Trinity College Dublin

Trinity College Dublin (Irish: Coláiste na Tríonóide, Baile Átha Cliath), officially branded by the board as Trinity College, the University of Dublin, and by decree as The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, is the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. Founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 through a royal charter, it is one of the extant seven ancient universities of Great Britain and Ireland. As Ireland's oldest university in continuous operation, Trinity contributed to Irish literature during the Victorian and Georgian eras and played a notable role in the recognition of Dublin as a UNESCO City of Literature.

Trinity was established to consolidate the rule of the Tudor monarchy in Ireland, with Provost Adam Loftus christening it after Trinity College, Cambridge. Built on the site of the former Priory of All Hallows demolished by King Henry VIII, it was the Protestant university of the Ascendancy ruling elite for over two centuries, and was therefore associated with social elitism for most of its history. Trinity has three faculties comprising 25 schools, and affiliated institutions include the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Lir Academy, and the Irish School of Ecumenics. It is a member of LERU and the Coimbra Group. Trinity College Dublin is one of the two sister colleges of both Oriel College, Oxford, and St John's College, Cambridge, and through mutual incorporation, the three universities have retained an academic partnership (Oxon, Cantab, and Dubl) since 1636.

The college contains several landmarks such as the Campanile, the GMB, and The Rubrics, as well as the historic Old Library. Trinity's legal deposit library serves both Ireland and the United Kingdom, and has housed the Book of Kells since 1661, the Brian Boru harp since 1782, and a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic since 1916. A major destination in Ireland's tourism, the college receives over two million visitors annually, and has been used as a location in movies and novels. Trinity also houses the world's oldest student society, The Hist, which was founded in 1770.

Trinity's notable alumni include literary figures such as Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker, Oliver Goldsmith, Sheridan Le Fanu, and William Congreve; philosophers George Berkeley and Edmund Burke; statesman Éamon de Valera; authors Sally Rooney, John Boyne, and J. P. Donleavy; and the writers of the Game of Thrones TV series. Trinity graduates invented the binaural stethoscope, steam turbine, and hypodermic needle; performed the first artificial nuclear reaction; pioneered seismology, radiotherapy, and linear algebra; and coined the term electron. Alumni and faculty include 56 Fellows of the Royal Society; eight Nobel laureates; four Presidents and 14 Chief Justices of Ireland; and five Victoria Cross and six Copley Medal recipients.

A medieval University of Dublin was founded in 1320 under a papal brief issued by Pope Clement V in 1311, and the university maintained an intermittent existence at St. Patrick's Cathedral over the following centuries, but it did not flourish and finally came to an end during the Reformation period. After that, and some debate about a new university at St. Patrick's Cathedral, in 1592 a small group of Dublin citizens obtained a charter by way of letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I, incorporating Trinity College at the former site of the disbanded Augustinian Priory of All Hallows, immediately southeast of the city walls, provided by the Corporation of Dublin.

The college's first provost was the Archbishop of Dublin, Adam Loftus (after whose former college at Cambridge the institution was named), and he was provided with two initial Fellows, James Hamilton and James Fullerton. Two years after the foundation, a few Fellows and students began to work in the new college, which then lay around one small square.

During the initial 50 years following the foundation, the community increased the endowments, considerable landed estates were secured, and new fellowships and academic chairs were established. The books which formed the foundation of the great library were acquired, either by private purchase or donations, a curriculum was devised, and statutes were framed. Trinity College Dublin is one of the two sister colleges of both Oriel College, Oxford, and St John's College, Cambridge, and through mutual incorporation, the three universities have retained an academic partnership since 1636.

During the 18th century, Trinity College was seen as the university of the Protestant Ascendancy. The Parliament of Ireland, meeting on the other side of College Green, made generous grants for building the College's 18th-century neoclassical Parliament square. The first building of this period was the Old Library, begun in 1712, followed by The Printing House and the Dining Hall. During the second half of the century, the Parliament Square slowly emerged. The great building drive was mostly completed by the early 19th century with the inauguration of the Botany Bay, the square which derives its name in part from the herb garden it once contained. Today, the square contains Trinity College's own Botanic Gardens.