NUI Galway Mourns Tragic Passing of Popular Student

The 20-year-old NUI Galway student who died following a brutal assault in Mullingar before Christmas was laid to rest on Friday 6 January.

Bio-medical student, Andrew Dolan from Co. Leitrim, was injured in an attack after a friend's twenty-first birthday party in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. He died in Beaumont Hospital on Sunday 1 January.

Gardaí say that Andrew was hit on the head after being attacked in the early hours of Friday 23 December. The assault was caught on CCTV outside Abrakebabra at 2.40am.

Two men (20 and 21) and a woman (19) were arrested in connection with the attack, though it appears that the woman was not directly involved. CCTV footage shows that the two men were the ones to attack the victim.

A source told The Herald on Tuesday 3 January, "This was a completely random incident - the victim was not looking for trouble and there is nothing in the suspects' background that suggests any previous form for assaulting anyone.

"They seemed shocked in the aftermath of the incident and remained at the scene until gardaí arrived shortly after the incident.

"It will be up to the DPP to decide but all the indications at this stage are that this will be a manslaughter rather than a murder prosecution."

NUI Galway President, Dr. James Browne led tributes to the popular student on Wednesday 4 January. NUI Galway's Students' Union President, Emmett Connolly said that there had been a huge outpouring of grief following the news of Andrew's death. Connolly also urged those struggling to deal with the tragedy to utilise the counseling services that are available in the college. "We're obviously very saddened to hear of the untimely an unexpected death of one of our fellow students," Connolly said. "Our hearts go out to his friends and classmates here on campus.

"We would encourage anyone finding it hard to deal with Andrew's death to call up to Brian Grant, the Welfare Officer, in the Students' Union offices or to contact the Counselling Service on Distillery Road."

The priest officiating the funeral which took place at St. Mary's Church, Carrick-on-Shannon, described Andrew as a quiet young man. "How utterly unthinkable that he should be the victim of such an unprovoked and vicious assault," Fr. Garvey told the mourners who had gathered to pay their respects.

The congregation of mourners included former president, Mary McAleese, her husband, Senator Martin McAleese, and NUI Galway President, Dr. James Browne.

"Why can young people not go out and enjoy themselves celebrating with their friends, without the menace of an unwarranted attack from those who seem intent on random acts of violence?" Fr. Garvey asked.

The priest also appealed to young people to look out for each other as it is no longer safe to walk alone in the streets.

In his tribute to his son, Mr. Dolan expressed his happiness that three other families were celebrating life, thanks to Andrew's insistence on carrying a donor card. This, at least, provided some comfort to the Dolan family.

Andrew was a very popular student and had many friends, including Sean McHugh who knew him for five years: "Andy was a gentleman. He was just a lovely, lovely person to know. He was a great friend. Nobody had anything bad to say about him. Anything he did, he worked for and he worked very hard. He loved sport; he loved hanging out with his friends. He was just a naturally quiet person.

"It hit us hard, just before Christmas," Sean continued, "We heard about it first and thought ‘he's gonna be okay, he's gonna pull through it' and then we found out it was worse than we thought, and then it just all went downhill from there. On New Year's Day he passed away."

All connected with NUI Galway were deeply shocked by the tragedy of Andrew's death. SU Welfare Officer Brian Grant wishes to remind students that a memorial service will be held in the college chapel on 23 January at 5pm for those who would like to pay our respects. Andrew's name will also appear in the NUI Galway memorial garden.

16 Jan 2012

by Jessica Thompson