A SMALL seaside town is set to get university status thanks to the US cousin of Kilkenny hurling legend DJ Carey.

A US university wants to establish a campus in Dingle and has already made a bid on an old school for its new home.

The Sacred Heart University (SHU), in Fairfield, Connecticut, is the first American university to make this type of investment and wants to set up permanently in the Co Kerry town.

It wants to expand its activities here and develop a coastal research and learning centre in partnership with its Department of Biology and Dingle's Oceanworld Aquarium.

HERITAGE

This will employ Irish lecturers who will be overseen by visiting professors from the university's US base and establish Dingle as a bona fide university town.

It will also link up with NUI Galway's Martin Ryan Institute in Carna; and with the marine research centre at Trinity College Dublin.

It's all down to the Irish heritage of the university's dean, Seamus Carey.

Mr Carey, a cousin of Kilkenny hurling legend DJ Carey, is second generation Irish and played hurling for New York.

SHU has already made a bid to purchase the old Christian Brothers School in the town and has committed $1m towards developing facilities for students.

The SHU established a connection with Dingle in 2004, in partnership with Monsignor Padraig O Fiannachta of the Diseart Centre, and now offers short-term undergraduate study programmes to 120 students each year in its Centre for Irish Cultural Studies.

Director of Oceanworld Aquarium and one of SHU's organisers in Dingle, Kevin Flannery, says it's an unbelievable opportunity for the town that any university city would envy.

He has called on Udaras na Gaeltachta and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to come good on an oral commitment they have already given to support the project. He said the project has already received great support from Kerry County Manager Tom Curran, who accommodated the university team when it was assessing the former CBS building.

"The SHU has already assessed the building, they've committed $1m towards the project, and for a town this size the potential is huge," he said.

The investment will significantly boost the local economy which has already benefited from its association with SHU.

Irish Independent