College of Europe Website

The College of Europe is one of those European institutions which grew out of the post-war period of national reconciliation and the "Federal Europe" stream of thought. At its foundation in 1949 it was seen as a first step towards the setting up of a European university. It is is now one of a number of European institutes within the Union. The College is located in Brugge, Belgium. Before the linguistic revolution in Flanders this town was known by its French name, Bruges. [There is now a second campus in Natolin, Warsaw, Poland] I attended the College during the academic year 1967/8 (Promotion Comenius), following an M.A. in European Studies in UCD. The year was a great personal and academic experience. Some years later I was prevailed upon by Ned Thomas to do a piece on the College for PLANET. Ned had just started this magazine to fill a gap in the Welsh literary and journalistic landscape. Its aim was to present Welsh Wales to non Welsh-speakers and it branched quite wide in its consideration of related matters. It is still alive and kicking. While setting up this current page, I thought I would add a few further personal recollections from the year. I have now also scanned in a photo which includes most Comenians. I have also scanned in copies of the two issues of KOMENJOYNUS which appeared at the beginning of the first term. Finally, I have included some Brugge photos in my photogallery. NB: This page references a number of pages elsewhere on the site. It was set up for a particular reunion so return buttons will not necessarily return you to this page. If you want to come back to this page, use the BACK button on your browser.

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