Far-Left People Before Profit Targets Catholic University and Attacks ‘Economic Boost’ for Waterford

16.09.2026

People Before Profit has launched a strongly worded attack on plans by the Catholic Ave Maria University to establish a presence at the historic Mount Melleray in Co. Waterford.

The party has roundly criticised the development, focusing heavily on the faith based ethos associated with Ave Maria and its founder, Irish-American businessman Tom Monaghan.

But why should a Catholic university establishing a campus at a historic Catholic site provoke such hostility?

Ave Maria University makes no secret of its Catholic identity. Its supporters see the Mount Melleray project as an opportunity to preserve the religious heritage of the former Cistercian monastery, bring students and visitors to rural Waterford and provide an economic benefit to the surrounding community.

People Before Profit is entitled to disagree with Ave Maria's beliefs. Freedom of speech and political debate protect that right. But those same principles must surely extend to Catholics and other Christians who wish to establish institutions that openly reflect their own values.

Are they opposed to the view that Ireland should be capable of accommodating different religious, political and philosophical viewpoints without treating the arrival of an openly Catholic educational institution as something sinister.

Mount Melleray has been a centre of Catholic life for almost two centuries. If Ave Maria can help preserve that heritage while bringing education, employment and economic activity to the area, its plans deserve to be debated on their merits rather than reduced to American political labels.