May NUI Galway Societies Win Big Nationally

As the academic year draws to a close, NUI Galway is celebrating another remarkable year of societies. With over 125 student societies, over 1,000 committee members and 12,000  members, societies continue to flourish on campus. Recent successes at national events such as the Board of Irish College Societies (BICS) National Society Awards, Musical Theatre Intervarsities, Irish Student Drama Awards (ISDA) and Dance Intervarsity highlighted their achievement and hard work over the past year.

Riona Hughes, Societies Officer at NUI Galway, said: “It has been a bumper year for our societies with numerous successes, they have organised almost 3,000 events this year. They have invited the wider community onto campus and engaged with partners throughout the world, it is a joy to see their efforts rewarded at a national level.”

At the recent BICS Awards 2019 NUI Galway were presented with two awards. Best Event was won by AMSI & Paediatric Society’s ‘Healthy Heroes’ and Best Society was presented to the University’s LGBTQA+ society GiGSoc, marking NUI Galway’s fourth year in a row to win this much coveted award.

NUI Galway now currently holds the record for the most awards since the BICS’s Awards inception with 50 awards won over the past 19 years.

The Musical Society GUMS hosted the fourth annual Musical Theatre Intervarsities in NUI Galway in March and won three awards including Best Direction for Patrick Conneely, Best Musical Direction for Katie Feeney and Best Overall Show.

The Drama Society (Dramsoc) won a record-breaking six awards and received a further 18 nominations at ISDA 2019. The awards included Best Costumes, Best Hair and Make-up, Best Supporting Actress, Best Lighting Design, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Ensemble. During the 2018/19 academic year Dramsoc produced a total of eleven show s and held over 135 events.

The Dance Society Irish troupe, choreographed by student Matthew Gardner, also won first place in their category at the Dance Intervarsity.

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