The reclusive Irish-American billionaire Chuck Feeney has donated almost €100 million to the University of Limerick (UL) in the past two decades, a senior aide confirmed yesterday.
John Healy, chief executive of Mr Feeney's funding vehicle Atlantic Philanthropies, said this funding had allowed the university to "break out of the straitjacket of the annual budget and to think long term".
Atlantic is thought to have donated more than €500 million to Irish third-level colleges in the past decade. The university, which was the first university to establish a relationship with Mr Feeney, is thought to have been the largest beneficiary. Dublin City University is also thought to have received about €100 million.
Since 2003, Atlantic has changed its focus and diverted funding towards programmes for disadvantaged children, the ageing, and human rights in the Republic, Northern Ireland and a several other countries. It also funds public health programmes in South Africa and Vietnam. Atlantic maintains an office on Baggot Street, Dublin.
Figures compiled four years ago show Atlantic donated €204 million to academic projects and €202 million to capital projects at universities in the Republic since the early 1990s. It has also donated €86 million to other projects at third level.
Support has also been provided for Queen's University Belfast and the University of Ulster.
Yesterday Mr Healy said philanthropic organisations "are the subjects of exaggerated respect, and the recipients of mellifluous expressions of gratitude. But I will let you into a secret. Foundations can't do their business without good organisations to give money to. And in the University of Limerick we found such an organisation." UL, he said, was a "happy hunting ground for us in the days when we were involved in higher education. It has used the money which we made available to it wisely. It has lived up to every commitment made to us."
Mr Healy was speaking at the launch of a new Living Pedestrian Bridge linking UL with its north campus in Co Clare. Funded by a public-private partnership, the €15 million project will be the longest pedestrian bridge in the State when it opens next year.
He said Atlantic decided to support UL from the 1980s because it had "bold, indeed brash, ambitions. This was a place of flair and optimism in a time of doom and gloom. It was a place with an outstanding leadership and a compelling vision of its future." He said most of the money went into building projects.
Last December, Atlantic withdrew funding from the Centre for Public Inquiry following allegations about the centre's executive director, Frank Connolly, by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.
