2024 Alumni Award Winner: Liam O’ Connor

On 15th May, we were thrilled to host a celebration in honour of Liam and all his achievements to date, both in academia and musical endeavours.

We are delighted to announce our 2024 Marino Institute of Education Alumni Award winner, Liam O'Connor. At MIE, we are proud to have such an extensive alumni network whose contributions are shaping the education landscape in Ireland. MIE's ethos remains steadfast in its work and enriches classrooms every day. On 15th May, we were thrilled to host a celebration to honour Liam O'Connor and all his achievements to date in academia, music, and other cultural endeavours.

Liam graduated from Marino Institute of Education in 2005 and is a renowned Irish fiddle player, collector, researcher, and teacher of Irish music. He is currently the director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive. He has also worked as a researcher of traditional songs in the Irish language for the Royal Irish Academy's Doegen Web Records Project. Additionally, he contributed to a project called Re-creating P.W. Joyce: from 19th-century manuscripts to an interactive online audio-visual resource, in which O'Connor recorded 371 melodies from the Joyce collection.

He has won five all-Ireland fiddle competitions and is also a talented Gaelic footballer, captaining Dublin at underage level and later Colaiste Mhuire Marino in the final of the Corn na Mac Lein while a student at MIE.

In 2002, he was awarded the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Young Musician of the Year award. In his career, Liam has been influential in preserving and promoting the Irish language and culture.

He is a proud exponent of Irish culture and language and is making a key contribution to research and education in Irish music through his work.

Marino Institute of Education President, Prof. Teresa O’Doherty, commented, “It is with great pride that we present Liam O'Connor with the MIE Alumni Award. Liam has been a wonderful advocate for our community throughout his time at MIE and during his career. His dedication to and passion for education, music and Irish culture makes him so deserving of this recognition. Congratulations”

Our goal in MIE is to forge strong links with our alumni. If you would like to receive news of postgraduate and career opportunities, graduate profiles, and other MIE news items of interest, sign up for the MIE Alumni Network today or consider submitting your own Alumni Profile for our website.