Trinity College

Trinity College, Dublin, the only college of Dublin University, was the first Irish university established on a permanent basis. Though it had long been agreed that there was great need for a native university, shortage of funds and inability to agree on a site delayed its foundation to 1592, when Trinity College was established with the help of Dublin Corporation and Adam Loftus, the Protestant archbishop of Dublin. Though Queen Elizabeth expressed the hope that it would provide for the education of all Irish youth, the fact that it was firmly Protestant and modelled on a Cambridge college ensured that its students were largely Protestant and New English. Trinity's first three provosts, Walter Travers (1594–8), William Alvey (1599–1609), and William Temple (1609–26), were firmly puritan in their outlook, and ensured that the college remained a bastion of Calvinist theology and produced a regular supply of clergy for the Church of Ireland. Provost William Bedell (1627–9) attempted to ensure that the college was able to educate its students in the Irish language, but after his departure Trinity slipped back into its Anglocentric ways.

The appointment of William Laud as chancellor in 1633, and his subsequent imposition, with the firm support of Lord Deputy Wentworth, of his protégé, the Arminian William Chappell, as provost, marked a serious attempt to rid the college of its puritanism and impose a firmer disciplinary regime. The statutes were extensively revised by Laud and the new code, adopted in 1637, established the basic constitutional and administrative framework of the college down to the 20th century. Hostility within the college to Chappell's reforms climaxed in 1640–1 when Wentworth's departure from Ireland and Chappell's resignation as provost was followed by a parliamentary inquiry into the university. The rising of 1641 deprived the college of much of its revenue, and it ceased admitting students in 1645. The Cromwellian regime revived the university, re‐endowing it and seeking, unsuccessfully, to found an additional college. The Independent Samuel Winter served as provost 1652–60 and oversaw a steady increase in student numbers before being ejected at the Restoration.

The Restoration determined the Anglican character of Trinity for a further 300 years. The college settled down into a period of considerable academic achievement, briefly disrupted by the imposition by James II of a Catholic provost, Michael Moore, and by the subsequent expulsion of scholars and fellows by Jacobite forces. Distinguished late 17th‐century figures included the orientalist Narcissus Marsh (1638–1713), provost 1679–83 and later archbishop of Cashel (1691–4), Dublin (1694–1703), and Armagh (1703–13), Henry Dodwell (1641–1711), a fellow 1662–6, who became Camden professor of history at Oxford (1688–91) and a leading non‐juror, and John Stearne (1624–69), professor of physic from 1662 and founder of the Irish College of Physicians.

The first half of the 18th century was less distinguished for its academic brilliance. This may have owed something to the appointment of a succession of doughty Whig provosts such as Richard Baldwin (1717–58), committed above all to the extirpation of any remaining traces of the Tory and high‐church reputation which the college had acquired after the Glorious Revolution. A quickening of intellectual vigour from mid‐century was accompanied by intensifying undergraduate debate. The Debating Club, founded by Edmund Burke in 1747, and of which Tone was auditor in 1785, provided a forum for student radicals, whose activities at the end of the century alarmed both college and state. A visitation in 1798, headed by the lord chancellor, Fitzgibbon, led to the expulsion of several students (including Robert Emmet) associated with the United Irishmen.

For all this Trinity was essentially the university of the Protestant ascendancy. Parliament showed its favourable disposition by generous support for an 18th‐century building programme (‘the finest ensemble of classical architecture in Ireland’) that began with the magnificent library in 1712. Not until 1793 were the university and its degrees open to Catholics, and it was 1873 before all religious tests were abolished.

Against the background of 19th‐century political and ecclesiastical debate on the university question (which Trinity survived intact), the professional schools of divinity, law, medicine (which contributed notably to Dublin's great age of medicine), and engineering gained international reputations. More building took place, and Trinity produced such notable scholars as the classicist Robert Tyrrell (1844–1914), the ancient historian J. P. Mahaffy (1839–1919), and the historian J. B. Bury (1861–1927). In 1904 it was the first of the ancient universities of Great Britain and Ireland to admit women.

Social and political change accelerated after the First World War, and with partition Trinity withdrew into itself. It was seriously lacking in resources, and its intake of undergraduates was greatly restricted by the inhibition imposed by the Roman Catholic hierarchy on Catholics attending Trinity. Furthermore, some of its more prominent members, by showing a lack of sensitivity to nationalist culture and politics, provided ammunition for those who regarded the college as west British, even anti‐national.

The tide turned mid‐century with a dramatic development in government policy whereby Trinity for the first time received state funding (today the main source of income). A. J. McConnell, provost 1952–74, provided vigorous and progressive leadership, and the lifting of the Catholic hierarchy's ‘ban’ (1970) made the college more attractive to the population at large. Student numbers soared, with intense pressure, particularly from Dublin, for places. Seeing the provision of places for Irish students as its first duty, Trinity, with some reluctance, felt bound to restrict numbers from overseas. Considerable efforts were made to continue links with schools in Northern Ireland. Though applicants from Protestant schools in the north diminished (partly because of competition from British universities, and partly because the Northern Ireland conflict made education in the Republic less appealing), a new source of undergraduates was found in Catholic schools there.

Growing numbers necessitated new building. The 20th‐century Berkeley Library and Arts Building, along with other developments, have generally been regarded as a worthy continuation of Trinity's contribution to Dublin architecture. The university has greatly extended its role in Irish society by forming relationships with the Dublin Institute of Technology and with colleges of education of different religious traditions, while the erstwhile Anglican divinity school has developed into a non‐denominational school of Hebrew, biblical, and theological studies.

Bibliography

McDowell, R. B., and and Webb, D. A. , Trinity College, Dublin 1592–1952: An Academic History (1982)

AF/ and Alan Ford