The Laurels

University College Cork has been a leader, both nationally and internationally, in the field of adult education and lifelong learning, establishing the first formal adult education department in Ireland in 1946. The Adult Continuing Education department (ACE) played an essential role in democratising education and bringing non-traditional learners in the south of Ireland into a university environment, forging strong links with urban trade unions and rural organisations in the twentieth century and beyond. This book was commissioned to mark the 75th anniversary of ACE's formation and its first course, which ran from 1946-1948. It draws on the hitherto unpublished papers of Willie McAuliffe, former ACE organiser, along with dozens of oral history interviews conducted by McAuliffe with former students. The book also engages with the development of theory and research output from with ACE itself and will consider the development of theory in the field of adult education/ lifelong learning, charting ACE's troubled origins to its present status as a leader in adult and continuing education, professional development, training and lifelong learning.