Good news from SpIRE 

For the first time in Ireland, MA and PhD studies in Applied Spirituality are being offered in a technological university, through the work of SpIRE, the Spirituality Institute for Research and Education of Ireland founded by Drs Bernadette Flanagan PBVM and Michael O’Sullivan SJ, and the accreditation of such studies by what was the Waterford Institute of Technology. 

Simon Harris, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation, and Science, officially signed the order under the Technological Universities Act 2018, to establish South East Technological University (SETU) on the first day of May 2022. 

This is the first university to be established in the South East of the country in what was formerly the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) (see photo) and the Institute of Technology Carlow. SpIRE, as a Registered Charity, was an independent but associated entity of WIT and is now in the same relationship with SETU. 

Commenting on the new university status for SpIRE, Michael O’Sullivan SJ, Director of SpIRE, says, “SpIRE is delighted to have played a major role in bringing these studies to the new South East Technological University (SETU) and to provide a first-class specialist library in the discipline, in Milltown Park, Dublin, where it hosts and supports such university studies. It is also delighted to have played an innovative role in the Spirituality in Society and Professions (SpirSoP) Research Group, which is the first group of its kind in an Irish university.” 

Jesuits in Ireland