SHU announce ‘Moriarty Institute’

SACRED Heart University this week announced plans for the establishment of a John Moriarty Institute in Dingle. Professor M. Higgins made the announcement following a lecture he delivered in An Díseart on Sunday on the 10th anniversary year of the death of the Kerry philosopher who died in June 1, 2007, at the age of 69.

The audience, including members of John Moriarty’s family and close friends, heard Professor Higgins champion his writings and story-telling. Prof Higgins said Moriarty was a person of rare vision and made the case for further study into his mystical world view, which is well known in Ireland but relatively unknown internationally.

SHU are moving forward with the planned Moriarty Institute, with the agreement of the Moriarty family and local support.

A three-stage plan for the development of SHU’s university campus in Dingle was outlined at the talk. The main focus will be on offering courses in nursing, marine studies as well as environmental and ecological topics. Secondly SHU will arrange academic conferences, similar to the Sea, Land and Spirit conference which was run in Dingle earlier, this year and which brought academics from universities on both sides of the Atlantic. The third strand – and the first to be implemented – will be the development of a pilgrimage/tour based on the theme of John Moriarty’s “seeking to walk beautifully on the Earth”, through which SHU plans to introduce people to the works of John Moriarty and bring visitors to sites which were key in his life.

Sacred Heart University plans to start these tours in June 2018, subject to marketing and other relevant arrangements being in place.

Professor Higgins has been appointed as Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought in SHU with the role, amongst others, of implementing “new strategies of instruction around the Catholic intellectual tradition for both faculty and students”.

Sacred heart University is currently in the final stages of purchasing the former CBS premises in Dingle.