48 Notable alumni of
Maynooth University
Updated:
Maynooth University is 1415th in the world, 489th in Europe, and 6th in Ireland by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 48 notable alumni from Maynooth University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Barry Ward
- Occupations
- film actoractortelevision actor
- Biography
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Barry Ward is an Irish actor. He began his career as a child actor in the RTÉ/BBC series Family and Plotlands (1997), and the film Sunburn (1999). His films since include Jimmy's Hall, Blood Cells (both 2014), Extra Ordinary (2019), and Dating Amber (2020), the latter of which won him an IFTA.
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Brian Friel
- Occupations
- translatortheatrical directorpoliticianwriterplaywright
- Biography
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Brian Patrick Friel was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. He has been likened to an "Irish Chekhov" and described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland". His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams.
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Eimear Quinn
- Occupations
- singer
- Biography
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Eimear Mary Rose Quinn is an Irish singer and composer. She is best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 with the song "The Voice". Since then she has toured and performed extensively internationally and has released four albums of her work, the most recent being Ériu, recorded with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and released in 2020.
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Seán Gallagher
- Occupations
- businesspersonreality television participant
- Biography
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Seán Gallagher is an Irish businessman and former reality television personality. He was a co-founder in 2000 of Smarthomes, which after initial success, failed in 2008–2010, and Gallagher departed in 2010–11. He was a panellist on RTÉ's Dragons' Den from 2009 to 2011. Gallagher was an active member of Fianna Fáil for 30 years, from 1981 to 2011, and sat on its National Executive twice (from 1985 to 1987, and from 2009 to 2011). He spent much of his career before Smarthomes working in Fianna Fáil, and in the Irish public service. Gallagher ran as an independent candidate in the 2011 presidential election, finishing second to Michael D. Higgins. He ran again in the 2018 presidential election, finishing third.
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Hermann Kelly
- Occupations
- newspaper editor
- Biography
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Hermann Patrick Kelly is an Irish anti-immigration activist, politician, press officer and former journalist, serving as president of the far-right Irish Freedom Party since its foundation in September 2018. As of late 2021, Kelly was employed in the European Parliament as an assistant to Romanian MEP Cristian Terheș.
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Daniel Mannix
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Daniel Patrick Mannix was an Irish-born Australian Catholic bishop. Mannix was the Archbishop of Melbourne for 46 years and one of the most influential public figures in 20th-century Australia.
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Joe McHugh
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Joe McHugh is an Irish former politician from Carrigart, County Donegal. A Teachta Dála (TD) for the Donegal North-East constituency from 2007 to 2016 and the Donegal constituency from 2016 to 2024, he served as Minister of State from 2014 to 2018, including as Government Chief Whip from 2017 to 2018. He served as Minister for Education and Skills from October 2018 until June 2020. He chaired the Committee on European Union Affairs from 2020 to 2024.
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Chris Andrews
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Chris Andrews is an Irish Sinn Féin politician who has served as a senator for the Labour Panel since January 2025. He was previously a Fianna Fáil TD for the Dublin South-East constituency from 2007 to 2011, then, after a gap of nine years, he was a Sinn Féin TD for the Dublin Bay South constituency from 2020 to 2024.
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Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin is an Irish former Sinn Féin politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cavan–Monaghan constituency from 1997 to 2020. Ó Caoláin's victory in 1997 made him the first member of Sinn Féin to be elected to the Dáil since 1957, and the first to actually take their seat since 1922. His election, which paralleled the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, is cited as the beginning of Sinn Féin's involvement in the formal national politics of the Republic of Ireland.
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Jack O'Connor
- Years
- 1960-.. (age 65)
- Occupations
- Gaelic football playercoach
- Biography
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Jack O'Connor is an Irish Gaelic football manager and former player. In 2021, he was appointed manager of the senior Kerry county team, having earlier managed it over two terms in the 2000s.
