Trinity College Dublin
Trinity College (Irish: Coláiste na Tríonóide), officially The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin,[1] is the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin, a research university in Dublin, Ireland.[10] Queen Elizabeth I issued a royal charter for the college in 1592 as "the mother of a university" that was modelled after the collegiate universities of both Oxford and Cambridge,[11] but unlike these affiliated institutions, only one college was ever established; as such, the designations "Trinity College" and "University of Dublin" are usually synonymous for administrative purposes.[12]
Trinity College
Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin[3]
It will last into endless future times[4]
3 March 1592
Neoclassical architecture (majority)
€253 million (2021)[9]
Trinity is Ireland's oldest university with a reputation as a research-intensive centre. Academically, it is divided into three faculties comprising 23 schools, offering degree and diploma courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.[13] The admission procedure is based exclusively on academic merit,[14] with the college being known for programmes in law, literature and humanities.[15]
Trinity College Dublin is one of the seven ancient universities of Great Britain and Ireland,[16][17] and it is a sister college to both St John's College, Cambridge, and Oriel College, Oxford.[18][19] By incorporation, a graduate of Dublin, Oxford or Cambridge can be conferred the equivalent degree at either of the other two without further examination.[20] The Library of Trinity College is a legal deposit for Ireland and the United Kingdom. It is the largest library in the country and has housed the Book of Kells since 1661.[21]
The university has educated many of Ireland's most successful poets, playwrights and authors, including Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, Sheridan Le Fanu, William Trevor, John Millington Synge, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Moore and William Congreve; Nobel Laureates Samuel Beckett, Ernest Walton, Mairead Maguire and William Cecil Campbell; former Presidents of Ireland Douglas Hyde, Éamon de Valera, Mary Robinson, and Mary McAleese; philosophers George Berkeley and Edmund Burke; as well as mathematicians George Salmon, Robert Mallet, Bartholomew Lloyd, George Johnstone Stoney and William Rowan Hamilton. Notable faculty members and lecturers at the university included Humphrey Lloyd, J. B. Bury, Erwin Schrödinger and E. T. Whittaker.
Charter[edit]
Trinity is governed in accordance with amended versions of the Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, as well as various other statutes. On several occasions the founding Letters Patent were amended by succeeding monarchs, such as James I in 1613 and most notably Charles I in 1637 - he increased the number of fellows from seven to 16, established the Board – then the Provost and the seven senior Fellows – and reduced the panel of Visitors in size. Further major changes were made in the reign of Queen Victoria, and more again by the Oireachtas, including in 2000.[65]
University rankings
151–200 (2023)
235 (2022–23)
81 (2024)
=134 (2024)
215 (2023)
In popular culture[edit]
Parts of Michael Collins,[182] The First Great Train Robbery,[183] Circle of Friends,[184] Educating Rita,[185] Ek Tha Tiger[186] and Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx[187] were filmed in Trinity College. It served as the filming location for Luftwaffe headquarters in The Blue Max.[188]
The Irish writer J. P. Donleavy was a student in Trinity.[189] A number of his books feature characters who attend Trinity, including The Ginger Man and The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B.[190][191]
Fictional Naval Surgeon Stephen Maturin of Patrick O'Brian's popular Aubrey–Maturin series is a graduate of Trinity College.[192] The character is played by Paul Bettany in the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.[193]
In the Channel 4 television series Hollyoaks, Craig Dean attends Trinity College. He left Hollyoaks to study in Ireland in 2007 and now lives there with his boyfriend, John Paul McQueen, after they got their sunset ending in September 2008.[194]
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode Fair Haven set in a holographic 19th century Ireland near Dublin, Captain Janeway reprograms the hologram character Michael Sullivan to have "the education of a 19th century 3rd year student at Trinity College".[195]
Claire Kilroy's novel All Names Have Been Changed is set in Trinity College in the 1990s. The story follows a group of creative writing students and their enigmatic professor. A photograph of Trinity is used in the cover art.[196]
Barry McCrea's novel The First Verse is set in Trinity College. The narrative focuses on freshman Niall Lenihan's search for identity and companionship and details his involvement with mysticism at the college.[197]
In Karen Marie Moning's The Fever Series Trinity College is said to be where the main character, MacKayla Lane's sister Alina, was attending school on scholarship before she was murdered. The college is also where several of the minor characters who inform Ms. Lane about her sister are said to work.[198]
In Cecelia Ahern's novel Thanks for the Memories, Justin Hitchcock is a guest lecturer at Trinity College.[199]
The Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture in Dublin's Merrion Square depicts Wilde wearing the Trinity College post graduate tie.[200]
In Sally Rooney's 2018 novel Normal People and its 2020 television adaptation, the main characters, Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan, are students at Trinity College and are elected scholars.[201] Rooney studied English as a scholar in Trinity.[202] In the television adaptation, Connell is played by former Trinity College (The Lir Academy) student Paul Mescal; two other actors in the series, Frank Blake (who plays Marianne's older brother Alan) and Kwaku Fortune (who plays Philip, a friend of Marianne's at Trinity), are also alumni of the Lir Academy.[203] Series director and executive producer Lenny Abrahamson studied philosophy at Trinity and was also elected a scholar.[204] Following the broadcast of the series, Trinity was widely reported to have received a substantial increase in applications, to a total of over 40,000, including a small increase in applications from the United Kingdom.[205]