*photo by Andrew Downes
THE Shannon College of Hotel Management’s 75th anniversary celebrations was run entirely by a dedicated collective of 36 staff members and a small army of student volunteers.
“We have a fantastic staff here who are absolutely 100% committed to the college and go above and beyond,” Sylver says. “And the students volunteering today is just part of the culture here. It’s part of the fabric of the college.”
A proud Galway man from Ardrahan — known in sporting circles for his involvement with the Galway Senior Hurling backroom team — Sylver is looking down the road. The 75th milestone marked the dual launch of a brand-new degree in Global Luxury and Experience Management and a major campaign to build a brand-new, purpose-built university campus in Shannon.
When Shannon College integrated with the University of Galway in 2015, the merger came with a strict, non-negotiable condition: the college had to stay in County Clare. Now, Sylver sees the potential campus development as a historic opportunity. “I see this vision for the future and a new campus as a real opportunity for Shannon to be developed as a university town,” Sylver explains.
The college’s current main building was built in 2000, but a steady surge in student numbers means the school has outgrown its walls.
“Our current facility is not fit for purpose anymore,” says Sylver. “We have the main trust building and the food and beverage building behind us, but we’ve had to lease extra space from both Shannon Airport and the local Park Inn hotel just to cope.”
In a twist of history, renting space from the Park Inn brings the college full circle. When Dr Brendan O’Regan founded the school in 1951, its first classrooms were located in the basement of that exact property, then known as the Shannon International Hotel.
The commitment from the University of Galway to invest in a new, state-of-the-art campus represents a “huge vote of confidence, and a real opportunity to invest in the region,” Sylver says. “We are right beside a thriving airport and a thriving industrial estate. It’s a real opportunity for the university to build its student numbers and its branding.”
Furthermore, Sylver believes that anchoring a modern campus in Shannon opens the door for the region to expand far beyond hospitality training. “We’ve been here since 1951 as a hotel management college, but there are so many other disciplines in the university. A new campus gives opportunities for other academic departments to establish a foothold in the Midwest.”
When asked what has allowed a small college in Clare to command such a massive reputation across the global hospitality sector, Sylver distills it down to the alumni network, the staff, and the unique ethos instilled in the students from day one.
A key example of that is a mandatory first-year module called Life Skills, which requires students to leave the classroom and engage directly with the local community.
“Part of that module involves community engagement,” Sylver notes. “We send groups of students out into the local area — to organizations like Clare Haven, the Tidy Towns in Bunratty, and the Carrigoran Nursing Home. The students interact and help out, and that’s incredibly important to who we are.”
With an international airport on its doorstep and some of the world’s finest hotels scattered along the Atlantic coast, Sylver believes Shannon remains the perfect incubator for the industry’s future leaders.