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Noel Grealish
- Occupations
- businesspersonpolitician
- Biography
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Noel Grealish is an Irish independent politician who has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway West constituency since the 2002 general election. He has served as a Minister of State since January 2025.
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Geraldine Byrne Nason
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Geraldine Byrne Nason is an Irish diplomat who is currently Ambassador of Ireland to the United States of America.
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Michael J. O'Doherty
- Occupations
- Catholic priest
- Biography
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Michael James O'Doherty was an Irish prelate and was the 27th Archbishop of Manila in the Philippines. O'Doherty was Archbishop of Manila for 33 years from 1916 until his death in 1949, making him the longest to hold the post, serving through the difficult years of the Japanese occupation and the Second World War.
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Michael Logue
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Michael Cardinal Logue was an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1887 until his death in 1924. He was appointed a cardinal in 1893.
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Michael Griffin
- Occupations
- priest
- Biography
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Michael Griffin was an Irish Catholic priest who was murdered during the Irish War of Independence.
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Fergus O'Dowd
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Fergus O'Dowd is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Louth constituency from 2002 to 2024. He was appointed Chair of the Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in September 2020. He previously served as Chair of the Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport from 2017 to 2020 and as a Minister of State from 2011 to 2014.
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Patrick Augustine Sheehan
- Occupations
- politicianwriterCatholic priestChristian minister
- Biography
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Patrick Augustine Sheehan was an Irish Catholic priest, author and political activist. He was usually known as Canon Sheehan after his 1903 appointment as a canon of the diocese of Cloyne, or more fully as Canon Sheehan of Doneraile, after the town of Doneraile where he wrote almost all of his major works and served as parish priest.
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John Lyons
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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John Lyons is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-West constituency from 2011 to 2016.
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John MacHale
- Years
- 1791-1881 (aged 90)
- Occupations
- Catholic priestauthorCatholic deacon
- Biography
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John MacHale was the Irish Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, and Irish nationalist.
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Joseph MacRory
- Occupations
- Catholic priestuniversity teacherCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Joseph Cardinal MacRory was an Irish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Armagh from 1928 until his death. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1929. He is regarded as the leading Catholic churchman in Ireland during the period spanning the 1916 Rising, Partition, and the Second World War.
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Jim Daly
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jim Daly is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People from 2017 to 2020 and Chair of the Committee on Children and Youth Affairs from 2016 to 2017. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork South-West constituency from 2011 to 2020.
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Peter Richard Kenrick
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishopwriter
- Biography
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Peter Richard Kenrick was an Irish Catholic priest who served as Bishop of St. Louis from 1843 to 1895. The see was made an archdiocese in 1847, when he was called as the first archbishop west of the Mississippi River. The archdiocese covered nearly all the territory of the Louisiana Purchase. He served in this position for nearly 50 years, until months before his death.
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Gerald O'Donovan
- Years
- 1871-1942 (aged 71)
- Occupations
- novelist
- Biography
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Gerald O'Donovan was an Irish priest and writer.
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Patrick Rice
- Occupations
- human rights activist
- Biography
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Patrick Michael Rice was an Irish human rights activist and former Catholic priest and religious who became a resident of Argentina. He was a campaigner on behalf of the families of the "disappeared", the victims of that nation's dirty war during the 1970s. He himself was kidnapped and tortured as a part of that activity by the Argentine military dictatorship.
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William Joseph Walsh
- Occupations
- Catholic priest
- Biography
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William Joseph Walsh served as the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin from 3 July 1885 until his death in 1921.
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Edward MacCabe
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Edward Cardinal MacCabe or McCabe was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin from 1879 until his death and a Cardinal from 1882.
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William Crean
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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William Crean is an Irish Roman Catholic prelate who has served as Bishop of Cloyne and chairperson of Trócaire since 2013.
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Peter Coffey
- Occupations
- Catholic priestpriestphilosopher
- Biography
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Peter Coffey was an Irish Roman Catholic priest and neo-scholastic philosopher.
