Trinity College

Trinity College or University of Dublin was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I.

It is one of the “ancient universities” of the British Isles and the oldest in Ireland.

However, I am not certain how old all the current buildings are.

The front is 116 metres feet long and made of Portland stone.

Statue of Edmund Burke (1729-97) 

Born in Dublin, student at Trinity, Member of Parliament in London

This is an iconic place in Dublin and there were hundreds of people there, some students and staff, some tourists. I only took a few pictures near the entrance as there wasn’t time to explore the whole campus.

Statue of Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74) 

Irish writer and poet, attended Trinity College

Famously, Trinity College remained a university for Protestants-only until 1793.

Restrictions continued until 1873 (e.g. no scholarships for Catholics).

Then it was the Catholic Church which forbade its members to attend without permission (1871-1970).

Women were only admitted in 1904.

The entrance (Front Gate) is through this vestibule with arched ceiling.

This building is called Regent House.

Many influential students have walked under this archway: 

Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver’s Travels), Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker (author of Dracula), Percy French, JM Synge, Samuel Beckett, Michael Longley, 

Robert Emmet, Wolfe Tone, Edward Carson, 

Douglas Hyde (first President of Ireland in 1938), Mary Robinson (President 1990-97), Mary McAleese (President 1997-2011), Veronica Guerin, 

Chris de Burgh, U2's manager Paul McGuinness, Michael O’Leary (of Ryanair)… 

The green spaces or quadrangles within the compound all have names.

The first one we come to is called Parliament Square.

On one side is the 1798 chapel with portico and Corinthian columns (left of pic) and on the other side, facing it, is its copy: the public theatre (columns on right). The architect was William Chambers who also designed the exam hall.

The cobbles and the many bicycles leaning on the black chains give a sense of being back in time.

Facing the entrance is a bell tower known as the Campanile. 

(left to right) The Campanile, the Old Library and the Public Theatre at Trinity College

Aside from the cute architecture, the atmosphere and the sense of literary heritage, many visitors come to see the Book of Kells which is on display in the library. It is one of the most visited attractions in Ireland (in the top five)!

There are several library buildings at Trinity. Being a legal deposit library, it stores a copy of every book published in Great Britain and Ireland – that is 100,000 new arrivals every year!  A total of 6 million library items are stored at Trinity College.

The Book of Kells is in The Old Library.

I have visited the library to see the Book of Kells before, in the early 1990s. I warmly recommend it, if one is interested in that type of documents. It is an illuminated 9th century gospel. Bearing in mind, that only two pages of the book can be viewed at a time, behind glass, in a sparsely lit room. The displayed pages are changed regularly.

Check it online -> The Book of Kells (digital collection) http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/#searchresults

I expect there are long queues nowadays but the manuscript is situated in the Long Room in the imposing Old Library. There are other illuminated manuscripts there and 200,000 rare old books.

The Long Room (built 1712-1732), which, as the name indicates, is long (65 metres), is also two-level high with wooden pilasters and shelving all the way to a wooden vaulted ceiling: awe inspiring.

There is a collection of marble busts, one is of Jonathan Swift (born in Dublin) by Louis François Roubillac (18^th c.)

The Brian Boru Harp is also here (14/15^th century), one of only three medieval Gaelic harps (the other two are Scottish) it was used as a model for the coat of arms of Ireland.

The oldest buildings at Trinity are in fact the red brick Rubricks (circa 1700) seen here beyond the campanile.

The Graduates Memorial Building, a neo-Gothic Victorian building of 1897

on Library Square at Trinity College

^ The Dining Hall (1760) and its Ionic pilasters, 

as seen from under the Campanile.

Reclining Connected Forms (1969) by Henry Moore  

“the second most expensive 20th-century British artist”

There are many statues and modern sculptures but we can’t walk on the lawns and I was pressed for time.

The college grounds are 190,000 m² (47 acres). They include a Palazzo style Museum Building (mid-19^th century), a park, tennis courts, rugby ground, zoological museum, science gallery, the Douglas Hyde Gallery (contemporary art), the Samuel Beckett Theatre (1992)

The Campanile is over 30 metres high, made of granite.

The sculptures are in Portland stone.

Completed in 1853, the sculptor was Thomas Kirk (who was Irish), the design was by Charles Lanyon (English architect who worked extensively in Belfast). 

There had been other tower(s) here, one being the original from the time of the foundation of the college, 425 years ago.

The keystones on the archways depict, in turn, Homer, Socrates, Plato and Demosthenes.

Above that, four statues sit on a stepped base supporting the belfry. The represent Divinity, Science, Medicine and Law. There are also 4 different coats of arms (Including of Trinity College and of the United Kingdom).

The belfry features Corinthian columns, Gothic-style windows with cast iron grills, and is topped with a dome. There is a smaller dome above the lantern and a gilded cross at the very top of the campanile.

Public Theatre and Regent House on Parliament Square at Trinity College