The Ad Astra Elite Sports Scholarship programme at University College Dublin supports students who are competing and succeeding at the highest sporting levels. It is the University’s flagship scholarship programme.
In 2024, McMahon was one of four UCD students who represented Ireland at the Paris Olympic Games and was crowned a two-time world champion that year after successfully defending her ILCA6 U21 World title.
Her incredible showing in 2025 saw her achieve another historic moment, becoming the first Irish sailor to be named number one in the World Sailing rankings.
The win comes after an outstanding 2025 for the Howth native, which saw her take home gold at the LA Sailing Grand Slam and bronze at the ILCA 6 World Championships in China.
The 22-year-old BComm student is the first-ever Irish female sailor to medal at a senior world championship.
The Princess Sofia Regatta is the first major Olympic classes event of the year. It features over 800 boats and around 1,400 athletes.
Ireland last won a gold here in 2016 in the lead-up to the Rio Olympics when Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern won the 49er men’s skiff event.
“When I crossed the finishing line, I couldn’t believe it. I had to pull a great race out of the bag, and I just went on the hunt,” said McMahon.
“I sail to attack, and I sail to win – it’s great to get any medal, but gold is always what you want at the end of the day.”
The race was too short for the British sailor to recover, and minutes later, the pair embraced on the finishing line with just one point difference in their scores.
However, in the second and last final race, McMahon pulled away to the front of the pack and managed to keep enough boats between her and Collingridge.
The 20-minute opening race saw McMahon and her friend, Britain’s Daisy Collingridge, pace each other. Collingridge finished one place ahead, extending her lead to six points.
👩🎓⛵️ GOLD! Massive congratulations to UCD Ad Astra Elite Sports Scholar Eve McMahon on taking home gold at the Princess Sofia Regatta in Mallorca, the first Irish victory at the event in 10 years.
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Dr Fitzgerald is the Head of the UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore, and Head of Irish Folklore & Ethnology in the School. She has written on the intellectual history and development of Irish folkloristics and archives, amongst other aspects of folklore studies and oral history.
😘🦭"The Mélusine legend comes from the French tradition but is very strong in Ireland - the human male marrying the selkie or seal-woman."
- UCD Assistant Prof Kelly Fitzgerald on folkloric roots of modern “fae” fiction
@kellyfitzgerald.bsky.social @bealoideasucd.bsky.social @ucdlibrary.bsky.social
🐰🍫🌸
Happy Easter, everyone!
1 Egg = 1 Smile
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“It is a testament to the commitment of the full project team – UCD, RKD, Cumming Group and Walls Construction – and the collaborative way we worked together onsite throughout construction to deliver an adaptable, future-ready learning environment.”
“We are immensely proud that the O’Connor Centre for Learning at University College Dublin has been named Project of the Year,” said Oonagh Reid, Director of Arup, the Engineering Consultancy behind the new 11,580m² teaching and learning hub, the largest of its kind in Ireland.
The awards recognise the UCD O’Connor Centre for Learning for its flexible, sustainable spaces designed to support collaborative, digital-first learning.
UCD’s O’Connor Centre for Learning has won two Engineering Excellence Awards from the Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland (ACEI): Mechanical and Electrical (Large) and Project of the Year 2026.
Launched in 2018 by Professor McAuliffe, it is internationally recognised for its research in maternal and fetal health, diabetes and nutrition in pregnancy.
Head over to our website: lnkd.in/dm_tkryS
The UCD Perinatal Research Centre, based at the National Maternity Hospital, is a leading, multidisciplinary research unit focused on improving the health of mothers and babies.
They concluded that although intakes were higher in the Planetary Health Diet Index scores for many nutrients, it is still advised that additional supplements of folate, vitamin D and iodine are taken during pregnancy to meet the extra nutritional needs.
The researchers noted that due to the environmental impact of food production, there is an urgent need to rethink how and what we eat, and wanted to explore whether sustainable dietary patterns are feasible in pregnancy.
Published in the British Journal of Nutrition, the study is among the first to investigate the Planetary Health Diet in pregnancy.
“The findings showed that adhering to the Planetary Health Diet in pregnancy results in better intakes of many important nutrients in pregnancy and, at the same time, supports environmental sustainability,” explained the study’s senior author, Fionnuala McAuliffe from the UCD School Of Medicine.
The data showed that women with higher adherence to the Planetary Health Diet in early pregnancy had daily higher intakes of key nutrients including dietary folate, iron, calcium and fibre.
Women completed dietary assessments in the first trimester of pregnancy, and this data was used to calculate Planetary Health Diet Index scores.
The diet emphasises plant-based foods, with reduced intake of animal-based food products such as red and processed meats.
The study included 678 pregnant women who attended The National Maternity Hospital in Dublin for their antenatal care.
The Planetary Health Diet is a way of eating designed to be both healthy for humans and sustainable for the planet.
It was proposed in 2019 by the EAT-Lancet Commission, a group of scientists studying nutrition, agriculture and environmental impact.
Sustainable eating in pregnancy may lead to higher intakes of key nutrients, study finds
🥒 🥕 🤰 Women who eat more sustainably while pregnant may have higher intakes of several key pregnancy-related nutrients, new UCD research has suggested.
Conducted by the UCD Perinatal Research Centre, the study looked at the outcomes for women who followed the Planetary Health Diet while pregnant.
A current Executive Member of the Global Forum for Rehumanizing Education, Professor Emerita Lynch also served as a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) from 2020-2025.
