The National Maritime College of Ireland (, NMCI) is a public maritime college located in Ringaskiddy, County Cork, Ireland. It is a constituent college of the Munster Technological University. Founded in 2004, it is situated on former Department of Defence land aside the Haulbowline naval base, the headquarters of the Irish Naval Service. It is the first dedicated maritime college of its kind in the State, and was built under the Irish Government's Public-Private Partnership scheme, involving the Munster Technological University (formerly, Cork Institute of Technology), the Naval Service and a number of other partners. The Irish Naval Service and other Defence Forces personnel carry out non-combat training at the National Maritime College of Ireland, with a permanent Naval Service cadre present on site to assist in the carrying out of this training. History and operations Whilst formal navigational training of Irish seafarers first began in Dublin in the late 18th century with the creation of the Irish Nautical College (first located in Dublin, later it moved to Dún Laoghaire), informal training in seamanship and navigation has been carried out in Ireland, typically through an apprenticeship, for a number of centuries. This situation continued until 1975 when it was agreed by the Department of Education that all maritime training and education would be carried out at the newly established Cork Regional Technical College campus in Bishopstown, with all staff and equipment of the former Irish Nautical College folded into Cork RTC as the Department of Nautical Studies. However, by the late 1990s, the expansion of (and resulting competition for space in) the Bishopstown campus and new practical training requirements of the 1995 STCW Code, had made the Bishopstown campus unsuitable, requiring significant expenditure to remain in compliance. Seeking to maintain a training facility in Ireland capable of providing maritime training, proposals were made by the newly renamed Cork Institute of Technology to the Irish Naval Service, itself looking to improve its training and accommodation facilities. Informal discussions between college staff and naval officers led to a tentative proposal that unused Department of Defence land in Ringaskiddy be developed as a joint college, sharing costly facilities and avoiding duplication of academic, commercial and Naval Service training. Opened in 2004, the National Maritime College of Ireland provides education, training and research to the international shipping industry, through a network of partnerships with companies like Chevron Shipping, Teekay, and a number of shipping