Over 1400 students will graduate from across the five colleges at NUI Galway at the University's winter conferring ceremonies, which take place from 24 to 26 November. Canon Mícheál Ó Flannabhra will also be conferred with an honorary Master of Rural Development degree. Born in Milltown, Co. Galway, Canon Mícheál Ó Flannabhra was educated in St. Jarlath's College in Tuam, Co. Galway and in St. Patrick's College in Maynooth where he was ordained in 1960. Canon Ó Flannabhra will be honoured in recognition of his enormous contribution over the past five decades to the rural development of the Connemara area through his establishment of co-operatives, Youth Clubs, Group Water Schemes, Gaelic Games pitches and his campaign for University education through Irish for the Gaeltacht. Speaking in advance of the ceremonies, President of NUI Galway, Dr James J. Browne, said: "NUI Galway is fortunate to be associated with many outstanding honorary graduates throughout its history. Today we are proud to honour Canon Mícheál Ó Flannabhra for his contribution to rural development and education in the West of Ireland. NUI Galway is very pleased to be in a position to recognise his exceptional achievements and commitment to the region." In addition, degrees, higher diplomas, Masters and PhDs will be awarded to students graduating over the three days from the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences; College of Engineering and Informatics; College of Business, Public Policy and Law; College of Science; and the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies. -Ends-

A new project which aims to make it easier for government agencies and Web developers to access information from other organisations across the globe is being co-ordinated by the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway. LOD Around-the-Clock (LATC) project is an EU co-funded project comprised of leading Linked Open Data researchers and practitioners. Co-ordinated by the Digital Enterprise Research Institute, NUI Galway, LATC brings together a team of Linked Data researchers and practitioners from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), Institut für Angewandte Informatik, Universität Leipzig (Germany) and Talis Ltd (United Kingdom) who will, over the next two years, support people and institutions in consuming and publishing Linked Open Data, on the Web and in the Enterprise. The LOD cloud is a collection of over 200 datasets that offer open data published according to the Linked Data principles. In total over 25 billion interlinked facts are available in the LOD cloud from various domains: governmental data, media, health-care and life science, user-generated data (blogs, twitter, etc.), bibliographic data, geographical data, etc. The emerging Web of Linked Data is the largest source of multi-domain, real-world and real-time data that currently exists. As data integration and information quality assessment increasingly depends on the availability of large amounts of real-world data, these new technologists are going to need to find ways to connect to the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud. With the explosive growth of the LOD cloud, which has doubled in size every 10 months since 2007, utilizing this global data space in a real-world set-up has proved challenging. The amount and quality of the links between LOD data sources remains sparse and there is no well-documented and cohesive set of tools that enables individuals and organizations to easily produce and consume Linked Open Data. A new project aims to change this, making it easier to connect to the LOD cloud by offering support to data owners, such as government agencies, Web developers who want to build applications with Linked Data, and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that want to benefit from the lightweight data integration possibilities of Linked Data. In addition to the LATC core team, a large Advisory Committee with more than 35 members participates in the LATC activities: governmental organisations such as the UK Office of Public Sector Information and the European Environment Agency; researchers and practitioners such as the University of Manchester, University of Economics Prague, Vulcan Inc., CTIC Technological Center Spain, the Open Knowledge Foundation; last but not least standardisation bodies, including W3C (represented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee). Director of the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway Professor Stefan Decker said, "Dissemination of data is an enabler for the smart economy. We are proud to co-ordinate the LATC project, as it plays a key role to help people and institutions to publish and consume Linked Open Data in Ireland and throughout Europe." ENDS

NUI Galway hosted its fourth annual Gala Dinner on 17 November at the Metropolitan Club in New York City. This year's honoree was Irial Finan, NUI Galway Class of 1977 and Executive Vice President, The Coca-Cola Company and President of Bottling Investments and Supply Chain The evening featured a special performance by internationally acclaimed singer Mary Black, who brought the sold-out crowd to their feet with hits like No Frontiers and Song for Ireland. Past honorees include actor Gabriel Byrne; Former US President Bill Clinton; philanthropist Loretta Brennan Glucksman and singer/songwriter Paul Brady. NUI Galway President Dr James J. Browne said, "This year's event was our most successful to date and attracted a capacity crowd from the United States as well as Ireland. We were pleased and proud to honour Irial Finan, a graduate who has achieved great success in his career, but has never forgotten the importance of giving back to the next generation of Galway students." Chief Executive of Galway University Foundation, Tom Joyce said, "In his capacity as a Director of the US Board of the Galway University Foundation, Irial has played an important role in promoting the global impact of NUI Galway's programmes and re-engaging US based Galway graduates in the life of the University." Proceeds from the Gala Dinner will support the expansion of NUI Galway's archives through the acquisition of new collections and the development of humanities programming for its newly built Arts, Humanities and Social Science Research Building. ENDS

