Trinity College Dublin#Provost

File:KellsFol007vMadonnaChild.jpg is the most famous of the volumes in the Trinity College Library. Shown here are the Madonna and Child from Kells (folio 7v).]]

A medieval University of Dublin was founded in 1320 under a papal brief issued by Pope Clement V in 1311,London: Newman, Cardinal Henry; The Rise and Progress of Universities, Chapter 17 (The Ancient University of Dublin), 207–212 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,

Extracts from Letters Patent ("First or Foundation Charter") of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and establish a College, mother of a (the) University, near the town of Dublin for the better education, training and instruction of Anglo-Protestant scholars and students in our realm...and also that provision should be made...for the relief and support of a provost and some fellows and scholars...it shall be called THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY AND UNDIVIDED TRINITY NEAR DUBLIN FOUNDED BY THE MOST SERENE QUEEN ELIZABETH." 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/info/trinity/history/ |title=Trinity Information – About Trinity College – History of Trinity College |website=The University of Dublin |access-date=April 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071213221501/http://www.tcd.ie/info/trinity/history/ |archive-date=13 December 2007}}

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.{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DxlkQgAACAAJ|title=Trinity College Dublin, the First 400 Years|first1=John |last1=Victor Luce |publisher=Trinity College Dublin Press|year=1992|location=Dublin|isbn=978-1-871408-06-5 }} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.in/Trinity-College-Library-Dublin-History-ebook/dp/B00J8LQMZE|title=Trinity College Library Dublin: A History|first1=Peter|last1=Fox|location=Dublin|year=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}

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File:Bram Stoker1.jpg, Trinity graduate and author of Dracula]]

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.{{cite book |title=The Early History Of Trinity College Dublin, 1591-1660: As Told In Contemporary Records On Occasion Of Its Tercentenary (1892)|first1=William|last1=Urwick|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|year=2010|location=USA|isbn=978-1165759064 }} 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.{{cite book |title=Trinity College, Dublin (1902)|first1=William Macneile|last1=Dixon|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|year=2010|location=USA|id={{ASIN|1165158132|country=in}} }} Today, the square contains Trinity College's own Botanic Gardens.

The 19th century was also marked by important developments in the professional schools. The law school was reorganized after the middle of the century.{{cite book |title=Trinity College, Dublin (1902)|first1=William Macneile|last1=Dixon|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|year=2010|location=USA|id={{ASIN|1165158132|country=in}} }} Medical studies had been taught in the college since 1711, but it was only after the establishment of the school on a firm basis by legislation in 1800, and under the inspiration of one Macartney, that it was in a position to play its full part, with such teachers as Graves and Stokes, in the great age of Dublin medicine.{{cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61000|title=The Book of Trinity College Dublin (1591-1891)|publisher=Trinity College Dublin Press|date=January 2020|first1=John|last1=Campbell|location=Ireland}} The Engineering School was established in 1842, and was among the first of its kind in Ireland and Britain.

Trinity was originally the university of the Protestant Ascendancy ruling elite for much of its history, given the conditions for its establishment. While Catholics were admitted from the college's foundation, for a period, graduation required the taking of an oath that was objectionable to them.{{cite book |last1=Maxwell |first1=Constantia |date=1946 |title=A History of Trinity College Dublin 1591–1892 |url=https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/history-trinity-college-dublin-1591-1892/author/maxwell-constantia |publisher=Dublin: The University Press}} This requirement was removed under the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793, before the equivalent change at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, but certain restrictions on membership of the college remained; professorships, fellowships and scholarships remained reserved only for Protestants.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcd.ie/about/history|title=History of Trinity College Dublin|location=Dublin}}{{cite web|url=http://members.pcug.org.au/~ppmay/acts/relief_act_1793.htm|title=Catholic Relief Act, 1793, section 13|website=members.pcug.org.au|access-date=27 September 2020|archive-date=6 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200406190505/http://members.pcug.org.au/%7Eppmay/acts/relief_act_1793.htm|url-status=live}} In December 1845, Denis Caulfield Heron was the subject of a hearing at Trinity College. He had previously been examined and, on merit, been declared a Scholar of the college, but had not been allowed to take up his place due to his Catholic religion.{{cite web | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irish-diary/2024/02/11/legal-eagle-brian-maye-on-lawyer-and-parliamentarian-denis-caulfield-heron|title=Legal eagle — Brian Maye on lawyer and parliamentarian Denis Caulfield Heron|publisher=The Irish Times |first1=Brian|last1=Maye|date=February 2024|location=Ireland}} Heron appealed to the Irish courts, which issued a writ of {{lang|la|mandamus}} requiring the case to be adjudicated by the Archbishop of Dublin and the Primate of Ireland.The Times, Important Collegiate Question., Denis C. Heron 13 December 1845; pg3 col E The decision of Richard Whately and John George de la Poer Beresford was that Heron would remain excluded from Scholarship.The Times; Ireland. Protestant Alliance; 9 January 1846; pg5 col D This decision confirmed that students who were not Anglicans (Presbyterians were also affected) could not be elected as Scholars, Fellows, or be made a professor. Within three decades of this, however, all disabilities and restrictions imposed on Catholics were repealed.{{cite web |url=https://issuu.com/miscellany/docs/misc_hilary_term_2023/s/22727220|title=Slow Surrender: Trinity and the Inclusion of Catholics|publisher=MISC Magazine, Trinity College Dublin|year=2023|location=Ireland}} In 1873, all religious tests, except for those relating to entry to the Divinity school, were abolished by an Act of Parliament.{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1834/may/08/catholics-and-trinity-college-dublin|title=CATHOLICS AND TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. |website=Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)|access-date=6 April 2011|archive-date=19 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119014731/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1834/may/08/catholics-and-trinity-college-dublin|date=8 May 1834|url-status=live}}

In 1871, just prior to the full repeal of all limitations on Catholic students, Irish Catholic bishops, responding to the increased ease with which Catholics could attend an institution which the bishops saw as thoroughly Protestant in ethos, and in light of the establishment of the Catholic University of Ireland, implemented a general ban on Catholics entering Trinity College, with few exceptions.{{cite journal |last1=Pašeta |first1=Senia |year=1998 |title=Trinity College, Dublin, and the Education of Irish Catholics, 1873–1908 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20495087 |journal=Studia Hibernica |number=30 |pages=7–20 |jstor=20495087 |access-date=13 September 2020 |archive-date=23 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123145946/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20495087 |url-status=live }} "The ban", despite its longevity, is associated in the popular mind with the Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid, as he was made responsible for enforcing it from 1956 until the Catholic Bishops of Ireland rescinded it in 1970, shortly before McQuaid's retirement. Until 1956, it was the responsibility of each local bishop.

File:A pictorial and descriptive guide to Dublin and the Wicklow tours (1919) (14763653831).jpg (pre-1899)]]

File:Trinity College library.jpg]]

In April 1900, Queen Victoria visited College Green in Dublin.{{cite web|url=https://digitalcollections.qut.edu.au/4115/|title=Queen Victoria's Royal visit to Dublin, Ireland, 4th April – 26th April, 1900|last=L'Estrange|first=Robert Augustus Henry|year=1900|website=digitalcollections.qut.edu.au|language=en|access-date=2020-02-12|archive-date=5 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205184509/https://digitalcollections.qut.edu.au/4115/|url-status=live}} Women were admitted to Trinity College as full members for the first time in 1904.{{cite book|author1=Robert Brendan McDowell|author2=David Allardice Webb|title=Trinity College, Dublin, 1592–1952: An Academic History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_QC7AAAAIAAJ|year=1982|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-23931-8|access-date=17 October 2015|archive-date=5 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505221403/https://books.google.com/books?id=_QC7AAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}} From 1904 to 1907, women from Oxford and Cambridge, who were admitted but not granted degrees, came to Trinity College to receive their ad eundum degree; they were known as Steamboat ladies and the fees they paid helped to fund Trinity Hall.{{Cite book|last=Rayner-Canham|first=Marelene F.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/665046168|title=Chemistry was their life : pioneering British women chemists, 1880–1949|date=2008|publisher=Imperial College Press|others=Geoffrey Rayner-Canham|isbn=978-1-86094-987-6|location=London|page=560|oclc=665046168|access-date=28 May 2021|archive-date=26 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626163045/https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/665046168|url-status=live}}

In 1907, the Chief Secretary for Ireland proposed the reconstitution of the University of Dublin. A "Dublin University Defence Committee" was created and successfully campaigned against any change to the status quo, while the Catholic bishops' rejection of the idea ensured its failure among the Catholic population.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Chief among the bishops' concerns was the remains of the Catholic University of Ireland, which would become subsumed into a new university, which on account of Trinity College would be part Anglican. Ultimately this episode led to the creation of the National University of Ireland.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Trinity College was one of the targets of the Volunteer and Citizen Army forces during the 1916 Easter Rising but was successfully defended by a small number of unionist students,{{cite journal|title=Soldiers are we |first=Charles |last=Townshend |journal=History Today |author-link=Charles Townshend (historian) |date=1 April 2006 |pages=163–164}} most of whom were members of the university Officers' Training Corps. From July 1917 to March 1918, the Irish Convention met in the college in an attempt to address the political aftermath of the Easter Rising. Subsequently, following the failure of the convention to reach "substantial agreement", the Irish Free State was set up in 1922.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} In the post-independence period, Trinity College suffered from a cool relationship with the new state.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} On 3 May 1955, the provost, A.J. McConnell, wrote in the Irish Times that certain state-funded County Council scholarships excluded Trinity College from the list of approved institutions. This, he suggested, amounted to religious discrimination, which was forbidden by the Constitution.

During the early 20th century, the students and faculty of the university also participated in the First World War,{{cite web | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69w36|title=Trinity in War and Revolution 1912-1923|first1=Tomas|last1=Irish|publisher=Royal Irish Academy (RIA) |year=October 2015|location=Dublin|jstor=j.ctt1g69w36|ISBN=9781908996787}} in particular during the Gallipoli campaign.{{cite web | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320473013_Trinity_College_Dublin_An_Imperial_University_in_War_and_Revolution_1914-1921|title=Trinity College Dublin: An Imperial University in War and Revolution, 1914–1921|first1=Tomás|last1=Irish|year=2018|journal=The Academic World in the Era of the Great War|page=119-139|location=New York|publisher=Springer Publishers|ISBN=9781349952656}}{{cite web | url=https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/trinity-in-war-and-revolution-1912-1923|title=Trinity during the First World War|publisher=The University of Dublin|location=Ireland|year=December 2015|first1=Fiona|last1=Tyrrell}}

It has also been said of the period before Ireland left the Commonwealth that, "The overwhelming majority of the undergraduates were ex-unionists or, if from Northern Ireland, unionists. Loyalty to the Crown was instinctive and they were proud to be British subjects and Commonwealth citizens", and that "The College still clung, so far as circumstances permitted, to its pre-Treaty loyalties, symbolized by the flying of the Union Jack on suitable occasions and a universal wearing of poppies on Armistice Day, the chapel being packed for the two minutes' silence followed by a lusty rendering of 'God Save the King...". "But by the close of the 1960s... Trinity, with the overwhelming majority of its undergraduate population coming from the Republic, to a great extent conformed to local patterns".{{cite book |last=McDowell |first=R.B |author-link=R. B. McDowell |date=1997 |title=Crisis and Decline – the Fate of the Southern Unionists |location=Dublin |publisher=The Lilliput Press |pages=173, 204, 175 |isbn=1-874675-92-9}}

The School of Commerce was established in 1925, and the School of Social Studies in 1934. Also in 1934, the first female professor was appointed.

{{quote box|align=right|width=25em|quote=Young men may loot, perjure and shoot
And even have carnal knowledge.
But however depraved, their souls will be saved
If they don't go to Trinity College.|source=—verse popular in the 1950s, at the height of Archbishop McQuaid's efforts{{cite web|url=http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/celebrity-news-gossip/the-strange-ways-of-a-control-freak-521486.html|title=The strange ways of a 'control freak' – Independent.ie|access-date=27 September 2018|archive-date=26 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026012605/http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/celebrity-news-gossip/the-strange-ways-of-a-control-freak-521486.html|url-status=live}}}}

In 1944, the Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid required Catholics in the Dublin archdiocese to obtain a special dispensation before entering the university, under threat of automatic excommunication.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The ban was extended nationally at the Plenary Synod of Maynooth in August 1956.{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Peter |last2=Feeney |first2=Maria |date=2016 |title=Church, state and social science in Ireland: Knowledge institutions and the rebalancing of power, 1937–73 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv18b5p57 |location=Manchester |publisher=Manchester University Press |jstor=j.ctv18b5p57 |isbn=9781526100788 |access-date=6 July 2021 |archive-date=10 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710004555/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv18b5p57 |url-status=live }} Despite this sectarianism, 1958 saw the first Catholic reach the Board of Trinity as a Senior fellow.{{Failed verification|date=December 2021}}

In 1962 the School of Commerce and the School of Social Studies amalgamated to form the School of Business and Social Studies.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} In 1969 several schools and departments were grouped into Faculties as follows: Arts (Humanities and Letters); Business, Economic and Social Studies; Engineering and Systems Sciences; Health Sciences (since October 1977 all undergraduate teaching in dental science in the Dublin area has been in Trinity College); and Science.

