Mags Gargan
Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick led the tributes to Prof. Michael Hayes, former president of Mary Immaculate College (MIC), who died on Holy Saturday after a short illness.
Bishop Leahy, chairman of MIC’s governing authority, said Prof. Hayes had approached his role there with untiring zeal. “With a deep conviction that Catholic education has to do with the full flourishing of the human person in this life and the next, Michael gave himself more than 100% to the advancement of the college on so many levels,” he said.
During his presidency the 59-year-old Limerick native, who was a priest of the Archdiocese of Southwark in England, oversaw the incorporation of St Patrick’s College, Thurles into MIC, the opening of the Lime Tree Theatre, a growth in student numbers to almost 5,000 and the acquisition and development of the John Henry Newman Campus.
Vision
MIC acting president Eugene Wall said Prof. Hayes “worked relentlessly and with compelling conviction to lead the college with clear-sighted vision through a difficult era for higher education”.
Fr Eamonn Conway, Professor of Theology & Religious Studies at MIC, told The Irish Catholic that Prof. Hayes “worked tirelessly for the college” and was “a great example to us in terms of his commitment and in particular the way he negotiated a distinctive place for MIC in the Irish educational landscape”.