“The first Irish-born principal of St Andrews University in Scotland is ruffling feathers at the famous institution. Louise Richardson, who was born in Ireland but is a US citizen by adoption, is thought to be the only academic at her level to have admitted that she was once tempted to join the IRA. However, instead she became one of the world’s foremost authorities on terrorism. Dr Richardson took office as the first female principal of St Andrews last March — the third-oldest university in the English-speaking world. Her arrival in the principal’s office is a remarkable journey. In January 1972, she was a 14-year-old Catholic girl, one of seven children, living in the small seaside town of Tramore in Co Waterford when she heard news that 27 civil rights marchers had been shot, and 13 of them killed, by the British Parachute Regiment …” (more)
[Belfast Telegraph, 16 April]