In the late 1960s, there was a proposal for University College Dublin, of the National University of Ireland, to become a constituent college of a newly reconstituted University of Dublin.{{cite web|last=O'Dubhlaing|first=Seán|year=1997|title=Donogh O'Malley and the Free Post Primary Education Scheme|url=http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/5169/1/Sean_O_Dubhlaing_20140708083500.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Maynooth University|archive-date=10 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410223239/http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/5169/1/Sean_O_Dubhlaing_20140708083500.pdf}} This plan, suggested by Brian Lenihan and Donogh O'Malley, was dropped after officials of both universities opposed it.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qN-jf5dN7QAC&q=trinity|title=Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s|first=Diarmaid|last=Ferriter|date=1 November 2012|publisher=Profile Books|isbn=978-1847658562|via=Google Books|access-date=14 December 2021|archive-date=13 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230913012913/https://books.google.com/books?id=qN-jf5dN7QAC&q=trinity|url-status=live}}

In 1970 the Catholic Church lifted its ban on Catholics attending the college without special dispensation.{{Cite web |title=Catholic Trinity College Ban Lifted |url=https://www.rte.ie/archives/2020/0610/1146599-catholic-trinity-college-ban-lifted/ |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=RTÉ Archives |language=en}} At the same time, Trinity College authorities invited the appointment of a Catholic chaplain to be based in the college.{{cite web|url=http://www.iol.ie/~duacon/nl19-3.htm |last=McCarthy |first=Eamonn |title=Soline Vatinel, The Archbishop and Me |publisher=B.A.S.I.C. Brothers and Sisters in Christ Praying and Working for the Ordination of Women in the Roman Catholic Church |date=22 January 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191027114922/http://www.iol.ie/~duacon/nl19-3.htm |access-date=27 September 2020|archive-date=27 October 2019 }} There are now two such Catholic chaplains.{{cite web |url=https://www.tcd.ie/chaplaincy/roman-catholic/ |title=Roman Catholic Chaplaincy |publisher=Trinity College Dublin }}

From 1975, the Colleges of Technology that later formed the Dublin Institute of Technology had their degrees conferred by the University of Dublin.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} This arrangement was discontinued in 1998 when the DIT obtained degree-granting powers of its own.{{cite ISB|title=Dublin Institute of Technology Act 1992|year=1992|num=15|access-date=4 May 2023|date=19 July 1992|archive-date=1 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801110351/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1992/act/15/enacted/en/html|url-status=live}}

The School of Pharmacy was established in 1977, and around the same time, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine was transferred to University College Dublin in exchange for its Dental School. Student numbers increased sharply during the 1980s and 1990s, with total enrolment more than doubling, leading to pressure on resources and a subsequent investment programme.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} In 1991, Thomas Noel Mitchell became the first Roman Catholic elected Provost of Trinity College.{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/provost/history/former-provosts/tn_mitchell.php|title=Thomas Noel Mitchell – Provost & President |website=Trinity College Dublin |access-date=21 January 2018|archive-date=24 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171124172924/https://www.tcd.ie/provost/history/former-provosts/tn_mitchell.php|url-status=dead }}

File:Science Gallery Dublin on Pearse Street at Night.jpg, opened in 2008]]

Trinity College is today in the centre of Dublin. At the beginning of the new century, it embarked on a radical overhaul of academic structures to reallocate funds and reduce administration costs, resulting in, for instance, the reduction from six to five to eventually three faculties under a subsequent restructuring.{{cite news | url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/faculties-may-be-let-opt-out-of-tcd-restructure-1.1167583|title=Restructuring of TCD faculties in 2004|newspaper=The Irish Times }} The ten-year strategic plan prioritises four research themes with which the college seeks to compete for funding at the global level. Comparative funding statistics reviewing the difference in departmental unit costs and overall costs before and after this restructuring are not apparent.{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/about/content/pdf/TCDStrategicPlan2006_English.pdf|title=Strategic Plan Update 2006 |website=Trinity College Dublin|access-date=23 July 2016|archive-date=26 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826051326/http://www.tcd.ie/about/content/pdf/TCDStrategicPlan2006_English.pdf|url-status=live}}

The Hamilton Mathematics Institute in Trinity College, named in honour of William Rowan Hamilton, was launched in 2005 and aims to improve the international profile of Irish mathematics, to raise public awareness of mathematics and to support local mathematical research through workshops, conferences and a visitor programme.{{cite web|title=About – Hamilton Mathematics Institute|url=https://www.tcd.ie/Hamilton/about/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506030444/https://www.tcd.ie/Hamilton/about/|archive-date=6 May 2021|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin}}

In 2021, Linda Doyle was elected the first woman Provost, succeeding Patrick Prendergast.{{Cite news |last1=O'Brien |first1=Carl|last2=McGreevy |first2=Ronan |title=Trinity College Dublin names Linda Doyle as first woman provost in 429 years |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/trinity-college-dublin-names-linda-doyle-as-first-woman-provost-in-429-years-1.4534221 |access-date=2021-05-04 |newspaper=The Irish Times |issn=0791-5144 |location=Dublin |language=en-ie |archive-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416174909/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/trinity-college-dublin-names-linda-doyle-as-first-woman-provost-in-429-years-1.4534221 |url-status=live}}{{cite web|last=Ardill|first=Lisa|date=2021-04-12|title=Who is Linda Doyle, the newly elected provost of Trinity College Dublin?|url=https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/linda-doyle-provost-trinity-college-dublin|access-date=2021-05-04|website=Silicon Republic|language=en|archive-date=4 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210504233943/https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/linda-doyle-provost-trinity-college-dublin|url-status=live}} In 2024, students set up an encampment outside the Book of Kells Museum regarding the university's ties to Israel. After five nights of protests, the administration declared that it would not renew its business relationships with Israeli companies, and the last contract will expire in March 2025.{{Cite web |last=Borpujari |first=Priyanka |date=2024-05-27 |title=Inside the Student Movement that Forced Ireland's Trinity College to Divest from Israel |url=https://commonslibrary.org/inside-the-student-movement-that-forced-irelands-trinity-college-to-divest-from-israel/ |access-date=2024-08-12 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}

File:Trinity College, Dublin front.jpg

File:Trinity College - Parliament Square - October 2023.jpg

The main site of Trinity College has been described as retaining a tranquil collegiate atmosphere despite its location in the centre of a capital city,{{cite journal |url=https://www.forbes.com/2010/08/31/beautiful-campuses-lifestyle-education-colleges-10-university-architecture_slide.html|title=The World's Most Beautiful College Campuses|journal=Forbes Magazine|year=2012|location=USA}} and despite it being one of Dublin's, and Ireland's, most prominent tourist attractions, with more than 2 million visitors annually.{{cite web |title=TCD campus attracts 2 million visitors every year |url=https://universitytimes.ie/2024/09/the-impact-of-unrestricted-campus-tourism-on-trinity-students/#:~:text=Over%20two%20million%20people%20visit,the%20Book%20of%20Kells%20Exhibition}} This is, in large part, due to the enclosed and compact design of the college, with the main buildings looking inwards, largely arranged in quadrangles (called squares), and the existence of only a few public entrances. In addition to the main site of the college, Trinity owns a number of buildings nearby in central Dublin, as well as an enterprise centre near Ringsend and a botanic garden in Dartry.{{Cite news |first=Sylvia |last=Thompson |title=A hidden biodiversity hotspot in Dublin's suburbs |date=14 April 2022 |access-date=28 February 2025 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/a-hidden-biodiversity-hotspot-in-dublin-s-suburbs-1.4841123 |newspaper=The Irish Times}} The college has been used as a location in numerous movies and novels.

Patrick Wyse Jackson, curator of the Geological Museum at Trinity, assessed the architectural merits of the entrance and entry buildings in 1993:

"The imposing entrance to Trinity College, consisting of a central area flanked by two square pavilions, was built in the 1750s of Leinster Granite from Golden Hill, Co Wicklow, and Portland Stone was used for the architraves, swags, and Corinthian pilasters and half-columns... The masonry cost £27,000. Between 1990 and 1992 the central portion of the building was cleaned. Passing through the gateway one walks over a wooden floor of interlocking hexagonal setts (similar in pattern to the basaltic Giant's Causeway), and into Parliament Square, which is dominated by the identical Corinthian fronts, in Leinster Granite and Portland Stone, of the Chapel on the left and the Examination Hall on the right. Further into the square on the left-hand side is the Dining Hall, restored after a fire in 1984. For reasons unknown, until 1870 the clock in the portico was set fifteen minutes after Dublin time."{{sfn|Wyse Jackson|1993|page=30}}

The hexagonal setts are made of oak, chosen for its noise absorption qualities, and was a common form of paving in the forecourts of hospitals.{{sfn|Dublin Tourism|page=24}}

The main college grounds are approximately 190,000 m² (47 acres),{{cite web|title=Trinity College Dublin (TCD) – Fateh Education – DRLP-16|url=http://pages.fateheducation.com/Trinity-College-Dublin-DRLP-16|access-date=2021-05-26|website=pages.fateheducation.com|archive-date=31 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031105336/http://pages.fateheducation.com/Trinity-College-Dublin-DRLP-16|url-status=live}} including the Trinity College Enterprise Centre some distance away, and buildings provide around 200,000 m² of floor space, ranging from works of older architecture to more modern buildings. The college's main entrance is on College Green, and its grounds are bounded by Nassau and Pearse Streets. The college is bisected by College Park, which has both a cricket and a rugby pitch.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The college's western side is older, featuring the Campanile, as well as many fine buildings, including the Chapel and Examination Hall (designed by Sir William Chambers), Graduates Memorial Building, Museum Building, and The Rubrics (the sole surviving section of the original 17th-century quadrangle), all spread across the college's five squares.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} An organ case held within the Examination Hall was noted by Dublin Tourism to be the oldest existing Irish made organ case, reputed to have been built in 1684 by Lancelot Pearse.{{sfn|Dublin Tourism|page=5}} The gilt oak chandelier which hangs in the Examination Hall was taken from the old Irish House of Commons in nearby College Green.{{sfn|Dublin Tourism|page=5}}

The Provost's House sits a little way up from the College Front Gate such that the House is actually on Grafton Street, one of the two principal shopping streets in the city, while its garden faces into the college. The Douglas Hyde Gallery, a contemporary art gallery, is in the college, as is the Samuel Beckett Theatre.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} It hosts national and international performances and is used by the Dublin International Theatre Festival, the Dublin Dance Festival, and The Fringe Festival, among others.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} During the academic term, it is predominantly used as a teaching and performance space for drama students and staff.

The college's eastern side is occupied by science buildings, most of which are modern developments, arranged in three rows instead of quadrangles.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} In 2010, Forbes ranked it one of the 15 most beautiful college grounds in the world.{{cite news | url=https://www.forbes.com/2010/08/31/beautiful-campuses-lifestyle-education-colleges-10-university-architecture_slide_7.html | work=Forbes | title=The World's Most Beautiful College Campuses | access-date=17 September 2017 | archive-date=29 July 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729210227/https://www.forbes.com/2010/08/31/beautiful-campuses-lifestyle-education-colleges-10-university-architecture_slide_7.html | url-status=live }}

File:Trinity College Chapel, Dublin.jpg

The current chapel was completed in 1798, and was designed by George III's architect, Sir William Chambers, who also designed the public theatre opposite the chapel on Parliament Square.{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/about/history/|title=History – About Trinity|publisher=Trinity College Dublin|access-date=21 January 2018|archive-date=9 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209064250/https://www.tcd.ie/about/history/|url-status=live}} Reflecting the college's Anglican heritage, there are daily services of Morning prayer, weekly services of Evensong, and Holy Communion is celebrated on Tuesdays and Sundays. It is no longer compulsory for students to attend these.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The chapel has been ecumenical since 1970, and is now also used daily in the celebration of Mass for the college's Roman Catholic members.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} According to a Dublin Tourism brochure in the late 1990s, it was the "only chapel in the country which is shared by all the Christian denominations".{{sfn|Dublin Tourism|page=6}} In addition to the Anglican chaplain, who is known as the Dean of Residence, there are two Roman Catholic chaplains and one Methodist chaplain. Ecumenical events are often held in the chapel, such as the annual carol service and the service of thanksgiving on Trinity Monday.{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/Chaplaincy/|title=Chaplaincy|publisher=Trinity College Dublin|access-date=21 January 2018|archive-date=3 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180203001954/http://www.tcd.ie/Chaplaincy/|url-status=live}}

Behind the chapel is a small cemetery named Challenor's Corner, which is reserved for the burial of Provosts of the college.{{sfn|Dublin Tourism|page=6}} The space is named after Luke Challenor, who was buried there in 1613.{{sfn|Dublin Tourism|page=6}}

{{Main|Library of Trinity College Dublin}}

File:Long Room Interior, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland - Diliff.jpg|right]] File:Arnaldo Pomodoro's 'Sfera con Sfera' at The Berkeley Library, Trinity College Dublin.JPG's Sphere Within Sphere sculpture stands outside the Eavan Boland Library.{{cite web|title=Sphere within Sphere|url=https://www.tcd.ie/library/berkeley/4-sphere-within-sphere/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin|date=23 January 2017|archive-date=8 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200908031426/https://www.tcd.ie/library/berkeley/4-sphere-within-sphere/}}]]

