The Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT; ) was an

institute of technology An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...

, located in

Letterkenny Letterkenny ( , meaning "hillside of the O'Cannons"), nicknamed the Cathedral Town, is a large town in County Donegal, Ireland, on the River Swilly in the north-west of Ulster. Along with the nearby city of Derry, Letterkenny is a regional eco ...

, Ireland. Based at

in County Donegal, it was one of the smaller places of third level education in the historic province of

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

, with a lower student intake than other colleges such as

Belfast Metropolitan College Belfast Metropolitan College, also known as Belfast Met, is a further and higher education institution in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The college offers both vocational education and academic qualifications. With over 37,000 enrolments and an a ...

and the regional colleges of the North West,

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

, South East and South West, all of which themselves are smaller than the universities in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

and Belfast/Coleraine/Derry/Jordanstown. In April 2022, it was formally dissolved, and its functions became part of

Atlantic Technological University Atlantic Technological University (also known as Atlantic TU or ATU; ) is a Technological Universities in Ireland, technological university in the west and north-west of Ireland. It was formally established on 1 April 2022 as a merger of three ...

History

Letterkenny was rejected as a suitable site for a

Regional Technical College An Institute of Technology (IT) is a type of higher education college found in Ireland. In 2018, there were a total of fourteen colleges that use the title of Institute of Technology, which were created from the late 1960s and were formerly known ...

, though this was later overturned. It is one of the original networks of Regional Technical Colleges established in various towns decided to be suitable for the requirements (such as

Carlow Carlow ( ; ) is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, from Dublin. At the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, it had a population of 27,351, the List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland, ...

in the south east and

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

, north of the capital Dublin), namely to deal with the chronic shortage of technicians with the skills required to enter the workforce. Messrs Mehon and MacPhillips were brought from

Kilkenny Kilkenny ( , meaning 'church of Cainnech of Aghaboe, Cainnech'). is a city in County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region and in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinst ...

as contractors of the building. The Regional Technical College, Letterkenny's construction occurred in the absence of any clarity as to its purpose or function and such was the rapidity of work that the provision of information about services that the building would contain was not disseminated with any efficiency – in other words, the services were of secondary importance to getting the building off the ground. It opened in 1971, with Danny O'Hare as first principal (1971-1974). Patrick O'Donnell, PC, UDC, the Vice-Chairman of the Donegal Vocational Education Committee, accepted the building's key in May 1971. The inaugural meeting of an entity known as the "council", acting in an advisory capacity on policy and resources to board of management (at same meeting O'Donnell was elected chairman), announced that the instruction of technicians would begin early the following month, reported the ''

Donegal News The ''Donegal News'' (also known as ''Derry People/Donegal News'' and formerly ''Derry People'') is a twice-weekly local newspaper in the northwest of the island of Ireland, first published in 1902. Originally covering Derry, Northern Ireland, i ...

'' early in September 1971, with a three-year course on business studies, a two-year course in secretarial studies and two-year courses on civil and mechanical engineering the first to be advertised. Dr D O'Hare admitted that the scholarship grant was inadequate and would affect admissions from elsewhere in Donegal but said the Regional Technical College was "here to serve the people". The Regional Technical College began functioning on a Tuesday in October 1971 with an attendance of 170, some travelling all the way from

Glencolmcille Glencolmcille or Glencolumbkille () is a small district on the Atlantic coast of southwest County Donegal in Ireland. Named after Saint Colm Cille (Columba), it is also a civil parish in the historic barony of Banagh. Glencolmcille is in the ...

, and staff that were not very experienced with the eldest being 35 years of age. The staff that the thing had numbered 15, the Engineering Department had an acting head and a Mr Patten headed the Business Department. This not being a satisfactory state of affairs, in November 1971, public meetings were conducted to demonstrate the ways the Regional Technical College could get part-time admissions from the public further away from the town, and more than 90 but not quite the full 100 people attended in

Glenties Glenties () is a town in County Donegal, Ireland. It is situated where two glens meet, north-west of the Bluestack Mountains, near the confluence of two rivers. Glenties is the largest centre of population in the parish of Iniskeel. Glenties ha ...

