President of Ireland Mary McAleese, accompanied by her husband Dr Martin McAleese attended the Conferring Ceremony for the BA in Visual Art which took place in Sherkin Island, West Cork on 21st April 2010. The photograph shows (from left) President Mary McAleese; Dr McAleese; Prof Tommy Cooke, Head of Community Links, DIT; Dr Frank McMahon, Director of Academic Affairs, DIT; John O'Connor, Head of School).

Back: Rebecca Keyser, Catherine Ryan, Alison Trim, Dr Frank McMahon, Lorraine Bacchus, John O'Connor, Prof Tommy Cooke. Front: Peggy Townend, President Mary McAleese, Dr Martin McAleese, Veronika O'Driscoll, Monica Boyle. Photograph by Donagh Carey.

The seven graduates started on a pilot programme of Art & Culture, a joint initiative between the School of Art, Design & Printing with the Sherkin Island Development Society and the West Cork Arts Centre that ran from 2001 to 2003. They joined the honours degree programme last year to become the second cohort of graduates. The programme takes on 20 new students (drawn largely from the West Cork region) every second year, with a new intake due to commence in September. The programme is delivered entirely in Sherkin Island using a range of distance learning strategies in conjunction with the more usual face-to-face classes. The initiative is supported by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.