The Library of Trinity College is Ireland's largest research library. As a result of its historic standing, Trinity College Library Dublin is a legal deposit library, now under the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 in Irish law and the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 in UK law.{{cite web|title=Legal Deposit – The Library of Trinity College Dublin|url=https://www.tcd.ie/library/about/legal-deposit.php|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin|archive-date=21 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210621012300/https://www.tcd.ie/library/about/legal-deposit.php}}{{Cite ISB|title=Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000|year=2000|number=28|section=198|stitle=Delivery of certain materials to libraries|date=10 July 2000}} The college is therefore legally entitled to a copy of every book published in Great Britain and Ireland, and consequently receives over 100,000 new items every year. The library contains about five million books, including 30,000 current serials and significant collections of manuscripts, maps, and printed music.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Three million books are held in the book depository, known as the "Stacks", in Santry, from which requests are retrieved twice daily.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The Library proper comprises several buildings in the college. The original (Old) Library is Thomas Burgh's masterpiece.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} A huge building, it originally towered over the university and the city after its completion. Even today, surrounded by similarly scaled buildings, it is imposing and dominates the view of the university from Nassau Street.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} It was founded with the college and first endowed by James Ussher (1625–56), Archbishop of Armagh, who endowed his own valuable library, comprising several thousand printed books and manuscripts, to the college.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The Book of Kells is by far the Library's most famous book and is in the Old Library, along with the Book of Durrow, the Book of Howth and other ancient texts.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Also incorporating the Long Room, the Old Library receives over 900,000 visitors per year, making it Dublin's second-most visited tourist destination.{{cite web |title=TCD campus attracts 2 million visitors every year |url=https://universitytimes.ie/2024/09/the-impact-of-unrestricted-campus-tourism-on-trinity-students/#:~:text=Over%20two%20million%20people%20visit,the%20Book%20of%20Kells%20Exhibition}} In the 18th century, the college received the Brian Boru harp, one of the three surviving medieval Gaelic harps, and a national symbol of Ireland, now housed in the library.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The buildings known as the college's BLU (Boland Lecky Ussher) Arts library complex consist of the Eavan Boland Library (named for the Irish poet Eavan Boland) in Fellow's square, built in 1956 as the Berkeley Library; the Lecky Library (named for the historian William Edward Hartpole Lecky), attached to the Arts building; and the Ussher Library (named for the theologian James Ussher), opened in 2003, overlooking College Park and housing the Glucksman Map Library.{{cite web|title=Finding your Library|url=https://www.tcd.ie/library/support/tutorials/finding-library/story_html5.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin|archive-date=16 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616132151/https://www.tcd.ie/library/support/tutorials/finding-library/story_html5.html?lms=1}} The Glucksman Library contains half a million printed maps, the largest collection of cartographic materials in Ireland. This includes the first Ordnance Surveys of Ireland, conducted in the early 19th century.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The Berkeley Library, named for the philosopher George Berkeley, was renamed after attention was brought to Berkeley's history as a slave trader, leading to a petition for renaming from the Students Union.{{cite web | url=https://universitytimes.ie/2022/02/tcdsu-votes-to-lobby-for-renaming-the-berkeley-library/ | title=TCDSU Votes to Lobby to Rename the Berkeley Library | access-date=23 August 2022 | archive-date=23 August 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823211942/https://universitytimes.ie/2022/02/tcdsu-votes-to-lobby-for-renaming-the-berkeley-library/ | url-status=live }} In August 2022, incoming Student Union President Gabi Fullam announced that the Students Union would refer to the library as the "X Library" in all official communications pending renaming.{{cite news |url=http://trinitynews.ie/2022/08/tcdsu-call-for-immediate-de-naming-of-the-library/ |title=TCDSU call for immediate de-naming of the Library |newspaper=Trinity News |access-date=2022-08-23 |archive-date=23 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823164030/https://trinitynews.ie/2022/08/tcdsu-call-for-immediate-de-naming-of-the-library/ |url-status=live }} In April 2023, Trinity College announced that it would dename the Berkeley Library,{{Cite press release |title=Trinity College Dublin to dename the Berkeley Library |date=26 April 2023 |publisher=Trinity College Library |url=https://www.tcd.ie/library/news/trinity-college-dublin-to-dename-the-berkeley-library/}} and in October 2024 it was renamed the Eavan Boland Library after the poet Eavan Boland. This makes it the first building named after any woman on Trinity’s city centre campus.{{cite web|title=Trinity renames its main Library after poet Eavan Boland|url=https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/2024/trinity-renaming/|access-date=19 November 2024|publisher=Trinity College Dublin}} Previous to the renaming, Trinity asked members of the public to vote on a figure for the library to named in honour of. Wolfe Tone won the poll with 31% of the vote, while Boland netted 7%. Trinity subsequently chose to ignore the vote.{{cite news |last= |first= |date=20 March 2025 |title="Tone Deaf" Irish times |url=https://www.thephoenix.ie/article/tone-deaf-irish-times/ |work=The Phoenix |location= |publisher= |access-date=20 March 2025}}

The Library also includes the William Hamilton Science and Engineering Library and the John Stearne Medical Library, housed at St James's Hospital.

{{Main|Trinity Business School}}

The Trinity College Business School's building is in an €80 million construction project and was inaugurated on 23 May 2019 by the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, an alumnus of Trinity College School of Medicine.{{cite news|last=Power|first=Jack|title=Taoiseach opens new €80m Trinity business school|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/taoiseach-opens-new-80m-trinity-business-school-1.3902415|access-date=2021-05-26|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|archive-date=7 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107234205/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/taoiseach-opens-new-80m-trinity-business-school-1.3902415|url-status=live}}{{cite web|date=2017-06-03|title=Ireland's new Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is a 'real global Indian', says family back home|url=https://www.firstpost.com/world/irelands-new-prime-minister-leo-varadkar-is-a-real-global-indian-says-family-back-home-3512287.html|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Firstpost|archive-date=18 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618175320/https://www.firstpost.com/world/irelands-new-prime-minister-leo-varadkar-is-a-real-global-indian-says-family-back-home-3512287.html|url-status=live}} The six-storey building, adjoining the Naughton Institute on the college's Pearse Street side, includes an Innovation and Entrepreneurial hub, a 600-seat auditorium, "smart classrooms" with digital technology, and an "executive education centre".{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The near-zero energy building provides a link between the city and the main University grounds.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/taoiseach-opens-e80-million-building-for-scaled-up-trinity-business-school/|title=Trinity Business School|website=tcd.ie|date=23 May 2019|access-date=29 September 2019|archive-date=29 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929094957/https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/taoiseach-opens-e80-million-building-for-scaled-up-trinity-business-school/|url-status=live}}

Trinity also incorporates a number of buildings and facilities spread throughout the city, from the politics and sociology departments on Dame Street to the Faculty of Health Sciences buildings, located at St. James's Hospital and Tallaght University Hospital. The Trinity Centre at St James's Hospital incorporates additional teaching rooms, as well as the Institute of Molecular Medicine and John Durkan Leukaemia Institute.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

File:TCD Herb Garden, winter 2024.jpgThe college's botanic garden, which developed from a herb garden on the main site, is located in Dartry, around four kilometres south of the main site, and it also owns a large set of residences on the Dartry Road, in Rathmines, called Trinity Hall.Trinity Hall, which houses 1,100 students, of whom the majority are first years. A new physic or herb garden was opened in 2011, and there are also small gardens in the space known as Botany Bay and at the rear of the Provost's House.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

In November 2018, Trinity announced plans, estimated at €230 million, to develop university research facilities on a site in Grand Canal Dock as part of an "Innovation District" for the area.{{cite web |url=https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/trinity-college-campus-future-estates-strategy |title=Trinity College Dublin reveals €230m blueprint for the campus of the future |last=Kennedy |first=John |date=2018-11-22 |website=Silicon Republic |language=en |access-date=2020-02-12 |archive-date=22 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122163813/https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/trinity-college-campus-future-estates-strategy |url-status=live }} These plans were later scaled back.{{As of?|date=February 2025}}

In addition to College Park, Botany Bay and other on-site facilities, the college also owns sports grounds in Santry and Crumlin, and a boathouse in Islandbridge.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}

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 later monarchs, such as James I in 1613, and most notably Charles I in 1637 - the latter increased the number of fellows from seven to 16, established the Board – initially consisting of the Provost and the seven senior Fellows – and reduced the panel of Visitors in size.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Further major changes were made in the reign of Queen Victoria, and more again by the Oireachtas, including in 2000.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcd.ie/Secretary/corporate/legal-faq/|title=Legal FAQ – Secretary's Office – Trinity College Dublin|website=tcd.ie|access-date=2019-03-18|archive-date=28 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180528215940/https://www.tcd.ie/Secretary/corporate/legal-faq/|url-status=live}}

{{see also|University of Dublin#Organisation}}

The college, officially incorporated as The Provost, Fellows and Scholars of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, is headed by the Provost. Linda Doyle has been Provost since August 2021.{{cite web|title=The 2010 Consolidated Statutes of Trinity College Dublin and of the University of Dublin|url=https://www.tcd.ie/registrar/assets/pdf/Statutes_incorporating_changes_22_May_2019.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin|page=43|archive-date=2 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200902235414/https://www.tcd.ie/registrar/assets/pdf/Statutes_incorporating_changes_22_May_2019.pdf}}

The terms "University of Dublin" and "Trinity College" are generally considered synonymous for all practical purposes. Trinity was originally founded using the models of the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge in England, both of which are collegiate universities that each comprise several quasi-independent colleges.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} In one sense, the University of Dublin exists only as a degree-granting institution, with the college providing the education and research; Trinity College was the only college to ever be established within the university.

File:Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (Sculpture of George Salmon).jpg (by John Hughes) and the Campanile, both in Parliament Square]]

The body corporate of the college consists of the provost, fellows and scholars. The college is governed according to its statutes, which are, in effect, the College Constitution. Statutes are of two kinds, those which originally could only be amended by Royal Charter or Royal Letters Patent, and which now can only be changed by an Act of the Oireachtas, and those which can be changed by the board but only with the Fellows' consent.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

When a change requires parliamentary legislation, the customary procedure is that the Board requests the change by applying for a Private Bill. For this, the whole Body Corporate's consent is needed, with Scholars voting alongside Fellows.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} An example of a change that requires parliamentary legislation is an alteration to the composition of the Board. This last happened when the governance of the college and university was revised and restated by an Act of the Oireachtas in 2000.

The Provost serves a ten-year term and is elected by a body of electors consisting essentially of all full-time academic staff and a very small number of students.{{rp|53}} Originally the Provost was appointed for life. While the Provost was elected by the Fellows at the start, the appointment soon became a Crown one, reflecting the growing importance of the college and of the office of provost, which became both prestigious and well-paid.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} But as time passed, it became customary that the appointments were only made after taking soundings of college opinion, which meant mostly the views of the Board.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

With the establishment of the Free State in 1922, the power of appointment were passed to the Irish Government. It was agreed that when a vacancy occurred the college would provide a list of three candidates to the Government, from which the choice would be made. The college was allowed to rank the candidates in order of preference, and in practice, the most preferred candidate was always appointed.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Now the Provost, while still formally appointed by the Government, is elected by staff plus student representatives, who gather in an electoral meeting and vote by exhaustive ballot until a candidate obtains an absolute majority; the process takes a day.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The Provost takes precedence over everyone else in the college, acts as the chief executive and accounting officer and chairs the board and council. The Provost also enjoys a special status in the University of Dublin.{{rp|46}}

Fellows and Scholars are elected by the board. Fellows were once elected for life on the basis of a competitive examination. The number of Fellows was fixed and a competition to fill a vacancy would occur on the death or resignation of a Fellow.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Originally all the teaching was carried out by the Fellows. Fellows are now elected from among current college academics and serve until reaching retirement age, and there is no formal limit on their number.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Only a minority of academic staff are Fellows. Election to Fellowship is recognition for staff that they have excelled in their field and amounts to a promotion for those receiving it. Any person appointed to a professorship who is not already a Fellow is elected a Fellow at the next opportunity.{{rp|58–65}}

Scholars continue to be selected by competitive examination from the Undergraduate body. The Scholarship examinations are now set separately for different undergraduate courses (so there is a Scholarship examination in history, or in mathematics, engineering, and so forth).{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The Scholarship examination is taken in the second year of a four-year degree course (though, in special circumstances, such as illness, bereavement, or studying abroad during the second year, permission may be given to sit the examination in the third year).{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

In theory, students can sit the examination in any subject, not just the one they are studying. They hold their Scholarship until they are of "MA standing" – that is, three years after obtaining the BA degree. Most are thus Scholars for five years.{{cite web|title=Foundation Scholarship FAQ|url=https://www.tcd.ie/academicregistry/exams/scholarship/faq/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109083252/https://www.tcd.ie/academicregistry/exams/scholarship/faq/|archive-date=9 November 2020|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin}}

Fellows are entitled to residence in the college free of charge; most do not exercise this right in practice, with the legal requirement to provide accommodation to them fulfilled by providing an office.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Scholars are also entitled to residence in the college free of charge; they also receive an allowance and have the fees paid for courses they take within the college.

Due to the pressure on college accommodation, Scholars are no longer entitled, as they once were, to free rooms for the full duration of their Scholarship should they cease to be students.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Fellows and Scholars are also entitled to one free meal a day, usually in the evening ("Commons"). Scholars also retain the right to free meals for the full duration of their Scholarship even after graduation, and ceasing to be students, should they choose to exercise it.

Aside from the Provost, Fellows and Scholars, Trinity College has a Board (dating from 1637), which carries out general governance.{{rp|5}} Originally the Board consisted of the Provost and Senior Fellows only. There were seven Senior Fellows, defined as those seven fellows that had served longest, Fellowship at that time being for life, unless resigned.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Over the years, a representational element was added, for example by having elected representatives of the Junior Fellows and of those professors who were not Fellows, with the last revision before Irish Independence being made by Royal Letters Patent in 1911. At that time there were, as well as the Senior Fellows, two elected representatives of those professors who were not Fellows and elected representatives of the Junior Fellows.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Over the years, while formal revision did not take place, partly due to the complexity of the process, a number of additional representatives were added to the Board but as "observers" and not full voting members.{{rp|67}} These included representatives of academic staff who were not Fellows, and representatives of students.

In practice, all attending the Board meetings were treated as equals, with votes, while not common, were taken by a show of hands. But it remained the case that legally only the full members of the Board could have their votes recorded and it was mere convention that they always ratified the decision taken by the show of hands.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The governance of Trinity College was next formally changed in 2000, by the Oireachtas, in The Trinity College, Dublin (Charters and Letters Patent Amendment) Act 2000, legislation proposed by the Board of the college and approved by the Body Corporate.{{cite ISB|title=The Trinity College, Dublin (Charters and Letters Patent Amendment) Act 2000|year=2000|type=prv|num=1|date=6 November 2000|access-date=4 May 2023|language=en|archive-date=26 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626215617/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0024/index.html}} This was introduced separately from the Universities Act 1997.{{cite ISB|title=Universities Act 1997|year=1997|num=24|date=14 May 1997|access-date=4 May 2023|language=en|archive-date=26 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626215617/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0024/index.html}}

It states that the Board shall comprise{{rp|75}}

• The Provost, Vice-Provost/Chief Academic Officer, Senior Lecturer, Registrar and Bursar;
• Six Fellows;
• Five members of the academic staff who are not Fellows, at least three of whom must be of a rank not higher than senior lecturer;
• Two members of the academic staff of the rank of professor;
• Three members of the non-academic staff;
• Four students of the college, at least one of whom shall be a post-graduate student;
• One member, not an employee or student of the college, chosen by a Board committee from nominations made by organisations "representative of such business or professional interest as the Board considers appropriate";
• One member nominated by the Minister for Education following consultation with the Provost.

