HEAnet

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HEAnet is Ireland’s national education and research network. It provides e-infrastructure and internet services to schools, colleges, and universities across Ireland, serving about 1 million users (around 210,000 in higher education and about 800,000 in schools).

The network connects Irish universities, Institutes of Technology, the National Centre for High-End Computing, and other higher education institutions, and it also serves primary and post-primary schools and research bodies. It hosts services such as the online live conferencing for the Irish Parliament (the Oireachtas).

HEAnet was established in 1983 by Irish universities and was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in November 1997. It is based in Dublin and governed by a board of directors.

In the past, HEAnet ran a mirror service for open-source projects like SourceForge, Debian, and Ubuntu, which was discontinued in 2024. Notable moments include hosting the TERENA Conference in Dublin in 2014 and, in 2017, announcing a 100 Gbps upgrade to boost bandwidth to 216 academic locations across the country.