Michael Tierney (Professor of Greek)

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Michael Tierney (September 30, 1894–May 10, 1975) was born in Ballymacward, County Galway. He was Professor of Greek at University College Dublin (1923–1947) and President of UCD between 1947 and 1964.

Tierney was educated at UCD where he won a National University of Ireland travelling studentship. He studied classics at the Sorbonne, Athens and Berlin. He was appointed to a lectureship in classics in 1915 and to the Professorship of Greek in 1923.

Tierney was elected a Cumann na nGaedhael Teachta Dála for Mayo North in 1925 and for the NUI in 1927, a seat he held until 1932. He was a member of Seanad Éireann, 1938–44.

He was the prime mover behind the transfer of the college to its present site at Belfield. He married Eibhlín MacNeill, daughter of Eoin MacNeill, and wrote a biography of his father-in-law, Eoin MacNeill: scholar and man of action (1980).