A Council, dating from 1874, oversees academic matters. All decisions of the Council require the approval of the Board, but if the decision in question does not require a new expenditure, the approval is normally formal, without debate.

The council had a significant number of elected representatives from the start, and was also larger than the Board, which at that time continued to consist of the provost and seven Senior Fellows only.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The council is the formal body which makes academic staff appointments, always, in practice on the recommendation of appointments panels which have themselves been appointed by the council.

An illustration of the relationship between the Board and the council is a decision to create a new professorial chair.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} As this involves paying a salary, the initial decision to create the chair is made by the council, but the decision to make provision for the salary is made by the Board; consequently, the Board might overrule or defer a Council decision on grounds of cost.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

File:Blazon University of Dublin redrawn.svg]]

The University of Dublin was modelled on University of Oxford and University of Cambridge in the form of a collegiate university, Trinity College being the name given by the Queen as the mater universitatis ("mother of the university").{{rp|158}}

As no other college was ever established, the college is the university's sole constituent college, and so "Trinity College" and the "University of Dublin" are for most purposes synonymous. Still, the statutes of the university and the college grant the university separate corporate legal rights to own property and borrow money and employ staff.{{cite web|url=http://www.gsu.tcd.ie/files/Statutes-Current.pdf |title=Microsoft Word - Statutes-Current.doc |access-date=28 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318181124/http://www.gsu.tcd.ie/files/Statutes-Current.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 }}

Moreover, while the Board of the college has the sole power to propose amendments to the statutes of the university and college, amendments to the university statutes require the consent of the Senate of the university.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Consequently, in theory, the Senate can overrule the Board, but only in very limited and particular circumstances. However, it is also the case that the university cannot act independently of the initiative of the Board of Trinity College.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The most common example of when the two bodies must collaborate is when a decision is made to establish a new degree.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

All matters relating to syllabus, examination and teaching are for the college to determine, but actual clearance for the award of the degree is a matter for the university. In the same way, when an individual is awarded an Honorary Degree, the proposal for the award is made by the Board of Trinity College, but this is subject to agreement by a vote of the Senate of Dublin University.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} All graduates of the university who have at least a master's degree are eligible to be members of the Senate, but in practice, only a few hundred are, with a large proportion being current members of the staff of Trinity College.{{rp|168–171}}

The college also has an oversight structure of two Visitors: the Chancellor of the university, who is elected by the Senate, and the judicial Visitor, who is appointed by the Irish Government from a list of two names submitted by the Senate of the university.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The current judicial Visitor is Maureen Harding Clark. In the event of a disagreement between the two Visitors, the opinion of the Chancellor prevails.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The Visitors act as a final "court of appeal" within the college, with their modes of appointment giving them the needed independence from the college administration.{{cite web|title=Role of the Chancellor|url=https://www.tcd.ie/chancellor/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124063808/https://www.tcd.ie/chancellor/|archive-date=24 November 2020|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin}}

File:UK-2014-Oxford-Oriel College 01.jpg]]

File:Cambridge - St John College - New Court.jpg]]

Trinity College is a sister college to Oriel College of the University of Oxford and St John's College of the University of Cambridge.{{cite news|date=17 June 2005|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article534008.ece|title=Professor A. Norman Jeffares. Prolific scholar who specialised in W. B. Yeats and Irish literature while energetically espousing Commonwealth writers|location=London|newspaper=The Times|first1=Sean|last1=O'Neill|first2=Fiona|last2=Hamilton|access-date=12 April 2008|archive-date=25 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925002105/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.ireland.anglican.org/index.php?do=news&newsid=515 |title=Church of Ireland Notes from The Irish Times |publisher=Ireland.anglican.org |date=19 November 2005 |access-date=28 April 2010 |archive-date=20 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720011701/http://www.ireland.anglican.org/index.php?do=news&newsid=515 |url-status=live }} In accordance with the formula of {{lang|la|ad eundem gradum}}, a form of recognition that exists among the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and the University of Dublin, a graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin can be conferred with the equivalent degree at either of the other two universities without further examination, a process referred to as Incorporation.{{cite book|url=http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/|title=Statutes and Regulations, University of Oxford|chapter=Statute X: Degrees, Diplomas, and Certificates|chapter-url=http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/215-031.shtml|access-date=6 December 2017|archive-date=10 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171210043931/http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/statutes/|url-status=live}}

{{cite book|url=https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/2017/chapter02-section6.html|title=Statutes and Ordinances, University of Cambridge|chapter=2 MATRICULATION, RESIDENCE, ADMISSION TO DEGREES, DISCIPLINE|chapter-url=https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/2017/chapter02-section6.html|access-date=25 September 2024}}

As of 2021, the teaching and associated hospitals are:{{cite web|title=Teaching and Affiliated Hospitals (Medicine)|url=https://www.tcd.ie/medicine/academic-units/teaching-hospitals/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210702200447/https://www.tcd.ie/medicine/academic-units/teaching-hospitals/|archive-date=2 July 2021|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin}}

• Tallaght University Hospital
• St. James's Hospital
• St Patrick's University Hospital
• Dublin Dental University Hospital
• Naas General Hospital
• Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital
• Rotunda Hospital
• Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital
• Children's Health Ireland at Crumlin
• Peamount Hospital
• National Rehabilitation Hospital

File:NL-Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin 1946.jpg

• Royal Irish Academy of Music{{cite web|date=2019-05-03|title=About Us|url=https://www.riam.ie/about/about-us|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Royal Irish Academy of Music|language=en|archive-date=28 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428051231/https://www.riam.ie/about/about-us|url-status=live}}
• Marino Institute of Education{{cite web|title=Home – Marino Institute of Education|url=https://www.mie.ie/en/|access-date=2021-05-26|website=mie.ie|archive-date=6 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506230844/https://www.mie.ie/en/|url-status=live}}
• Church of Ireland Theological Institute{{cite web|date=2018-09-06|title=Trinity and Church of Ireland Theological Institute sign MOU|url=https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/trinity-and-church-of-ireland-theological-institute-sign-mou/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123212900/https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/trinity-and-church-of-ireland-theological-institute-sign-mou/|archive-date=23 November 2020|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin}}
• The Lir Academy

The School of Business in association with the Irish Management Institute forms the Trinity-IMI Graduate School of Management, incorporating the faculties of both organisations.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Trinity College has also formerly been associated with several other teaching institutions, such as St Catherine's College of Education for Home Economics (now closed), Magee College and Royal Irish Academy of Music, a music conservatoire, and The Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art, the national conservatoire for theatre training actors, technicians, playwrights and designers to a professional and industry standard.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The Lir is also advised by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the UK.

{{main|Dublin University (constituency)}}

The university has been linked to parliamentary representation since 1613, when James I granted it the right to elect two members of parliament (MPs) to the Irish House of Commons.{{Cite book|title=The Unreformed House of Commons: Parliamentary Representation Before 1832|year=1903|page=367}} The franchise was originally restricted to the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of Trinity College. This was expanded in 1832 to include those who had received an MA, and in 1918 all those who had received a degree from the university.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Representatives at Westminster included Edward Gibson, W. E. H. Lecky and Edward Carson.

Since the new Constitution of Ireland in 1937, the university has formed a constituency which elects three senators to Seanad Éireann. Notable representatives have included Noel Browne, Conor Cruise O'Brien and Mary Robinson.{{cite web|title=University Senators|url=https://www.tcd.ie/about/senators/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin|archive-date=28 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428164653/https://www.tcd.ie/about/senators/}}

Since considerable academic restructuring in 2008, the college has three academic faculties:{{cite web|title=Faculties and Schools|url=https://www.tcd.ie/structure/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210501145820/https://www.tcd.ie/structure/|archive-date=1 May 2021|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin}}

• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
• Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
• Health Sciences

Each faculty is headed by a dean (there is also a Dean of Postgraduate Studies), and faculties are divided into schools, of which there were 24 as of 2021.

The academic year is divided into three terms:

• Michaelmas term lasts from October to December

• Hilary term from January to March

• Trinity term from April to June

Each term is separated by a vacation, and whilst teaching takes place across all three terms in postgraduate courses, for undergraduate programmes, teaching is condensed within the first two terms since 2009, with each term consisting of a 12-week period of teaching known as the Teaching Term.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} These are followed by three revision weeks and a four-week exam period during the Trinity Term.{{cite book|title=Trinity College Academic Calendar|quote=(12 weeks each), followed by three revision weeks and a four-week exam period.}}

Internally at least, the weeks in the term are often referred to by the time elapsed since the start of the teaching Term: thus the first week is called "1st week" or "week 1" and the last is "Week 12" or "12th week".{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The first week of Trinity Term (which marks the conclusion of lecturing for that year) is known as Trinity Week; normally preceded by a string of balls, it consists of a week of sporting and academic events.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} This includes the Trinity Ball and the Trinity Regatta (a premier social event on the Irish rowing calendar held since 1898),{{cite web|title=Trinity Regatta – Dublin University Boat Club|url=http://www.tcdlife.ie/clubs/boat/regatta.php|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402090904/http://www.tcdlife.ie/clubs/boat/regatta.php|archive-date=2 April 2015}} the election of Scholars and Fellows, and a college banquet.

Since 2014, Trinity College's science department has established and operated a scheme for second-level students to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The system, similar to DCU's CTYI programme, encourages academically gifted secondary students with a high aptitude for the STEM subjects, and was named the Walton Club{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/waltonclub/|title=Trinity Walton Club|website=Tcd.ie|access-date=21 April 2017|archive-date=22 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422040147/http://www.tcd.ie/waltonclub/|url-status=live}} in honour of Ernest Walton, Ireland's first and only Nobel laureate in Physics. The programme was centred upon a pedagogic principle of "developing capacity for learning autonomy".{{cite web|url=https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/trinity-walton-club-inspirefest-2017|title=Trinity Walton Club: Putting students in the driving seat|author=Madden, Shelly|publisher=Silicon Republic|date=18 September 2017|access-date=23 June 2019|archive-date=23 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190623080130/https://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/trinity-walton-club-inspirefest-2017|url-status=live}}

The educators in the programme are PhD students in the college, who impart an advanced, undergraduate-level curriculum to the students. The club was set up with a specific ethos around the mentoring of STEM subjects, and not as a grinds school.{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/innovation/teens-develop-robot-to-teach-children-basics-of-coding-1.2947895|title=Teens develop robot to teach children basics of coding|newspaper=The Irish Times|access-date=21 February 2020|archive-date=7 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407180247/https://www.irishtimes.com/business/innovation/teens-develop-robot-to-teach-children-basics-of-coding-1.2947895|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.universitytimes.ie/2017/01/building-a-new-generation-of-scientific-innovators/|title=Building a New Generation of Scientific Innovators|website=University Times|access-date=22 April 2017|archive-date=23 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170423064914/http://www.universitytimes.ie/2017/01/building-a-new-generation-of-scientific-innovators/|url-status=live}} The scheme has been immensely successful and undergone growth in scope and scale year on year. It has also diversified beyond its traditional weekly club structure, running camps during school holidays to offer an opportunity to study STEM to those unable to join the club.{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/waltonclub/camps.php|title=Trinity Walton Club|website=Tcd.ie|access-date=22 April 2017|archive-date=23 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170423065644/http://www.tcd.ie/waltonclub/camps.php|url-status=live}}

It has also represented the college in many activities, meeting Chris Hadfield and attending the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition and the Web Summit.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Students, or alphas as they are dubbed in honour of the eponymous physicist, develop projects in the club, with innovations pioneered there including a health-focused electroencephalogram. The club was founded by Professors Igor Shvets and Arlene O'Neill of the School of Physics in Trinity College.

