to complete a research project. A number of students presented their research project to the assembled students and Dr. Rouse. Leo Walsh presented his project on Randal Plunkett, Sean Leahy and Alison Wall presented on Dr. James O’Carroll and Isabelle Dunne presenting on the Chance family who are linked to Dr. Noel Browne. They gave fantastic presentations and displayed a very high standard of research, investigation and delivery. It is no mean feat to present your project to such prestigious company and the students are to be congratulated for their work. Paul Rouse complimented the students on their work and was clearly impressed by them.

Paul then spoke to the students. He started with an introduction about his life and what he does for a living. He told us of his involvement in the ‘Road to the Rising’ and the Century Ireland project, in addition to his work in UCD. Students were inspired by Paul as he explained to them the importance of following your heart in terms of deciding on subject choices for college. He explained that it is ok to not know what you want to do in life and that exams don’t make a person. He was very reassuring as his main point was to not worry about what you want to be and focus on what you like studying!
He told us that he barely got enough points to do an undergraduate degree in UCD and he was thirty years of age before he finally finished college, with some breaks in between for casual work. He went from job to job trying to find something he liked and could get proper work in. It took time and effort but eventually he got to where he is now and works in many different areas – all connected with history. His most recent publication is a book on the History of the GAA.
Paul also spoke to us about history and focused particularly on Dr. Noel Browne as his name had been mentioned in one of the student presentations. His passion and love of history was clear to us all and his talk was so interesting and informative and we could see how much he loved what he is doing. It was extremely interesting to listen to Paul as he was not only captivating but he was also very funny and gave the talk a humorous edge.
Many thanks to Paul for taking the time out of a very busy schedule to come to visit us at Donabate Community College.
Based on an article by Louise Evans and Rebecca Caffrey