The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance is the centre of academic and performance excellence housed at the University of Limerick, Ireland. It attracts academics and practitioners from around the globe and has come to find its true home on the banks of the river Shannon. The Irish World Academy offers a suite of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in music, dance and related subject areas. Its research is at the forefront of these fields of enquiry worldwide. Founded in 1994 on the appointment of Professor Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin as first Chair of Music at the University of Limerick, it occupies a central position in artistic and scholarly research and education in Ireland and internationally.