File:Columbia 001.jpg, which offers a dual BA]]

Most undergraduate courses require four years of study. First-year students at the undergraduate level are called Junior Freshmen; second-years, Senior Freshmen; third-years, Junior Sophisters; and fourth-years, Senior Sophisters.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Trinity's undergraduate admissions are competitive,{{cite web|title=Entry Requirements for International Students – Study – Trinity College Dublin|url=https://www.tcd.ie/study/international/how-to-apply/entry-requirements.php|access-date=8 March 2020|archive-date=1 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191101134501/https://www.tcd.ie/study/international/how-to-apply/entry-requirements.php|url-status=live}} with an average acceptance rate of 17%.{{cite web|date=2016-03-09|title=Increase in CAO Applications for Trinity Courses for 2016|url=https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/increase-in-cao-applications-for-trinity-courses-for-2016/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124210818/https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/increase-in-cao-applications-for-trinity-courses-for-2016/|archive-date=24 November 2020|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin}}{{cite web|title=TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Profile 2016/2017|url=https://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/04/TCD-Profile-2016.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018215149/https://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/04/TCD-Profile-2016.pdf|archive-date=18 October 2019|access-date=2021-05-26|website=HEA}}

After a 2017 proposal by the SU Equality Committee, the Trinity College Board approved a three-year process changing the titles of first and second years to Junior and Senior Fresh.{{cite news|last1=Meehan|first1=Sarah|title=Undergraduate name "Freshman" to change to gender-neutral "Fresh"|url=http://trinitynews.ie/undergraduate-name-freshman-to-change-to-gender-neutral-fresh/|access-date=28 November 2017|publisher=Trinity News|date=28 November 2017|archive-date=28 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171128135119/http://trinitynews.ie/undergraduate-name-freshman-to-change-to-gender-neutral-fresh/|url-status=live}}

Students must take the exams during Michaelmas term and during Trinity term of each year, and those who pass the exams can enter the next year. Students who score at least 70% on the exams will receive a first-class honours degree, 60–69% an upper second-class honours degree, 50–59% a lower second-class honours degree, and 40–49% a third-class honours degree.{{cite news|last=Faller|first=Grainne|title=How to make the grade|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/how-to-make-the-grade-1.1642295|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|archive-date=3 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803154620/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/how-to-make-the-grade-1.1642295}}

Most non-professional courses take a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. As a matter of tradition, bachelor's degree graduates are eligible, after seven years from matriculation and without additional study, to purchase for a fee an upgrade of their bachelor's degree to a Master of Arts.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Degree titles vary according to the subject of study. The Law School awards the LL.B., the LL.B. (ling. franc.) and the LL.B. (ling. germ.). Other degrees include the BAI (engineering) and BBS (business studies). The BSc degree is not in wide use although it is awarded by the School of Nursing and Midwifery; most science and computer science students are awarded a BA.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

From 2018, Trinity will be offering a dual BA programme with Columbia University in New York City. Students of history, English, European studies or Middle Eastern and European languages and culture spend their first two years at Trinity and their last two years at Columbia.{{cite web|url=https://gs.columbia.edu/tcd/dual-ba-program|title=Dual BA Program – Trinity College Dublin|website=gs.columbia.edu|access-date=10 December 2017|archive-date=11 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171211183902/http://gs.columbia.edu/tcd/dual-ba-program|url-status=live}}

At postgraduate level, Trinity offers a range of taught and research degrees in all faculties. About 29% of students are post-graduate level, with 1,440 reading for a research degree and an additional 3,260 on taught courses (see Research and Innovation).{{cite web |url=http://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/07/Enrolments-full-time-by-Institution-and-Programme-Type-2016_17.xlsx |title=Full-time enrolments in Universities in the academic year 2016/2017 |publisher=Higher Education Authority Statistics Archive |access-date=11 March 2018 |archive-date=12 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312083504/http://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/07/Enrolments-full-time-by-Institution-and-Programme-Type-2016_17.xlsx |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/07/Enrolments-part-time-by-Institution-and-Programme-Type-2016_17.xlsx |title=Part-time enrolments in Universities in the academic year 2016/2017 |publisher=Higher Education Authority Statistics Archive |access-date=11 March 2018 |archive-date=12 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312143919/http://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/07/Enrolments-part-time-by-Institution-and-Programme-Type-2016_17.xlsx |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.tcd.ie/Graduate_Studies |title=Graduate Studies – Trinity College Dublin |publisher=Tcd.ie |date=15 April 2010 |access-date=28 April 2010 |archive-date=6 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100406102421/http://www.tcd.ie/Graduate_Studies/ |url-status=live }}

Trinity College's Strategic Plan sets "the objective of doubling the number of PhDs across all disciplines by 2013 in order to move towards a knowledge society.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} In order to achieve this, the college has received some of the largest allocations of Irish Government funding which have become competitively available to date."{{cite web|url=http://www.topuniversities.com/schools/data/school_profile/default/universitydublintrinitycollege |title=Topuniversities.com |publisher=Topuniversities.com |date=12 November 2009 |access-date=28 April 2010 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080527060420/http://www.topuniversities.com/schools/data/school_profile/default/universitydublintrinitycollege |archive-date = 27 May 2008}}

In addition to academic degrees, the college offers Postgraduate Diploma (non-degree) qualifications, either directly or through associated institutions.{{cite web|title=Evening & Short Courses|url=https://www.tcd.ie/courses/esc/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506084348/https://www.tcd.ie/courses/esc/|archive-date=6 May 2021|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin}}

The university operates an on-site Innovation Centre that promotes academic innovation and advising, provides patent counselling and in-depth research information, and also facilitates the creation and operation of industrial labs and campus businesses.{{cite web|last=Noone|first=Bridget|title=Entrepreneurship at Trinity College|url=https://www.tcd.ie/mecheng/research/fluids-acoustics-vibration/Gar%20Bennett%20Assets/TRI/Bridget.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626174732/https://www.tcd.ie/mecheng/research/fluids-acoustics-vibration/Gar%20Bennett%20Assets/TRI/Bridget.pdf|archive-date=26 June 2020|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin}}

In 1999, the university purchased an enterprise centre on Pearse Street, a seven-minute walk from the on-site "Innovation Center." The site has over 19,000 square metres of built space and includes a protected building, the Tower, which houses a Craft Centre.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The Trinity Enterprise Centre is home to companies from Dublin's university research sector.

Undergraduate applications from Irish, British and European Union applicants are submitted and processed through the Central Applications Office (CAO) system.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Trinity College instructs the CAO to administer all applications by standardised criteria before offering places to successful candidates. The college therefore has full control of admissions while ensuring anonymity and academic equality throughout the process.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Admission to the university is highly competitive and based exclusively on academic merit.{{cite web |author=Undergraduate Admissions |url=https://www.tcd.ie/study/apply/admission-requirements/undergraduate/index.php |title=Admission Requirements |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |access-date=18 March 2019 |archive-date=2 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402180603/https://www.tcd.ie/study/apply/admission-requirements/undergraduate/index.php |url-status=live }} To be considered for admission, applicants must first reach the university's minimum matriculation requirements, which typically involves holding sufficient recognised qualifications in English, mathematics and a second language; the mathematics requirement can be waived if Latin is presented as a second language.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Applicants for certain courses may be required to achieve more specific qualifications than those prescribed for minimum matriculation requirements.{{cite web |author=Undergraduate Admissions |url=https://www.tcd.ie/calendar/undergraduate-studies/admission-requirements.pdf |title=Admission Requirements |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |access-date=21 April 2018 |archive-date=20 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820074606/https://www.tcd.ie/calendar/undergraduate-studies/admission-requirements.pdf |url-status=live }}

Eligible applicants must then compete for places based on the results of their school leaving examinations, but can additionally take matriculation examinations{{cite web |author=Undergraduate Admissions |url=https://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/assets/pdf/Matric%20Syllabus.pdf |title=Matriculation Examination Syllabus |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |access-date=12 February 2018 |archive-date=20 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820074610/https://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/assets/pdf/Matric%20Syllabus.pdf |url-status=live }} which are held in the university in April, in which each subject is considered equivalent to that of the Irish Leaving Certificate. Applications for restricted courses{{cite web |author=Central Applications Office |url=https://www.cao.ie/index.php?page=restrictedcourses&bb=restrictions |title=Restricted-Application Courses |publisher=cao.ie |access-date=7 May 2018 |archive-date=7 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207062542/http://www.cao.ie/index.php?page=restrictedcourses&bb=restrictions |url-status=live }} require further assessment considered in the admissions process, such as the Health Professions Admissions Test (HPAT) for medicine or entrance tests for music and drama courses.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

As applications for most courses far exceed available places, admission is highly selective, demanding excellent grades in the aforementioned examinations. Through the CAO, candidates may list several courses at Trinity College and at other third-level institutions in Ireland in order of preference.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The CAO awards places in mid-August every year after matching the number of places available to the applicants' academic attainments. Qualifications are measured as "points", with specific scales for the Leaving Certificate, UK GCE A-level, the International Baccalaureate and all other European Union school-leaving examinations.{{cite web |author=Undergraduate Admissions |url=http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/requirements/matriculation/other/ |title=A list of EU exams and conversion ratios |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |date=26 February 2010 |access-date=28 April 2010 |archive-date=1 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501171059/http://www.tcd.ie/Admissions/undergraduate/requirements/matriculation/other/ |url-status=live }}

In 2016, there were 3,220 new entrants out of 18,469 CAO applicants, indicating a competitive acceptance rate of 17.4%.{{cite web|date=2016-03-09|title=Increase in CAO Applications for Trinity Courses for 2016|url=https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/increase-in-cao-applications-for-trinity-courses-for-2016/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124210818/https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/increase-in-cao-applications-for-trinity-courses-for-2016/|archive-date=24 November 2020|access-date=2021-05-26|publisher=Trinity College Dublin}}{{cite web|title=TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN Profile 2016/2017|url=https://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/04/TCD-Profile-2016.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018215149/https://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2017/04/TCD-Profile-2016.pdf|archive-date=18 October 2019|access-date=2021-05-26|website=HEA}}

For applicants who are not citizens or residents of the European Union, different procedures apply.{{cite web|url=http://www.topuniversities.com/schools/data/school_profile/default/universitydublintrinitycollege|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090228220105/http://www.topuniversities.com/schools/data/school_profile/default/universitydublintrinitycollege|url-status=dead|title=Topuniversities.com|archive-date=28 February 2009}} Disadvantaged, disabled, or mature students can also be admitted through a program that is separate from the CAO, the Trinity Access Programme,{{cite web |url=http://www.tcd.ie/Trinity_Access |title=Trinity Access Programmes, Trinity Teaching & Learning |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |access-date=28 April 2010 |archive-date=12 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100512114151/http://www.tcd.ie/Trinity_Access/ |url-status=live }} which aims to facilitate the entry of sectors of society which would otherwise be under-represented.

Students from non-European countries, such as the United States, may be admitted directly if they have passed the International Baccalaureate or EU/EFTA exams and meet the minimum admission requirements.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Admission is not guaranteed and places will be filled in order of merit by the applicants with the highest score.{{cite web|title=Japan|url=https://www.tcd.ie/study/country/japan/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114090801/https://www.tcd.ie/study/country/japan/|archive-date=14 November 2020|access-date=2021-05-26|publisher=Trinity College Dublin}}

For those who have not taken the above exams, there is the one-year Foundation Program.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} This includes essays, discussions, question and answer sessions and training in study to prepare students for admission to Trinity College.{{cite web|date=2015-11-09|title=Trinity Foundation Programme, Trinity College, University of Dublin|url=https://ifu-japan.net/tfp/|access-date=2021-05-26|website=I.F.U|language=ja|archive-date=6 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506221617/http://ifu-japan.net/tfp/|url-status=live}} Students must demonstrate proficiency in English to be admitted to the Foundation Program and must have a minimum score on the IELTS, TOEFL or Duolingo English Test (DET).{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Requirements also vary depending on the program. In addition to English language proficiency, students must meet the high school score.

Admission to graduate study is handled directly by Trinity College.{{cite web|title=Postgraduate – How to Apply|url=https://www.tcd.ie/study/apply/making-an-application/postgraduate/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|publisher=Trinity College Dublin|archive-date=25 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425224035/https://www.tcd.ie/study/apply/making-an-application/postgraduate/}}

Students who enter with exceptional Leaving Certificate or other public examination results are awarded an Entrance Exhibition. This entails a prize in the form of book tokens to the value of €150.00. Exhibitioners who are of limited means are made Sizars, entitled to Commons (evening meal) free of charge.{{cite web |url=http://www.tcd.ie/calendar/assets/pdf/entrance-awards.pdf |title=Entrance Awards |access-date=April 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209152840/http://www.tcd.ie/calendar/assets/pdf/entrance-awards.pdf |archive-date= 9 December 2008}}

{{Main|List of Scholars of Trinity College Dublin}}

File:Announcement of Fellow and Scholars 2013.jpg

Undergraduate students of Senior Freshmen standing may elect to sit the Foundation Scholarship examination, which takes place in the Christmas Vacation, on the last week before Hilary term.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

On Trinity Monday (the first day of Trinity Term), the Board of the college sits and elects to the Scholarship all those who achieve First in the examination. Election to become a scholar of Trinity Dublin is widely regarded as "the most prestigious undergraduate award in the country".{{Cite news|url=http://www.universitytimes.ie/2019/04/58-scholars-15-fellows-and-two-honorary-fellows-elected/|title=58 Scholars, 15 Fellows and Two Honorary Fellows Elected|newspaper=The University Times|access-date=15 December 2019|archive-date=15 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215052452/http://www.universitytimes.ie/2019/04/58-scholars-15-fellows-and-two-honorary-fellows-elected/|url-status=live}} Those from EU member countries are entitled to free rooms and Commons (the college's Formal Hall), an annual stipend and exemption from fees for the duration of their scholarship, which lasts 15 terms.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Scholars from non-EU member countries have their fees reduced by the current value of EU member fees. Scholars may add the suffix "Sch." to their names, have the note "discip. schol." appended to their name at Commencements and are entitled to wear Bachelor's Robes and a velvet mortarboard.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Competition for Scholarship involves a searching examination and successful candidates must be of exceptional ability.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The concept of scholarship is a valued tradition of the college, and many of the college's most distinguished members were elected scholars (including Samuel Beckett and Ernest Walton).{{cite web|title=List of scholars – Scholars – TCD|url=http://www.tcdlife.ie/scholars/scholar/about-list.php|access-date=2021-05-27|website=tcdlife.ie|archive-date=15 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190615091340/http://www.tcdlife.ie/scholars/scholar/about-list.php|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=History of Scholars – Scholars – TCD|url=http://www.tcdlife.ie/scholars/scholar/about-history.php|access-date=2021-05-27|website=tcdlife.ie|archive-date=24 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024085704/http://www.tcdlife.ie/scholars/scholar/about-history.php|url-status=live}} The Scholars' dinner, to which 'Scholars of the decade' (those elected in the current year, and every year multiple of a decade previous to it, e.g., 2013, 2003,..) are invited, forms one of the major events in Trinity's calendar. One of the main objectives is the pursuit of excellence, and one of the most tangible manifestations of this objective is the institution of the scholarship.

Under the Foundation Charter (of 1592), Scholars were part of the body corporate (three Scholars were named in the charter "in the name of many").{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Until 1609, there were about 51 Scholars at any one time. A figure of 70 was permanently fixed in the revising Letters Patent of Charles I in 1637. Trinity Monday was appointed as the day when all future elections to Fellowship and Scholarship would be announced (at this time Trinity Monday was always celebrated on the Monday after the feast of the Holy Trinity).{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Up to this point, all undergraduates were Scholars, but soon after 1637 the practice of admitting students other than Scholars commenced.

