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DIT
75 years of
DIT Cathal Brugha Street Not only is 2016 the 100th Anniversary of 1916 but 2016 is also the year DIT Cathal Brugha Street celebrates 75 years of education and training in the heart of Dublin city. Central to the year is a public exhibition of artefacts, photographs and other memorabilia in the College to which all are welcome to visit. The exhibition was opened by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Paschal Donohue TD on the 19th of February. Many graduates, former members of staff and friends joined us on that occasion to reminisce about their time in Cathal Brugha Street.
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohue meeting graduates from 1946, sisters Margaret and Patricia Horne, after he officially opened the 75th Anniversary Exhibition. DIT Cathal Brugha Street has existed in its current location, just off O’Connell Street since 1941. There have been many changes in the seventy five years since it was officially opened on the 16th of June 1941. St. Mary’s College of Domestic Science was established as an integral element of the State’s infrastructure for the education of young females under the auspices of the City of Dublin Vocational Educational Committee (CDVEC). The first principal of the College was Kathleen O’Sullivan (19411950).
Kathleen O’Sullivan, Principal, with Class of Dieticians, 1946 at their annual dance in the Gresham Hotel. The primary function of the College was to provide a new home for Domestic Science Teacher Training. However other courses offered included Household Management, Institutional Management, Chef Apprentices, Day Junior Domestic Course for Young Girls. Subsequently single-subject courses in Cookery (all stages), Laundry, Needlework, Dressmaking, Household Management, Embroidery and Art Work, Housecraft etc. were introduced. In 1944 Ireland’s first Diploma in Dietetics course was designed and delivered in the College. Seven students enrolled the first year. The course consisted of 18 months in the College and a further six months in hospitals in the UK. By 1949 it had evolved into a four-year full-time course recognised by the British Dietetic Association. With the departure of the Domestic Science Teacher Training Course to St Angela’s in Sligo in 1951 the College focused its attention on the education and training required for the growing Irish tourist industry. In 1951 the Department of Hotel and Catering was established and a two-year Diploma in Hotel and Catering Management for “boys and girls” was offered in 1952. It subsequently developed into a three-year full-time Diploma in Hotel Management in 1961. Chefs had been trained originally in the Vocational School in Parnell Square
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We look forward to welcoming many more on June the 16th the anniversary of the official opening of the College in 1941. Programme to be announced on www.dit.ie/hmt or for further details email fiona.greagsbey@dit.ie
but moved to Cathal Brugha Street shortly after it opened. In the early 1950’s cooks’ courses were introduced to satisfy the demand from girls. This was the beginning of the Department of Hotel & Catering Operations. Around this time St. Mary’s College of Domestic Science was renamed the College of Catering. In 1973 the Department of Home Sciences emerged [subsequently becoming the School of Home and Social Sciences] offering an array of courses in Child Care and Social Studies in addition to the very popular Home Management Course. Under a partnership agreement with the Trinity College and Cathal Brugha Street, two degree courses were developed in Hotel & Catering Management and Environmental Health. The College of Catering was one of six Colleges in Dublin’s city centre and while under the parentage of the CDVEC they were collectively the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) which became autonomous in 1992 and acquired degree awarding powers in 1998. With the creation of the DIT, the building at Cathal Brugha Street became the centre for the Faculty of Tourism and Food. In the intervening years courses were added in the areas of culinary arts, tourism, leisure, and pharmaceutical technology. These range from certificate to post-graduate level. Each School has also developed a research programme which has resulted in both significant publications and PhDs to post-doctoral researchers based at Cathal Brugha Street. Since the start of the millennium many changes have occurred both in terms of the management structure as much as the physical structure. Currently, in Cathal Brugha Street there are three Schools, the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism and the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology both of which are part of the College of Arts and Tourism. The third School of Food Science and Environmental Health is a part of the College of Sciences and Health. The range of courses on offer in all Schools have vastly expanded from those offered in 1941. Student numbers have quadrupled and likewise staff numbers. The overall student population has grown from circa 700 students in the early 1980s to circa 3,000 today. The next stage in Cathal Brugha Street’s history is the impending move to DIT’s new campus at Grangegorman which is scheduled for 2018. This will be a bitter sweet occasion as many of us will be sad to leave this beautiful, iconic building in the heart of our capital city. However, great memories, life-long friendships, and in some cases marriages, made in the “Three Graces”, sculptor Gabriel Hayes, on the College will be taken to our new home in Grangegorman. corner of Cathal Brugha Street
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