Prof. Pól Ó Dochartaigh, MRIA

Professor Pól Ó Dochartaigh, MRIA, is Deputy President and Registrar of the University. A member of the University Management Team and Academic Council, he deputises for the President in his absence. 

In his role, Pól has overarching responsibility for academic strategy, particularly in the realm of teaching and learning, academic promotions, and academic quality. Externally, he chairs the Board of Ireland’s Central Admissions Office (CAO), is a member of the Senate of the National University of Ireland, a member of the Board of St Angela’s College, Sligo, and a member of the Bord Bainistíochta of Coláiste na Coiribe in Galway City.

 A native of Belfast, Co. Antrim, Pól holds BAs in German from Cardiff and in Irish from Ulster University, as well as a PhD in German cultural history and a DLitt in German, both from Nottingham University.  He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He has been President of the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland (2011-14) and Chair of the RIA Committee for Modern Languages (2004-9), and he served on the UK’s RAE 2008 Panel for German and REF 2014 Panel for Modern Languages.

A German scholar whose work in literature and history is interdisciplinary in a German-Jewish-Irish triangle, Pól has worked on the legacy of the Holocaust in history and literature, the German involvement in Celtic Studies and, more recently, on Jews in Irish literature and history.  He has published five monographs, including The Portrayal of Jews in GDR Prose Fiction (Amsterdam 1997), Julius Pokorny, 1887-1970: Germans Celts and Nationalism (Dublin 2003) and Germans and Jews since the Holocaust (Basingstoke 2015), as well as six edited volumes and over forty articles and chapters. 

He is married to Geraldine and they have twin daughters, Róise and Treasa. Aside from family, his passions are music, hurling, modern fiction, and travelling.