Until 1856, only the classical subjects were examined. The questions concerned all the classical authors prescribed for the entrance examination and for the undergraduate course up to the middle of the Junior Sophister year.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The candidates had no new material to read, 'but they had to submit to a very searching examination on the fairly lengthy list of classical texts which they were supposed by this time to have mastered'.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The close link with the undergraduate syllabus is underlined by the refusal until 1856 to admit Scholars to the Library (a request for admission was rejected by the Board in 1842, on the grounds that Scholars should stick to their prescribed books and not indulge in 'those desultory habits' that admission to an extensive library would encourage).{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} During the second half of the 19th century, the content of the examination gradually came to include other disciplines.

Around the turn of the 20th century, "Non-Foundation" Scholarships were introduced.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} This initially was a device to permit women to be, in effect, elected Scholars, despite the then commonly accepted legal view that the statute revision of 1637 permitted only males to be elected Foundation Scholars. Clearly, when women were not permitted in the college, this had not caused any difficulties, but with the admission of women as full members of the college, an anomaly was created.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The Non-Foundation Scholarship granted to the women elected to it all the rights of men, with the exception of voting rights at a meeting of the Body Corporate, a very rare event in any case. As women are now admitted to Foundation Scholarship on exactly the same basis as men, Non-Foundation Scholarships are retained as a device to allow for more than 70 persons to be Scholars at any one time provided they meet the qualifying standards.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Foundation Scholarships are given to those whose performance is considered particularly exceptional, with the remaining qualifying persons that year being elected as Non-Foundation Scholars. While the number of Foundation Scholars remains fixed at 70, there is, in theory, no limit on the number of Non-Foundation Scholars.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Non-Foundation and Foundation Scholars receive the same benefits and therefore the two groups are regarded in equal esteem and usually refer to themselves collectively as the Scholars of Trinity College Dublin.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcd.ie/calendar/undergraduate-studies/foundation-and-non-foundation-scholarships.pdf|title=Trinity College Dublin, Calendar, Undergraduate Studies Part II, Part D9, Foundation and Non-Foundation Scholarships|access-date=15 December 2019|archive-date=3 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103212615/https://www.tcd.ie/calendar/undergraduate-studies/foundation-and-non-foundation-scholarships.pdf|url-status=live}}

{{Infobox university rankings

| ARWU_W = 201–300 | ARWU_W_year = 2024 | ARWU_W_ref ={{cite web|url=http://www.shanghairanking.com/institution/trinity-college-dublin|title=Academic Ranking of World Universities: Trinity College Dublin|access-date=22 January 2025|publisher=Shanghai Ranking Consultancy}}

| THE_W = 139| THE_W_year = 2025 | THE_W_ref ={{cite web|url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/trinity-college-dublin|title=World University Rankings|access-date=20 November 2024|website=Times Higher Education|date=20 November 2023}}

| QS_W = 87 | QS_W_year = 2025 | QS_W_ref ={{cite web|url=https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/trinity-college-dublin-university-dublin|title=QS World University Rankings: Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin |access-date=2024-09-10|website=Top Universities}}

| USNWR_W = =206 | USNWR_W_year = 2025 | USNWR_W_ref ={{Cite news|url=https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/trinity-college-dublin-501570|title=2024-2025 Best Global Universities Rankings: Trinity College Dublin|work=U.S. News World and Report|access-date=25 January 2025}}

}}

Trinity is ranked 87th in the world, 26th in Europe and 1st in Ireland in the QS World University Rankings 2025, one of the world's leading indicators of university evaluation.{{cite web|title=Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin|url=https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/trinity-college-dublin-university-dublin|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-10|website=Top Universities|language=en|archive-date=9 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609200637/https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/trinity-college-dublin-university-dublin}}{{cite web|title=QS World University Rankings 2022|url=https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2022|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-10|website=Top Universities|language=en|archive-date=17 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120917171555/https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2022}} The highest ranking in the QS system was in 2009, when it was ranked 43rd in the world.{{cite web|title=Trinity College Dublin – Topuniversities|url=http://www.topuniversities.com/institution/trinity-college-dublin/wur|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110827215520/http://www.topuniversities.com/institution/trinity-college-dublin/wur|archive-date=2011-08-27|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Top Universities}} Trinity is also ranked 139th in the world and 1st in Ireland in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025.{{cite web |date=25 November 2023 |title=Trinity College Dublin |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/trinity-college-dublin |access-date=25 November 2023 |work=Times Higher Education |archive-date=14 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514071016/https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/trinity-college-dublin |url-status=live }}

In response to a long-term decline in rankings (from 43rd according to the last combined THE/QS ranking in 2009{{cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/tcd-and-ucd-drop-lower-in-world-university-rankings-1.2351664 |title=TCD and UCD drop lower in world university rankings |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=14 September 2015 |access-date=26 March 2016 |archive-date=7 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407104806/http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/tcd-and-ucd-drop-lower-in-world-university-rankings-1.2351664 |url-status=live }} to 88th in QS{{cite web |url=http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2018 |title=QS World University Rankings® 2017/18 |website=Topuniversities.com |access-date=6 September 2016 |archive-date=9 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170609212134/https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2018 |url-status=live }} and 117th in THE for 2018), in 2014 Trinity announced a plan to reverse the trend, aiming to reenter the top 50.{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/tcd-launches-600m-plan-to-break-back-into-world-elite-30683472.html |title=TCD launches €600m plan to break back into world elite |work=Irish Independent |date=22 October 2014 |access-date=26 March 2016 |archive-date=9 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409030615/http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/tcd-launches-600m-plan-to-break-back-into-world-elite-30683472.html |url-status=live }} The dentistry program offered by the Dublin Dental University Hospital is ranked 51–75 in the world.{{cite web|url=http://www.shanghairanking.com/Shanghairanking-Subject-Rankings/dentistry-oral-sciences.html|title=ARWU World University Rankings® 2017|access-date=6 September 2017|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308092207/http://www.shanghairanking.com/Shanghairanking-Subject-Rankings/dentistry-oral-sciences.html|url-status=dead}}

{{Main|List of Trinity College Dublin student organisations}}

File:GoergeSalmonTrinityCollegeDublin.jpg, the College Historical Society and the College Theological Society hold debates and discussions in the Graduates Memorial Building.]]

{{As of|2020}}, Trinity College has 120+ societies. Student societies operate under the aegis of the Dublin University Central Societies Committee (CSC).{{cite web|title=Join a Society|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/getting-involved/join-a-society/|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-ie|archive-date=21 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421153435/http://trinitysocieties.ie/getting-involved/join-a-society/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=TCD Societies Guide 2020|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/about/societiesguide/|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=21 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210421052558/http://trinitysocieties.ie/about/societiesguide/|url-status=live}}

Situated in the Graduates Memorial Building (GMB) are the three oldest societies: University Philosophical Society (the Phil), the College Historical Society (the Hist) and the College Theological Society (the Theo).{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The Phil meets each Thursday evening in the chamber of the GMB, the Hist meets each Wednesday evening and the Theo meets each Monday evening. Both the Phil and the Hist claim to be the oldest such student society: the Phil claims to have been founded in 1683, although university records list its foundation as having occurred in 1853,{{cite web |url=https://www.tcd.ie/calendar/general-information/students-unions-societies-and-clubs.pdf |title=Calendar 2016-Students' Unions, Societies and Clubs |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |date=5 October 2016 |access-date=26 January 2017 |archive-date=2 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202082303/https://www.tcd.ie/calendar/general-information/students-unions-societies-and-clubs.pdf |url-status=live }} while the Hist was founded in 1770, making it the college's oldest society according to the Calendar.

Records of Trinity's Chapel Choir date from 1762; as it was not yet an official university society, it is now not considered the oldest.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Among the Phil's Honorary Patrons are multiple Nobel Prize laureates, heads of state, notable actors, entertainers and well-known intellectuals, such as Al Pacino, Desmond Tutu, Sir Christopher Lee, Stephen Fry, and John Mearsheimer.{{cite web|title=Philosophical Society (The Phil)|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=83|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=24 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124045339/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=83}} The Hist has been addressed by many notable orators, including Winston Churchill and Ted Kennedy, and counts among its former members many prominent men and women in Ireland's history.{{cite web|title=College Historical Society (The Hist)|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=25|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=24 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124052649/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=25}}

Other societies include Vincent de Paul Society (VDP), which organises a large number of charitable activities in the local community;{{cite web|title=Vincent de Paul|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=115|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=24 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124054422/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=115}} DU Players, theatre and drama societies which hosts more than 50 shows and events a year in the Players Theatre;{{cite web|title=Players|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=87|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=24 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124051132/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=87}}

The DU Film Society, founded in 1987, which organises filmmakers and cinephiles in college through workshops, screenings, production funding, etc.;{{cite web|title=Film Society|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=126|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=22 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122131504/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=126}} Trinity FM, which broadcasts six weeks a year on FM 97.3 with various student productions;{{cite web|title=Trinity FM|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=111|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=16 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116215251/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=111}} and the Q Soc – Trinity LGBT society, which is Ireland's oldest LGBT society and celebrated its 25th anniversary in the 2007/08 year.{{cite web|title=Q Soc – Trinity LGBT|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=91|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=22 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122122625/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=91}}

The Card and Bridge Society holds weekly poker and bridge tournaments and was the starting point for many notable alumni, including Andy Black, Padraig Parkinson and Donnacha O'Dea;{{cite web|title=Card & Bridge Society|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=16|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=22 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122114356/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=16}} the Dublin University Comedy Society, known as DU Comedy, hosts comedy events for its members and has hosted gigs in college by comedians such as Andrew Maxwell, David O'Doherty, Neil Delamere and Colin Murphy;{{cite web|title=Comedy Soc|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=26|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=16 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116215030/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=26}}

The Dance Society, known as "{{proper name|DU Dance}}", provides classes in Latin and ballroom dancing, as well as running events around other styles, such as swing dancing.{{cite web|url=http://www.trinitysocieties.ie/society/31/dance-society |title=Trinitysocieties.ie |publisher=Trinitysocieties.ie |date=25 March 2010 |access-date=28 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101029021249/http://www.trinitysocieties.ie/society/31/dance-society |archive-date=29 October 2010 }}{{cite web|title=Dance|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=29|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=22 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122120047/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=29}}

In 2011, the Laurentian Society was revived. It had played a key role as a society for the few Catholic students who studied at Trinity while "the Ban" was still in force.{{cite web |url=http://mckenna.se/highres/payne/payne02tn.pdf |title=Trinity News, Trinity Archive, 1 Nov. 2005, p. 20 |access-date=24 July 2012 |archive-date=31 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331162434/http://mckenna.se/highres/payne/payne02tn.pdf |url-status=live }}{{cite web|title=Laurentian Society|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=68|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Central Societies Committee|language=en-GB|archive-date=7 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210707121706/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=68}} The Trinity Fashion Society was established in 2009, and holds an annual charity fashion show and an international trip to London Fashion Week.{{cite web|url=http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=37|title=Society {{!}} Central Societies Committee|website=trinitysocieties.ie|access-date=11 February 2017|archive-date=11 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211235825/http://trinitysocieties.ie/society/?socid=37|url-status=live}}

File:Cricket ground Trinity College Dublin.JPG, Trinity College]] File:Tcd-snow.jpg

Trinity has a sporting tradition, and the college has 50 sports clubs affiliated to the Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC).{{cite web|date=24 June 2020|title=DUCAC – Trinity Sport – Trinity College Dublin|url=https://www.tcd.ie/Sport/student-sport/clubs/|access-date=24 June 2020|website=tcd.ie/Sport|archive-date=22 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622062453/https://www.tcd.ie/Sport/student-sport/clubs/|url-status=live}}

The Central Athletic Club is made up of five committees that oversee the development of sport in the college: the executive committee, which is responsible overall for all activities; the Captains' Committee, which represents the 49 club captains and awards University Colours (Pinks); the Pavilion Bar Committee, which runs the private members' bar; the Pavilion Members' Committee; and the Sports Facilities Committee.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The oldest clubs include the Dublin University Cricket Club (1835),{{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/Clubs/Cricket |title=Welcome to Dublin University Cricket Club |website=Dublin University Cricket Club |access-date=13 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051026035114/http://www.tcd.ie/Clubs/Cricket/ |archive-date=26 October 2005}} the Dublin University Boat Club (1836){{cite web|url=http://www.tcd.ie/Clubs/Boat |title=Dublin University Boat Club |date=October 28, 2005 |website=The University of Dublin |access-date=April 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051028032100/http://www.tcd.ie/Clubs/Boat/ |archive-date=28 October 2005}} and Dublin University Fencing Club (1774). Dublin University Football Club, founded in 1854, plays rugby union and is the world's oldest documented "football club".{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Dublin University A.F.C., founded in 1883, is the oldest surviving association football club in the Republic of Ireland.{{Cite book| title=Football Association of Ireland: 75 years | first=Peter | last=Byrne | year=1996 | location=Dublin | publisher=Sportsworld | isbn = 1-900110-06-7}}{{cite book | last = Garnham| first = Neal| title = Association Football and society in pre-partition Ireland | publisher = Ulster Historical Foundation | year = 2004 | location = Belfast | isbn = 1-903688-34-5}}{{Cite book| title=Green Is The Colour: The Story of Irish Football | first=Peter | last=Byrne | year=2012 | publisher=Andre Deutsch }}The Bold Collegians, Trevor West, 1991, Dublin University Press The Dublin University Hockey Club was founded in 1893,{{cite web |url=http://www.hockey.tcdlife.ie/ |title=DUHC |website=Hockey.tcdlife.ie |access-date=23 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604085848/http://www.hockey.tcdlife.ie/ |archive-date=4 June 2016 |url-status=dead }} and the Dublin University Harriers and Athletic Club in 1885.{{cite web|first=Brian |last=Foley |url=http://www.tcd.ie/Clubs/DUHAC |title=Dublin University Harriers and Athletic Club |publisher=Tcd.ie |access-date=28 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070121154143/http://www.tcd.ie/Clubs/DUHAC/ |archive-date=21 January 2007 }}

