Conferences and Workshops at the SHU in Dingle Campus

The goal of Sacred Heart University in Dingle is to offer educational programs for credit for students from North America and to engage in workshops and conferences with Irish and European universities. SHU has been developing facilities in Dingle through a partnership with An Díseart Centre of Irish Spirituality and Culture, housed in the former convent of Presentation Sisters that offers several classrooms, offices, and a magnificent chapel of the Sacred Heart adorned with stained glass windows by the famous artist Harry Clarke. SHU in Dingle has purchased the former Christian Brothers school; once completed, the renovated building will offer the state-of-the-art facilities ideal for education.

PAST CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS:

June 5-8, 2017, SHU hosted a conference entitled Sea, Land, and Spirit: Coastal Environment in the West of Ireland organized by Dr. John B. Roney (SHU). At that time SHU had developed a collaboration called Project Draíocht, a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ with University College Cork (UCC), Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), and the Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT) [Cork and Tralee have now amalgamated to form the Munster Technological University]. The conference was made possible with grants from the Irish Marine Institute/ Foras na Mara, Rinville, Oranmore, Co. Galway, and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency, Johnstown Castle Estate, Co. Wexford, as well as with support from the Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium/ Mara Beo Teo, and the above-listed universities. Scholars from several American universities joined scholars and graduate students from UCC, ITT, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, Trinity College Dublin, and Queen’s University, Belfast, as well as practitioners in environmental education and management. Several of the conference presentations are in the process of being published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing edited by John B. Roney and Mark Beekey under the same title: Sea, Land, and Spirit: Coastal Environment in the West of Ireland.

June 2017 and June 2019 Sacred Heart University and the John Moriarty Institute for Ecology and Spirituality sponsored educational tours called In the Footsteps of John Moriarty. This included an eight-day trip following the journey of the distinguished Irish philosopher and storyteller John Moriarty, including significant places on the Dingle peninsula, Killarney, Skellig Michael monastery, Listowel, Clare, and Connemara. Tours were led by Dr. Michael W. Higgins, at the time Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought at SHU and Brother Séan Aherne, each bringing a different dimension to the tour. Higgins placed Moriarty’s ideas in the context of other significant twentieth-century thinkers, with insights from his own biographies of Thomas Merton and Henri Nouwen. Sean Aherne knew Moriarty very well, and offered valuable insights into how Moriarty experienced nature and sought a deeper spirituality. The tours visited the Dingle peninsula and toured several well-preserved ancient forts and chapels, such as Gallarus and Kilmalkadar, and holy wells. The tour also spend several days in Killarney where John Moriarty lived at the foot of Mangerton Mountain, and explored the beauty of Killarney National Park. Traveling north from Killarney the tour visited Listowel, near Moriarty’s birthplace and famous for its writers’ conferences, followed by a visit to the Cliffs of Moher, and then on to Connemara.

April 9-12, 2018, SHU in Dingle hosted a conference-workshop entitled Deep Time – historical exploitation of marine resources sponsored by Norfish Project & European Oceans Past Platform, Trinity College, Dublin. Dr. Poul Holm, Professor of Environmental History at TCD, and President of the European Consortium of Humanities Institutes and Centres, organized the conference-workshop. See: https://www.tcd.ie/tceh/news/

April 8-10, 2022, SHU in Dingle hosted a workshop entitled Atlantic Anthropological / Antraipeolaíochta Atlantach convened by Dr. James Cuffe (UCC) and Dr. Fiona Murphy (Queen’s University, Belfast). The workshop has a collaboration between University College Cork, Queens University Belfast, and Sacred Heart University, and was made possible thanks to the following generous sponsors: CACSSS Graduate Studies Office and CACSSS International Office at University College Cork; The School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queens University Belfast; The Society, Economy, & Culture Research Centre, UCC & WIT, and SHU in Dingle. Faculty involved in presentations were Isabel Bennett (SHU), James Cuffe (UCC), Billy Mag Fhloinn (SHU), Kieran Keohane (UCC), Dáithí de Mórdha (SHU), Fiona Murphy (QUB), and Kevin Power (SHU).

FUTURE CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS 2023:

April 11-14, 2023. University College Cork – Waterford Institute for Technology—as part of The Economy & Society Summer School, in collaboration with Sacred Heart University in Dingle, will host a workshop on The Economy & Society, convened by Dr. Tom Bolland (UCC). See https://economyandsocietysummerschool.org/.

April 21-23, 2023. University College Cork / Queen’s Anthropology, in collaboration with Sacred Heart University in Dingle, will host a workshop entitled Atlantic Anthropological / Antraipeolaíochta Atlantach convened by Dr. James Cuffe (UCC) and Dr. Fiona Murphy (Queen’s University, Belfast).

June 2023. Sacred Heart University and the John Moriarty Institute for Ecology and Spirituality will sponsor a further educational tour, In the Footsteps of John Moriarty, including an eight-day trip following the journey of the distinguished Irish philosopher and storyteller John Moriarty to significant places on the Dingle peninsula, Killarney, Skellig Michael monastery, Listowel, Clare, and Connemara.

CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS IN DISCUSSION 2023-2024:

Occupational Therapy conference in Dingle in 2023, in association with Helen Lynch, Graduate Studies & Research Coordinator for OT in UCC, organized by Prof. Sharon McCloskey (SHU).

Kahnawake-Dingle language and cultural exchange project, with a further interest in the Haudenosaunee/Indigenous spirituality and Celtic spirituality. An exchange between the Kahnawake-Mohawk people of Quebec, Canada, the Gaeltacht region of the Dingle peninsula, and Sacred Heart University in Dingle. This will be organized by Dr. Jerry Reid (SHU), Dónal Mac an tSíthigh (Údarás na Gaeltachta), Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer, Jessica Lazare, and Lisa Phillips (Kahnawake).

Nutrition Workshop, organized by Dr. Anne Griffin, Course Director Human Nutrition & Dietetics, School of Allied Health at the University of Limerick, Dr. Maura Iversen, Dean, College of Health Professions, Sacred Heart University.

Celtic Spirituality conference cosponsored by An Díseart Centre of Irish Spirituality and Culture and Sacred Heart University, organized by Dr. Tadhg Ó’ Dushláine (Díseart) and Dr. John B. Roney (SHU).