CIT and IT Tralee merge, and it’s a welcome move

SIR,

The wonderful news that CIT and ITT will become the Munster Technological University (MTU) in January 2021 was warmly welcomed in Kerry.

MTU will become the second technological university in the country following Technological University Dublin (TUD), which was established in January 2019.

MTU will comprise of six campus locations across the south-west region – Bishopstown; Crawford College of Art and Design; School of Music; National Maritime College of Ireland (all Cork); North Campus and South Campus (both Tralee).

In celebrating this new educational, research and career-focussed university in the south-west, it’s fitting to acknowledge the visionaries who campaigned relentlessly, back in the ‘70s, for a third-level college in Tralee.

Educational, political and business interests in Kerry stood together to ensure that Tralee got one of the Regional Technical Colleges being established at the time.

Tralee RTC was launched in 1977. The RTC shared a building with the vocational school in Clash for some time before moving into the adjacent South Campus, where it went from strength to strength.

Subsequently, a greenfield site was purchased at Dromtacker, and the state-ofthe-art North Campus was built, resulting in a huge expansion in student numbers and courses on offer.

In 1992, Tralee RTC become an autonomous institution and was renamed the Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT).

I amusingly recall speaking at a forum in the college to promote the case for upgrading to an Institute of Technology.

A discussion took place about a name for the new college. My colleague in the ASTI, the late Seán O’Brien, advised caution in name selection. Rather than follow Cork, who used the abbreviation CIT, Seán warned that Tralee would do best not to use ‘TIT’.

He suggested that ITT would be a more appropriate abbreviation. Seán’s advice was taken with a huge round of applause and widespread laughter.

It took 50 years to arrive at MTU, ten years longer than it took Moses to lead the Israelites to the promised land.

It was worth the journey, and it’s a testament to those, many now gone to their eternal reward, who worked so hard to bring a university to Kerry. Sincerely,

Billy Ryle,

Spa,

Tralee

IT Tralee