The newest club in the university is the American football team, who were accepted into the Irish American Football League (IAFL) in 2008. The Dublin University Fencing Club has won a total of 43 titles in 66 years.{{cite web|date=2020-03-10|title=Dublin University Fencing Club Crowned Intervarsity Champions for the Thirteenth Year in a Row|url=https://www.tcd.ie/Sport/news/2020/fencing-intervarsitys-2020.php|url-status=live|access-date=2020-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin|archive-date=15 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115013142/https://www.tcd.ie/Sport/news/2020/fencing-intervarsitys-2020.php}} While the modern DU Fencing Club was founded in 1936, its origins can be dated to the 1700s when a 'Gentleman's Club of the Sword' existed, primarily for duelling practice.{{cite web |url=http://www.fencing.tcdlife.ie |title=Dublin University Fencing Club – Club News |website=Fencing.tcdlife.ie |access-date=23 July 2016 |archive-date=4 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604083805/http://www.fencing.tcdlife.ie/ |url-status=live }}

Trinity College has a tradition of student publications, ranging from the serious to the satirical.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Most student publications are administered by Trinity Publications, previously called the Dublin University Publications Committee (often known as 'Pubs'), which maintains and administers the Publications office (located in No 6) and all the associated equipment needed to publish newspapers and magazines.{{cite web|date=2018-01-27|title=Trinity Publications|url=http://trinitypublications.ie/|access-date=2021-05-27|website=trinitypublications.ie|language=en-US|archive-date=4 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304062716/http://trinitypublications.ie/|url-status=live}}

From 1869 to 1893, the literary magazine Kottabos was published, edited by Robert Yelverton Tyrrell. It has been called 'perhaps the cream of Irish academic wit and scholarship'.{{cite encyclopedia

| editor1-last = Ward | editor1-first = Adolphus William | editor1-link = Adolphus Ward

| editor2-last = Waller | editor2-first = Alfred Rayney | editor2-link = Alfred Rayney Waller

| encyclopedia = The Cambridge History of English and American Literature

| volume = 14

| date = 1907–1921

| title = University Journalism : Scottish and Irish University Journals

| url = https://www.bartleby.com/224/0507.html

| access-date = 2022-04-24

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220413212645/https://www.bartleby.com/224/0507.html

| archive-date = 2022-04-13

| url-status = live

}}

There are two student newspapers: The University Times and Trinity News.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The University Times is funded by the Students' Union and has won national and international awards since its inception in 2009, including the award for best non-daily student newspaper in the world from the US-based Society of Professional Journalists.{{cite web|title=About The University Times|url=http://www.universitytimes.ie/about/|access-date=2021-05-27|website=University Times|language=en-ie|archive-date=29 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529204123/http://www.universitytimes.ie/about/|url-status=live}} Trinity News is Ireland's oldest student newspaper, launched in 1953.{{Cite journal |title=First Issue |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=1–2 |journal=Trinity News |location=Dublin |date=28 October 1953 |url=http://www.trinitynewsarchive.ie/pdf/01-01.pdf |access-date=27 August 2021 |archive-date=12 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712184212/http://www.trinitynewsarchive.ie/pdf/01-01.pdf |url-status=live }} It publishes both an online edition and a print edition every three weeks during the academic year. For the last 10 years, the paper has been edited by a full-time student editor, who takes a sabbatical year from their studies, supported by a voluntary part-time staff of 30 student section editors and writers.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Student magazines currently in publication include the satirical newspaper The Piranha (formerly Piranha! magazine but rebranded in 2009),{{cite web|title=The Piranha|url=http://trinitypublications.ie/publications/piranha/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity Publication|archive-date=4 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304053550/http://trinitypublications.ie/publications/piranha/}} the generalist T.C.D. Miscellany (founded in 1895; one of Ireland's oldest magazines),{{cite web|date=2018-01-28|title=MISC. {{!}} Trinity Publications|url=http://trinitypublications.ie/publications/misc/|access-date=2021-05-27|website=trinitypublications.ie|language=en-US|archive-date=25 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125225128/http://trinitypublications.ie/publications/misc/|url-status=live}} the film journal Trinity Film Review (TFR){{cite web|date=2018-01-28|title=Trinity Film Review |website=Trinity Publications|url=http://trinitypublications.ie/publications/tfr/|access-date=2021-05-27|language=en-US|archive-date=18 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118143527/http://trinitypublications.ie/publications/tfr/|url-status=live}} and the literary Icarus.{{cite web|date=2018-01-28|title=Icarus {{!}} Trinity Publications|url=http://trinitypublications.ie/publications/icarus-2/|access-date=2021-05-27|website=trinitypublications.ie|language=en-US|archive-date=28 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128203057/http://trinitypublications.ie/publications/icarus-2/|url-status=live}}

Other publications include the Student Economic Review{{cite web|title=Student Economic Review|url=https://www.tcd.ie/Economics/SER/index.php|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin|archive-date=28 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428162848/https://www.tcd.ie/Economics/SER/index.php}} and the Trinity College Law Review,{{cite web|title=About Us {{!}} Trinity College Law Review (TCLR)|url=https://trinitycollegelawreview.org/about/|access-date=2021-05-27|website=Trinity College Law Review (TCLR)|publisher=Trinity College Dublin|language=en-GB|archive-date=19 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519123932/https://trinitycollegelawreview.org/about/|url-status=live}} produced independently by students of economics and law respectively; the Trinity College Journal of Postgraduate Research, produced by the Graduate Students Union;{{cite web|title=About the Journal |website=Trinity Postgraduate Review Journal|url=https://ojs.tchpc.tcd.ie/index.php/tpr/about|access-date=2021-05-27|archive-date=19 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519120923/https://ojs.tchpc.tcd.ie/index.php/tpr/about|url-status=live}} the Social and Political Review (SPR);{{cite web |url=http://www.spr.tcdlife.ie/ |title=Welcome to The Social and Political Review of Trinity College Dublin |publisher=Spr.tcdlife.ie |access-date=24 July 2012 |archive-date=31 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331160734/http://www.spr.tcdlife.ie/ |url-status=dead }} the Trinity Student Medical Journal;{{cite web |url=http://www.tsmj.tcd.ie |title=Trinity Student Medical Journal |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |date=26 August 2009 |access-date=28 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108195955/http://www.tsmj.tcd.ie/ |archive-date=8 January 2009}} and The Attic, student writing produced by the Dublin University Literary Society.{{cite web |title=The Attic |url=https://sites.google.com/site/trinityliterarysociety/the-attic |website=The Literary Society |access-date=April 13, 2022 |archive-date=13 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220413144004/https://sites.google.com/site/trinityliterarysociety/the-attic |url-status=live }} More recent publications include Trinity Business Review (TBR){{Cite web |title=Trinity Business Review Website |url=https://tbr.ie/ |website=TBR}} and The Burkean Journal, a politically and culturally conservative magazine named after one of Trinity's most notable alumni, Edmund Burke.{{cite web |url=http://burkeanjournal.com/ |title=Latest News |website=Burkean Journal |access-date=April 13, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101125716/http://burkeanjournal.com/ |archive-date=1 January 2018}}{{cite web|title=The Burkean's Mission Has Changed. Conservatives Are Right to Worry|url=http://www.universitytimes.ie/2019/02/the-burkeans-mission-has-changed-conservatives-are-right-to-worry/|access-date=2021-05-27|website=University Times|language=en-ie|archive-date=19 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519123925/http://www.universitytimes.ie/2019/02/the-burkeans-mission-has-changed-conservatives-are-right-to-worry/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=About|url=https://www.theburkean.ie/about|access-date=2021-05-27|website=The Burkean|language=en-US|archive-date=29 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429233404/https://www.theburkean.ie/about|url-status=live}}

File:Trinity College, Dublin - graduation day.jpg

The Trinity Ball is an annual event that draws 7,000 attendees.{{cite news

| first = Paul

| last = Cullen

| title = Old square hits Front Square

| url = https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2010/0419/1224268626354.html

| newspaper = The Irish Times

| quote = By 11 pm, only a fraction of the 7,000 ticketholders have filtered through the security checks.

| date = 4 April 2010

| access-date = 21 February 2020

| archive-date = 21 October 2012

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121021174540/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2010/0419/1224268626354.html

| url-status = live

}} Until 2010, it was held annually on the last teaching day of Trinity term to celebrate the end of lectures and the beginning of Trinity Week.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Due to a restructuring of the teaching terms of the college, the 2010 Ball was held on the last day of Trinity Week. In 2011, the ball was held on the final day of teaching of Hilary Term, before the commencement of Trinity Week. The Ball is run by Trinity Ents, Trinity Students' Union and Trinity's Central Societies Committee in conjunction with event promoters MCD Productions, who held the contract to run the Ball until 2012.{{cite news

|first=Conor

|last=Sneyd

|title=Havin' such a good time, havin' a Ball?

|url=http://www.universitytimes.ie/story.php?id=421

|newspaper=The University Times

|quote=The contract with MCD for the running of the Ball is due to expire in 2012

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100925151939/http://www.universitytimes.ie/story.php?id=421

|archive-date=25 September 2010

}}

The Ball celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009.{{cite web|title=Trinity Ball 2009|publisher=last.fm|url=http://www.last.fm/event/954903|access-date=10 July 2009|archive-date=3 March 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303011233/http://www.last.fm/event/954903|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Trinity College Dublin Students' Union}}

The Students' Union's primary role is to provide a recognised representative channel between students and the university and college authorities.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The Campaigns Executive, the Administrative Executive and the Sabbatical Officers manage the business and affairs of the Union. The Sabbatical Officers are: The President, Communications Officer, Welfare Officer, Education Officer, Entertainments Officer and the Oifigeach na Gaeilge, and are elected on an annual basis; all capitated students are entitled to vote.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} The SU President, Welfare Officer and Education Officer are ex-officio members of the College Board.

File:TCD Campanile (17143475289).jpg]]

File:The Dining Hall, Trinity College - geograph.org.uk - 1743086.jpg in 1743{{sfn|Dublin Tourism|page=6}}]]

Commons is a three-course meal served in the College Dining Hall Monday to Friday, attended by Scholars, Fellows and Sizars of the college, as well as other members of the college community and their guests.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Commons starts at 18:15 during the week, and its start is signalled by a dramatic slamming of the Dining Hall doors. The bell of the campanile in the college is rung at 18:00 to inform those attending the dinner.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} A Latin grace prayer is said "before and after dinner", read by one of the scholars.{{cite web|title=Commons Information – Scholars – TCD|url=http://www.tcdlife.ie/scholars/scholar/about-commons.php|access-date=2021-05-27|website=tcdlife.ie|archive-date=24 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024081248/http://www.tcdlife.ie/scholars/scholar/about-commons.php|url-status=live}} During Advent, members of the Chapel Choir, the oldest choir in the university, sing Christmas carols to accompany the meals.{{cite web|title=Chaplaincy|url=https://www.tcd.ie/Chaplaincy/news/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin|archive-date=5 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505224803/https://www.tcd.ie/Chaplaincy/news/}}

Trinity Week begins each year on Trinity Monday in mid-April.{{cite web|title=Trinity Week|url=https://www.tcd.ie/trinityweek/about/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-05-26|website=Trinity College Dublin|archive-date=30 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130091503/https://www.tcd.ie/trinityweek/about/}} The start of this week is marked by the election of Fellows and Scholars to the College on Trinity Monday. The board of the college, having chosen the new Scholars (those who achieved a First in the Foundation Scholarship) and Fellows,{{cite web |title=58 Scholars, 15 Fellows and Two Honorary Fellows Elected |url=http://www.universitytimes.ie/2019/04/58-scholars-15-fellows-and-two-honorary-fellows-elected/ |website=The University Times |access-date=15 December 2019 |archive-date=15 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215052452/http://www.universitytimes.ie/2019/04/58-scholars-15-fellows-and-two-honorary-fellows-elected/ |url-status=live }} announce in front square those appointed, before an ecumenical service is held in the College Chapel, with music sung by the Chapel Choir.{{cite web|title=Traditional Events – Trinity Week|url=https://www.tcd.ie/trinityweek/events/traditional/|url-status=live|website=Trinity College Dublin|access-date=28 May 2021|archive-date=26 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200626174735/https://www.tcd.ie/trinityweek/events/traditional/}}

Trinity has a longstanding friendly rivalry with nearby University College Dublin.{{cite web|title=Why do we hate UCD so much (and vice versa)?|url=http://www.universitytimes.ie/2015/01/why-do-we-hate-ucd-so-much-and-vice-versa/|access-date=2021-05-27|website=University Times|language=en-ie|archive-date=5 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805165118/http://www.universitytimes.ie/2015/01/why-do-we-hate-ucd-so-much-and-vice-versa/|url-status=live}} Every year, "colours" events are contested between the sporting clubs and debating societies of the respective colleges.{{Cite book|last=Engle|first=John|url=https://www.everand.com/book/318948778/Trinity-Student-Pranks-A-History-of-Mischief-and-Mayhem|title=Trinity Student Pranks: A History of Mischief and Mayhem|publisher=The History Press Ireland|year=2013|isbn=9780752497983|location=Dublin|pages=148–155|language=en|access-date=11 November 2021|archive-date=11 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111211125/https://www.scribd.com/read/318948778/Trinity-Student-Pranks-A-History-of-Mischief-amp-Mayhem|url-status=live}}

The Irish writer J. P. Donleavy was a student in Trinity{{cite news |last=Dunn |first=Bill |title=JP Donleavy: Pioneering writer who fought and won battles against censorship |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/jp-donleavy-pioneering-writer-who-fought-and-won-battles-against-censorship-1.3221456 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112023705/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/jp-donleavy-pioneering-writer-who-fought-and-won-battles-against-censorship-1.3221456 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |access-date=2021-05-28 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}} and a number of his books feature characters who attend Trinity, including The Ginger Man and The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B.{{cite web |title=The Ginger Man |url=https://www.lilliputpress.ie/product/the-ginger-man |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528202158/https://www.lilliputpress.ie/product/the-ginger-man |archive-date=28 May 2021 |access-date=2021-05-28 |website=The Lilliput Press |language=en-US}}{{cite web |date=18 July 2018 |title=The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B |url=https://www.lilliputpress.ie/product/the-beastly-beatitudes-of-balthazar-b |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528094206/https://www.lilliputpress.ie/product/the-beastly-beatitudes-of-balthazar-b |archive-date=28 May 2021 |access-date=2021-05-28 |website=The Lilliput Press |language=en-US}}