At a special ceremony in the University on Tuesday, 23 November, twenty four new recipients of NUI Galway Student Sports Scholarships were presented by Chairman of the NUI Galway Sport & Recreation Union Committee, Ruadhán Cooke. The recipients joined the thirty existing scholarship holders of NUI Galway Sports Scholarships. NUI Galway supports high performing athletes in a wide range of sports through its Sports Scholarship programme. The Scholarship programme has been developed by the University to assist young athletes with outstanding potential develop their sporting ability hand-in-hand with their academic progress by putting in place the necessary supports that will hopefully see them maximise their sporting potential. Recipients this year include Mayo Senior Footballers Kieran Conroy and Peadar Gardiner, Sligo's Stephen Gilmartin and promising young Kerry forward Ian Galvin. Donegal senior footballer Mark McHugh also receives a Scholarship for the first time. Hurling Scholarships this year were awarded to two of the NUI Galway Fitzgibbon Cup winning team, Paul Gordon and Barry Daly, who were also part of the Galway U21 All Ireland final team, and they were joined by the 2010 Galway Minor Captain Daithi Burke and one of the rising stars of Limerick Hurling Kevin Downes. Three Oranmore-Maree Basketballers; Liam Conroy, Colm O'Hagan and Conor Crowley are recognised by the sports scholarship scheme for the first time. Eddie Mullarky, who was the youngest member of the NUI Galway National Rowing Championship winning Men's Eight is one of Ireland's most promising young rowers and Afric Keogh and Zoe Mannion who have partnered each other in International boats at Junior Level will be hoping to do so at Senior level on the world stage in the future. Other first time recipients include Galway United's Ciaran Foley and Evan Preston Kelly and Kilkenny Camogie Senior star Aisling Dunphy. Caitriona Cormican and Ciara Hegarty were recipients of a GAA Ladies Football Scholarship. David Byrne was presented with a scholarship for Golf and Adam Caulfield for Waterpolo. At the ceremony Colin Collie Smyth was received a Scholarship for Soccer and Seán Wooton for Rugby. Scholarship benefits include a subsistence grant, coaching, medical and physiotherapy support, performance nutrition and performance psychology, strength and conditioning as well as performance planning and mentoring. Each Scholarship is built around the individuals needs and their chosen sport. To assist these sportspeople in the pursuit of their twin sporting and academic goals, NUI Galway has a dedicated Elite Sports Development Officer, former Olympic Sprinter, Gary Ryan. Gary, the former Director of Coaching for Athletics Ireland, said: "The aim of the Sports Scholarship at NUI Galway is not only to recognise the past achievements of young sportspeople but to try and put in place the supports that will help them improve during their time at University and to succeed academically. We aim to set high standards and support people in their achievement of these". Two Gaelic Football Scholarships sponsored by Cadbury's for outstanding U-21 Footballers as part of their sponsorship of the U-21 Football Championship were also presented. This year's recipients are Mayo's Keith Rogers and Cavan's Fergal Flanagan. -Ends-

NUI Galway in conjunction with Rape Crisis Network Ireland, (RCNI) will hold a round-table discussion event entitled More than a Hangover: Youth, Alcohol and Rape in Ireland, Wednesday, 1 December from 2pm to 4pm in the Cairnes Building in the University. This event is part of the international '16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women Campaign'. This event will examine the nexus of drinking, sexual violence and young people in Ireland and the issues surrounding them. Speakers include Dr Padraig MacNeela of the School of Psychology at NUI Galway and expert in female student alcohol use; and Dr Stacey Scriver, of the Global Women s Studies Programme at NUI Galway and co-author of Rape and Justice in Ireland (Liffey Press, 2009). Caroline Counihan, Legal Policy Director of the Rape Crisis Network Ireland, will also speak at the event. The Rape Crisis Network Ireland is a national representative body for Rape Crisis Centres in Ireland who provide free advice, counselling and support for survivors of sexual abuse in Ireland. The RCNI role also includes the development and coordination of national projects, supporting Rape Crisis Centres to reach quality assurance standards, using our expertise to influence national policy and social change. It is a national information and resource centre on sexual abuse, sexual assault and sexual harassment, with a proven capacity in strategic leadership including contributions and advice on the necessary infra-structure for a national response to all aspects of sexual violence. Dr Stacey Scriver of Global Women's Studies at NUI Galway says: " Our research has shown that the Real Rape stereotype of a stranger attacking a woman in a public area late at night is a rarity. The reality in Ireland is that very high levels of alcohol consumption are implicated in the majority of rapes and that young women, most of whom have also been drinking, are the target. These aren t stranger rapes but rapes committed by acquaintances, partners and ex-partners. Exploring the issue of alcohol, youth and sexual violence is therefore an incredibly important step in understanding, and hopefully reducing, rape in Ireland." The 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women Campaign is an international campaign with participants in over 164 countries and involving more than 3,400 organisations. The campaign links 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to 10 December, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically connect violence against women and human rights and to emphasise that such violence is a human rights violation. There are various events happening on campus, to support the campaign. -Ends-