PICTURES: Smiling students celebrate graduation from Mary Immaculate College in Limerick

There were celebratory scenes at Mary Immaculate College (MIC) last week as over 1,800 graduates were conferred with academic awards across the College’s 50+ undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Education and the Liberal Arts in the institution’s 125th anniversary year.

Three days of on-campus conferring ceremonies saw graduates from across Ireland and five continents being honoured for a variety of achievements and journeys “filled with challenges, triumphs, and countless memories which will remain with you for a lifetime” as Prof. Niamh Hourigan, Acting President of MIC, eloquently put it.

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Skills, Patrick O’Donovan TD, who is also an alumnus of MIC added his congratulations to the Class of 2024 on Friday morning—urging them all to enjoy their careers and embrace change.

Drawing on his own experience as a primary school teacher and parent, he said: “In becoming a teacher, you get the greatest gift of all that can be given to anybody, which is the gift of being an educator. For those of us who are parents, every day of the week, we entrust to the teachers of Ireland the most important people in our lives: our children. It’s more than just a job. It’s more than just a vocation; it is a gift.”