. O'Hare, however, was gone within three years. The Regional was also referred to as ''Donogh O'Malley Regional Technical College, Letterkenny'', until 1992, in honor of

Donogh O'Malley Donogh Brendan O'Malley (18 January 1921 – 10 March 1968) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and rugby union player who served as Minister for Education from 1966 to 1968, Minister for Health from 1965 to 1966 and Parliamentary Secretary ...

, TD, the reforming

Minister for Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

. The Regional's earliest history, founded so soon after the cataclysm of France in

May 68 May 68 () was a period of widespread protests, strikes, and civil unrest in France that began in May 1968 and became one of the most significant social uprisings in modern European history. Initially sparked by student demonstrations agains ...

, was marked by dispute and unrest. In the 1970s, the ''

'' reported that "About 39 men walked off the site... of the new School of Technology, Port Road, Letterkenny on Monday morning". The "stoppage of work", the newspaper said, was a "protest". Parts of the facility moved to St Conal's, the building housing the Donegal District Lunatic Asylum, in 1979. The 1990s brought a phenomenon known as "student bashing" , whereby local gangs would select a student who might be returning from attending a local disco. The gangs would then assault the student, causing injuries serious enough to require hospital treatment. By the mid-1990s, numbers attending the Regional Technical College had declined substantially as universities came to be viewed as the better option. Technical staff went on strike, causing disruption to classes. In 1994, following concerns about the management of the Regional Technical College, the management board was replaced by a commission appointed by the Minister of Education. In 1996, the minister restored the governance and management to the RTC. In late 1997, a rebranding exercise determined the adoption of the title "Letterkenny Institute of Technology", to move it in line with the other Regional Technical Colleges scattered in various other urban settlements throughout the country. A

Higher Education Authority __NOTOC__ The Higher Education Authority (HEA), officially An tÚdarás um Ard-Oideachas, is the statutory body providing policy advice for higher education in Ireland. Description and functions The HEA was established under the Higher Educati ...

(HEA) report published in December 2020 showed that the institution had the highest proportion nationally of attendees from impoverished, disadvantaged backgrounds, with only 3 per cent of those in attendance being from a background where

wealth Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an ...

was in evidence. The average household income for anyone attending the Letterkenny facility was €35,853, a steep decline on the national average of €49,603. As of 2021, most of the people attending the facility were from Donegal. People also came from places like Monaghan to enhance the college's cosmopolitan status. Three new courses were offered in 2021: these were titled Marketing with Online Technology, Architectural Technology and Electric vehicle Engineering. LYIT was among Higher Education institutions to feature in a 2021 survey by the

on sexual harassment, with one third of female respondents experiencing it and more than half of students saying they had been harassed by sexual jokes, comments on their bodies or appearance and enforced efforts to speak about sex.

Schools and Departments

* School of Business ** Department of Business Studies ** Department of Law & Humanities ** Department of Design & Creative Media * School of Engineering ** Department of Civil Engineering & Construction ** Department of Electronic & Mechanical Engineering * School of Science ** Department of Computing ** Department of Science

Courses

The institute offers over 130 programmes that range from one to four years in

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

, the "

social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

" of

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

, veterinary practice,

nursing Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

. The courses are offered at levels 6 through 10 on the NQAI framework. Courses are offered in a semesterised and modularised method. Specialist courses that may be found in LYIT include the Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Fire Safety Technology which is the only one of its kind in Ireland, other specialist degrees also include Bachelor of Science (Hons) In Analytical and Forensic Science. The Technical College is one of only two institutes in Ireland to offer degrees approved by the

King's Inns The Honorable Society of King's Inns () is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environments. The Benchers of King's Inns aw ...

. The BA (Hons) in law has been approved degree status by the society. The Institute also co-operates closely on many courses and much research with

Magee College The Ulster University Derry~Londonderry campus, better known as Magee College, is one of the four campuses of Ulster University. It is located in Derry, Northern Ireland, and was opened in 1865 as a Presbyterian Christian arts and theological ...

, part of the

University of Ulster Ulster University (; Ulster Scots: or ), legally the University of Ulster, is a multi-campus public research university located in Northern Ireland. It is often referred to informally and unofficially as Ulster, or by the abbreviation UU. It i ...

, in nearby

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

. The institute also offers support for businesses through specialized short-term courses, collaborative research, and the Co-Lab.