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Anthony O'Regan
- Years
- 1809-1866 (aged 57)
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Anthony O'Regan was an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois from 1854 to 1858.
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Dermot Dunne
- Years
- 1959-.. (age 66)
- Occupations
- Anglican priest
- Biography
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Dermot Patrick Martin Dunne is the current and, by some counts, 35th Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
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Peter Yorke
- Years
- 1864-1925 (aged 61)
- Occupations
- priest
- Biography
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Peter Christopher Yorke was an American Irish Catholic priest and an Irish Republican and Labor activist in San Francisco.
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Denis Florence MacCarthy
- Occupations
- biographerwritertranslatorpoet
- Biography
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Denis Florence MacCarthy was an Irish poet, translator, and biographer, from Dublin.
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Thomas Joseph Carr
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Thomas Joseph Carr was the second Roman Catholic archbishop of Melbourne, Australia.
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Daniel Cohalan
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Daniel Cohalan was an Irish Roman Catholic clergyman who served as the Bishop of Cork from 1916 to 1952.
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Thomas Francis Hendricken
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Thomas Francis Hendricken was an Irish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island from 1872 until his death in 1886. Hendricken started the construction of the current Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Providence, Rhode Island.
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Thomas Nulty
- Years
- 1818-1898 (aged 80)
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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The Most Reverend Dr. Thomas Nulty or Thomas McNulty was born to a farming family in Fennor, Oldcastle, Co. Meath, on 7 July 1818, and died in office as the Irish Roman Catholic Bishop of Meath on Christmas Eve, 1898.
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Daniel McGettigan
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Daniel McGettigan was an Irish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served Bishop of Raphoe from 1861 to 1870 and Archbishop of Armagh from 1870 to 1887.
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Bernie Sherlock
- Occupations
- choir directorconductor
- Biography
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Bernie Sherlock is an Irish choral conductor, adjudicator, teacher, and lecturer in music.
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Patrick Leahy
- Years
- 1806-1875 (aged 69)
- Occupations
- Catholic priest
- Biography
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Patrick Leahy was the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly.
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Thomas Gilmartin
- Years
- 1861-1939 (aged 78)
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Thomas Patrick Gilmartin was an Irish clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Clonfert from 1909 to 1918 and Archbishop of Tuam from 1918 to 1939.
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Eugene O'Connell
- Years
- 1815-1891 (aged 76)
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Eugene O'Connell was the first Catholic bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Grass Valley, California. Born in County Cavan, Ireland, O'Connell sailed to San Francisco upon the request of Bishop Alemany for priests to serve in the diocese of Monterey. O'Connell was rector of the diocesan seminary, and later appointed to the Vicariate of Marysville, up in the gold fields. The Diocese of Grass Valley later became the Diocese of Sacramento.
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Henry Cleary
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Henry William Cleary OBE was the sixth Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, from 1910 to 1929.
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William Walsh
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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William Walsh was an archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax. He was born in Waterford, County Waterford, Republic of Ireland and died in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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James Vincent Cleary
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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James Vincent Cleary was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest and Archbishop of Kingston, Ontario.
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Joseph Higgins
- Years
- 1838-1915 (aged 77)
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Joseph Higgins was an Irish-born Catholic bishop in Australia. He was the Bishop of Rockhampton in Queensland and the Bishop of Ballarat in Victoria.
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John Harty
- Occupations
- Catholic priest
- Biography
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John Mary Harty served as Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel from 1913 until his death in 1946. He served as Patron of the Gaelic Athletic Association from 1928. The Dr. Harty Cup, the trophy for Munster Schools Hurling, is named in his honour, as is the playing field of his native Murroe GAA club.
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Francis Murphy
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic deaconCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Bishop Francis Murphy was an Irish-born Roman Catholic priest and first Catholic Bishop of Adelaide, South Australia.
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Patrick Morrisroe
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Patrick Morrisroe was an Irish Catholic priest and Bishop of Achonry.
