UCC Department of Music receives €2 million donation

UCC’s Department of Music has been awarded the largest gift in its 113-year history with a €2 million donation.

British master builder, Sidney V. Regan has bequeathed almost all of his €2 million estate to the Music Department at the Cork University.

Mr Regan moved to Cork in the 1960s and, along with his wife, became heavily involved in the music scene. He was a member of the Commodore Male Voice Choir in Cobh, and founder of the Cobh Gramophone Society.

During this time, he befriended former Professor of the Music Department at UCC, Aloys Fleischmann.

On his death in 2017, Mr Regan bequeathed almost all of his €2m estate to his friends at the Music Department, reserving €200,000 for the COPE Foundation, Marymount Hospice, the Cork Deaf Association, and The National Council for the Blind.

The bequest will enable the Department of Music to provide direct support to students through scholarships, improve physical resourcing for performers, composers, and the academic study of music, and help to bring in outside expertise.

Professor John O’ Halloran, Interim President of UCC said that the generous donation will allow the university to continue to build on tradition.

“University College Cork is hugely grateful to the estate of Sidney V. Regan for this exceptionally generous bequest to further support Music at UCC.

“His generous support will enable us to continue to build on the great tradition of Seán Ó Riada, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Aloys Fleischmann, and more recently the likes of Ann Cleare, Karen Power, Karen Desmond, Julie Feeney, Rosaleen Molloy, Eibhlín Gleeson, Jack O'Rourke and so many others in inspiring the creation, performance and study of music for the next generations,” he said.

Dr Jeffrey Weeter, Head of Music also thanked the Sidney V. Regan estate.

“Sidney Regan’s bequest is the single largest gift to the Music Department in its storied history, and this act of unmatched generosity will enrich the lives of current and future students immeasurably," he said.

UCC will formally welcome the bequest at the official unveiling of the Department of Music’s new Sound Studio tomorrow.