Queen's University Belfast: Student Life in Peace and War, 1923-1949

Abstract

Throughout this whole period 1923-49 the Queen's student body in denominational terms was a mixed one, indeed more mixed than any other university in Ireland. At the same time Queen's was predomi? nantly Protestant in the character of its student population. While the number of Catholics grew, their percentage of the total student body remained at only around 20 per cent. Various reasons limited Catholic attendance in this period, such as economic factors and the fact that many northern Catholics attended colleges of the National University of Ireland. In Fionnuala O'Connor's book, In search of a state: Catholics in Northern Ireland (Belfast 1993), Cardinal Cahal Daly has recalled from his student days in the 1940s the good relations between stu? dents of different backgrounds and the lasting friendships that were formed: at the same time political and religious issues were usually carefully avoided. Remembering his time at Queen's in the 1930s, Dr D.B. McNeill, who was an engineering student, has described the university as 'a medical school with a university attached'. There is considerable truth in this comment. In 1918-19 the number of medical students as a pro? portion of the student body had stood at nearly 62 per cent out of 888 students, but by 1923-4 the figure was 37 per cent out of 1,077 and by 1928-9 it was 30 per cent out of 1,270. In the 1930s the percentage rose 21