Sport

The college offers various sports teams and has reached many awards and trophies in recent years: In 2017, the

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team won a Division 2 College title, while the following year the ladies' basketball team won a College title as well. The

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

team finished as losing finalists in the CUFL League Finals in 2018. The ladies' soccer team won both the championship for all of the Division 1 Colleges league and the O'Regan Plate competition in 2018. Though it is unable to compete at the top level of

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

– where the traditional university teams and a small selection of lesser third-level institutions are to be found – LYIT ''does'' manage to put together a team at times. It would, however, be rare to find a player in it who has attained any recognition at the elite inter-county level of the sport. For any such players as these, one might have more luck searching the teams of the Universities of

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

or Dublin (

City A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies f ...

). Nevertheless, men representing LYIT did win a Trench Cup in 2019. They then opted to contest the 2020 Sigerson Cup, not once meeting any of the universities and coming undone against an unfancied IT Carlow, in part through lack of discipline, and with the game taking place in their own province at that. LYIT

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

's last success was winning the fourth tier Corn MacDiamada competition during the 2015–16 season.

Associated college

The Coláiste Turasóireachta Na Cealla Beaga ( Tourism College Killybegs), founded in 1969, and adopting its current name in 1992, is an academic school of the institute, in accordance with the Institutes of Technology Act 2006. The School of Tourism is located on a five-acre site on the Shore Road overlooking Killybegs Harbour. The School is a hub of activity providing business and practical training which prepares graduates for a wide variety of careers in culinary arts, hospitality management, and tourism.

Achievements

With

Tallaght Tallaght ( ; , ) is a southwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The central village area was the site of a monastic settlement from at least the 8th century, which became one of medieval Ireland's more important monastic centres. Up to th ...

, it came joint second to the Galway-Mayo in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' University Guide 2007, (though not universities, this guide also ranked the technical colleges after dealing with the top universities). Letterkenny also had the country's best record for providing third-level education to disadvantaged students.

Atlantic Technological University

Letterkenny is attempting to work in co-ordination with Galway-Mayo and

Sligo Sligo ( ; , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of 20,608 in 2022, it is the county's largest urban centre (constituting 2 ...

to form a Technological University for the West/North-West of Ireland. In October 2020, the constituent IT's were allocated over €5.5 million towards transformation. Formal approval was granted in October 2021.

Atlantic TU Atlantic Technological University (also known as Atlantic TU or ATU; ) is a Technological Universities in Ireland, technological university in the west and north-west of Ireland. It was formally established on 1 April 2022 as a merger of three ...

began formal operations on 1 April 2022.

Notable alumni

Grainne Gallanagh Grainne Gallanagh (; born 22 June 1994) is an Irish model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Ireland 2018 on 2 August 2018. She represented Ireland at Miss Universe 2018, and placed in the Top 20. Early life Galla ...

– the model and beauty pageant titleholder (

Miss Universe Ireland Miss Universe Ireland is a national beauty pageant that has selected Ireland's representative to the Miss Universe pageant since 2002. History Beginning in 2002 Andrea Roche, who represented Ireland at Miss Universe 1998 in the United States ...

2018) was part of the Top 20 beauties on display at

Miss Universe 2018 Miss Universe 2018 was the 67th Miss Universe pageant, held at the Impact, Muang Thong Thani, Impact Arena in Pak Kret, Nonthaburi, Thailand, on 17 December 2018. At the conclusion of the event, Demi-Leigh Tebow, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of Sout ...

. * Nikki Hayes – the DJ and radio personality. Hayes, discussing the impact mental health issues have had on her life, described how: "While I was in college I was really unhappy. Things were getting very much out of control, and with partying and alcohol those manic highs were becoming really, really high and the lows were really, really low... When I took the overdose in college, I had a brain seizure because it was so bad". * Sean Fingleton – artistSean Fingleton Collection at Letterkenny Institute of Technology
www.visualarts.ie, 4 October 2019.

References

External links

Official website – Letterkenny Institute of Technology (as ATU)

Official website – Atlantic Technological University

LYIT student website

LYIT Sailing Club
{{Coord missing, County Donegal Atlantic Technological University Buildings and structures in Letterkenny Education in Letterkenny Institutes of technology in the Republic of Ireland Educational institutions established in 1971 Educational institutions disestablished in 2022 Former universities and colleges in the Republic of Ireland 1971 establishments in Ireland 2022 disestablishments in Ireland