Geldof guest speaker at Queen's lecture

Anti-poverty campaigner and musician Bob Geldof recently took the stage as part of the celebrations to mark the new-look Queen’s University Students' Union, following a £9 million refurbishment to create some of the best student facilities in the United Kingdom.

The major building project, which has transformed the interior and exterior of one of the best-known buildings in south Belfast, was financed from University reserves, external loans secured from Student’s Union trading activities and a £1 million donation from The Queen’s University of Belfast Foundation.

The redevelopment included much-needed renovation and modernisation of the existing building which was designed for a much smaller student population when it first opened 40 years ago.

Following the official opening, Bob Geldof was the guest speaker at a student lecture entitled ‘Making a Difference’. He delivered the University’s R M Jones Lecture, set up under a bequest by the late Robert Millar Jones, a former headmaster of Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen’s Senator, who died in 1948.

The ‘top to bottom’ transformation of the Union has successfully created a striking new building within the Queen’s conservation area. The alterations provide a new social concourse, featuring a range of retail and catering outlets, a state-of-the-art entertainments venue, a new suite of offices and meetings rooms, and an upgrading of the mechanical and electrical services installations.

Bob Geldof is also the guest speaker at a gala dinner tonight in the University’s Great Hall.

(JM/SP)