Fictional Naval Surgeon Stephen Maturin of Patrick O'Brian's popular Aubrey–Maturin series is a graduate of Trinity College.{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Anthony Gary |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/64688467 |title=The Patrick O'Brian Muster book: persons, animals, ships and cannon in the Aubrey-Maturin sea novels |date=2006 |publisher=McFarland & Co., Publishers |isbn=0-7864-2482-6 |edition=2nd |location=Jefferson, N.C. |oclc=64688467 |access-date=28 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713155604/https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/64688467 |archive-date=13 July 2020 |url-status=live}} The character is played by Paul Bettany in the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.{{cite news |last=French |first=Philip |date=22 November 2003 |title=Command performance |url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/nov/23/features.review17 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126121841/https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/nov/23/features.review17 |archive-date=26 January 2021 |access-date=29 December 2022 |work=The Guardian}} 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.{{cite news |last=Greenland |first=Colin |date=7 August 2009 |title=All Names Have Been Changed by Claire Kilroy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/08/all-names-have-been-changed |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030200840/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/aug/08/all-names-have-been-changed |archive-date=30 October 2013 |access-date=24 July 2012 |work=The Guardian |location=London |issn=0261-3077 |oclc=60623878 |quote=Trini}}

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.{{Cite book |author=McCrea, Barry |url=https://archive.org/details/firstversenovel00mccr |title=The first verse : a novel |date=2005 |publisher=Carroll & Graf |isbn=0786715138 |edition=1st Carroll & Graf |location=New York |oclc=60345313 |url-access=registration}} 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.{{Cite book |last=Moning |first=Karen Marie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PnBQCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT2371 |title=The Fever Series 7-Book Bundle: Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever, Iced, Burned |date=2016-01-12 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-101-96860-4 |language=en |access-date=26 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026202448/https://books.google.com/books?id=PnBQCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT2371 |archive-date=26 October 2021 |url-status=live}}

In Cecelia Ahern's novel Thanks for the Memories, Justin Hitchcock is a guest lecturer at Trinity College.{{cite web |title=Reviews: Thanks for the Memories |url=http://www.cecelia-ahern.com/reviews/thanksforthememories |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706055812/http://cecelia-ahern.com/reviews/thanksforthememories |archive-date=6 July 2011}}

Parts of Michael Collins,{{cite web |first=Kevin |last=Rockett |author-link=Kevin Rockett |title=Michael Collins (1996) |work=Shot at Trinity |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |url=http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/?film=michael-collins |access-date=20 May 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522104139/http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/?film=michael-collins |archive-date=22 May 2015 }} The First Great Train Robbery,{{cite web |first=David |last=Ingoldsby |title=The Great Train Robbery (1978) |work=Shot at Trinity |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |url=http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/?post_type=film&p=83 |access-date=20 May 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522103842/http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/?post_type=film&p=83 |archive-date=22 May 2015 }} Circle of Friends,{{cite web |first=Ruth |last=Barton |title=Circle of Friends (1995) |work=Shot at Trinity |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |url=http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/?film=circle-of-friends |access-date=20 May 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522103621/http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/?film=circle-of-friends |archive-date=22 May 2015 }} Educating Rita,{{cite book |last=Conolly |first=Jez |author2=Whelan, Caroline |title=World Film Locations: Dublin |publisher=Intellect Books |year=2011 |location=Bristol |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ce9MOsVbu-AC&pg=PA38 |isbn=978-1-84150-550-3 |issn=2045-9009 |access-date=17 October 2015 |archive-date=25 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425212000/https://books.google.com/books?id=ce9MOsVbu-AC&pg=PA38 |url-status=live }} Ek Tha Tiger{{cite web |url=http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/news/type/view/id/1353285 |title=Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif to go back to college |website=Bollywood Hungama |date=20 July 2011 |access-date=24 July 2012 |archive-date=29 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029205052/http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/news/type/view/id/1353285 |url-status=dead }} and Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx{{cite web |first=Aidan |last=Delaney |title=Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970) |work=Shot at Trinity |publisher=Trinity College Dublin |url=http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/?film=quackser-fortune-has-a-cousin-in-the-bronx |access-date=20 May 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522103413/http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/?film=quackser-fortune-has-a-cousin-in-the-bronx |archive-date=22 May 2015}} were filmed in Trinity College. It served as the filming location for Luftwaffe headquarters in The Blue Max.{{cite web |title=Shot at Trinity |url=http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106164007/http://www.tcd.ie/film/shotattrinity/ |archive-date=2016-01-06 |access-date=2021-05-28 |website=Trinity College Dublin}} In the Channel 4 television series Hollyoaks, Craig Dean attends Trinity College.{{cite web |last=Green |first=Kris |date=2008-06-09 |title=Craig Dean returns to 'Hollyoaks' |url=http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/hollyoaks/a98580/craig-dean-returns-to-hollyoaks/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125233435/https://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/hollyoaks/a98580/craig-dean-returns-to-hollyoaks/ |archive-date=25 January 2021 |access-date=2021-05-28 |website=Digital Spy |language=en-GB}}

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".{{Cite episode |title=Fair Haven |episode-link=Fair Haven (Star Trek: Voyager) |series=Star Trek: Voyager |series-link=Star Trek: Voyager |date=12 January 2000 |season=6 |number=11 |transcript=chakoteya |transcript-url=http://www.chakoteya.net/Voyager/610.htm |quote=Give him the education of a nineteenth century third year student at Trinity College.}}

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.{{cite web |title=Normal People |url=https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571334643-normal-people.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200310135604/https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571334643-normal-people.html |archive-date=10 March 2020 |access-date=26 February 2020 |website=Public Store View}} Rooney studied English as a scholar in Trinity.{{cite web |last=McCarthy |first=Clare |title=10 things in Sally Rooney's Normal People that only Irish people understand |url=https://www.irishpost.com/entertainment/10-things-sally-rooneys-normal-people-irish-people-will-understand-176370 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902191935/https://www.irishpost.com/entertainment/10-things-sally-rooneys-normal-people-irish-people-will-understand-176370 |archive-date=2 September 2021 |access-date=2021-05-28 |website=The Irish Post}}

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.{{cite web |title=Paul Mescal |url=https://www.thelir.ie/students/paul-mescal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417211605/https://thelir.ie/students/paul-mescal |archive-date=17 April 2021 |access-date=2021-05-28 |website=The Lir Academy |language=en}} Series director and executive producer Lenny Abrahamson studied philosophy at Trinity and was also elected a scholar.{{cite web |title=Commercials Directors |website=The Irish Film & Television Network |url=http://www.iftn.ie/commercials/whoswho/whoswho_sub/commercialsdirectors/?act1=record&aid=24&rid=177&only=1&force=1&tpl=whoswho_dets |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116082108/http://www.iftn.ie/commercials/whoswho/whoswho_sub/commercialsdirectors/?act1=record&aid=24&rid=177&only=1&force=1&tpl=whoswho_dets |archive-date=16 January 2020 |access-date=2021-05-28}} 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.{{cite news |last=O'Brien |first=Carl |date=10 July 2020 |title=Trinity gets 'Normal People bounce' with record application numbers |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/trinity-gets-normal-people-bounce-with-record-application-numbers-1.4300498 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520162125/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/trinity-gets-normal-people-bounce-with-record-application-numbers-1.4300498 |archive-date=20 May 2021 |access-date=9 August 2021 |newspaper=The Irish Times}}

The Oscar Wilde Memorial Sculpture in Dublin's Merrion Square depicts Wilde wearing the Trinity College postgraduate tie.{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Sarah |title=Sculpting Irishness: a discussion of Dublin's commemorative statues of Oscar Wilde and Phil Lynott |url=https://www.academia.edu/4042930 |journal=Sculpture Journal |year=2012 |language=en |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=71–82 |doi=10.3828/sj.2012.6 |issn=1366-2724 |access-date=28 May 2021 |archive-date=1 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801010142/http://www.academia.edu/4042930/Sculpting_Irishness_A_Discussion_of_Dublins_Commemorative_Statues_of_Oscar_Wilde_and_Phil_Lynott |url-status=live}}

{{Main list|List of Trinity College Dublin people|List of Scholars of Trinity College Dublin|List of Provosts of Trinity College Dublin}}

Amongst the past students/graduates (and some staff) are such notable figures as:

{{div col |colwidth=14em }}

• Samuel Beckett (Nobel Laureate in Literature)
• George Berkeley
• Daniel Bradley
• Francis Brambell
• Edmund Burke
• J.B. Bury
• William Campbell (Nobel Laureate in Medicine)
• Michael Coey
• William Congreve
• Thomas Davis
• Henry Horatio Dixon
• Edward Dowden
• Francis Ysidro Edgeworth
• Robert Emmet
• George Ensor
• George Francis FitzGerald
• Gordon Foster
• Edward Francis Bani Forster
• Percy French
• Oliver Goldsmith
• Henry Grattan
• Olivia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster
• Veronica Guerin
• John Winthrop Hackett
• William Rowan Hamilton
• Edward Hincks
• Nathaniel Hone the Younger
• Ludwig Hopf
• John Kells Ingram
• John Hewitt Jellett
• John Joly
• William Johnston
• Gregorios Joseph
• Peter Lalor
• Dionysius Lardner
• Sheridan Le Fanu
• Bartholomew Lloyd
• Humphrey Lloyd (physicist)
• Thomas Ranken Lyle
• James MacCullagh
• Mairead Maguire (Nobel Peace Prize)
• Edmond Malone
• Charles Maturin
• Richard Maunsell
• Albert Joseph McConnell
• George Francis Mitchell
• William Molyneux
• Thomas Moore
• Hans Motz
• Charles Algernon Parsons
• Thomas Preston
• Louise Richardson
• George Salmon
• Brendan Scaife
• Erwin Schrödinger
• Samson Shatashvili
• Edward Stafford
• Bram Stoker
• Whitley Stokes (physician)
• Whitley Stokes (Celtic scholar)
• George Johnstone Stoney
• Jonathan Swift
• James Joseph Sylvester
• Edward Hutchinson Synge
• John Lighton Synge
• John Millington Synge
• John Trenchard
• Wolfe Tone
• Frederick Thomas Trouton
• Jaja Wachuku
• Ernest Walton (Nobel Laureate in Physics)
• Denis Weaire
• Michael Roberts Westropp
• E. T. Whittaker
• Oscar Wilde

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Others include four previous holders of the office of President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, Éamon de Valera, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, and two holders of the office of Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera and Leo Varadkar (De Valera matriculated as "Edward de Valera").

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• Academic dress of the University of Dublin
• Dublin University (constituency)
• Education in the Republic of Ireland
• List of chancellors of the University of Dublin
• List of professorships at the University of Dublin
• List of universities in the Republic of Ireland
• Trinity Hall, Dublin

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{{reflist|group="Note"}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last=Dublin Tourism|first=Office | url=https://www.irish-shop.de/dokumente/045_georgian,cultural,_old_dublin_heritagetrails_low.pdf | title=Heritage Trails. Signposted Walking Tours of Dublin |access-date=2025-02-18|publisher=Dublin Tourism }}
• {{cite book |last=Wyse Jackson |first=Patrick |title= The Building Stones of Dublin: A Walking Guide |url= https://archive.org/details/buildingstonesof0000wyse/mode/2up|year=1993 |publisher= Town House and Country House |location=Donnybrook, Dublin |isbn=0-946172-32-3}}

{{refend}}

• Aalen, F. H. A., and R. J. Hunter. "The Estate Maps of Trinity College: An Introduction and Annotated Catalogue." Hermathena, no. 98 (1964): 85–96. [http://ezprox.bard.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23040208 online]
• Auchmuty, James Johnston. Sir Thomas Wyse, 1791–1862: the life and career of an educator and diplomat (PS King & sons, 1939).
• Bailey, Kenneth Claude A History of Trinity College Dublin, 1892–1945 (Trinity College Dublin, 1947)
• Black, R. D. "Trinity College, Dublin, and the theory of value, 1832–1863." Economica 12.47 (1945): 140–148 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2550164 online].
• Bewley, Dame Beulah. "Ireland's first school of medicine" History Ireland 19.4 (2011): 24–27 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41231662 online]
• Dixon, William Macneile. Trinity College, Dublin. (F.E. Robinson, 1902) [https://books.google.com/books?id=JLQWAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Trinity+College+Dublin%22&pg=PR9 online]
• Finn, Gerry P.T. "Trinity Mysteries: University, Elite Schooling and Sport in Ireland" International Journal of the History of Sport (2010) 27#13 pp 2255–2287. covers 1800 to 1970.
• Fox, Peter. Trinity College Library Dublin: A History (Cambridge UP, 2014).
• Gogarty, Claire. "Building Finances of Trinity College, Dublin, in the Early Eighteenth Century." Dublin Historical Record 50#1 (1997): 71–75. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30101160 online].
• Harford, Judith. The opening of university education to women in Ireland (Irish Academic Press, 2008).
• Irish, Tomás. "Trinity College Dublin: An Imperial University in War and Revolution, 1914–1921." in The Academic World in the Era of the Great War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) pp. 119–139.
• Jackson, P. S. Wyse. "The botanic garden of Trinity college Dublin 1687 to 1987." Botanical journal of the Linnean Society 95.4 (1987): 301–311.
• Kelly, Laura. Irish medical education and student culture, c. 1850–1950 (Oxford UP, 2018).
• Kirkpatrick, T. Percy C. History of the medical teaching in Trinity College Dublin and of the School of Physic in Ireland (Hanna and Neale, 1912) [https://archive.org/details/historyofmedical00kirkuoft online].
• Luce, John Victor, ed. Trinity College Dublin, the first 400 years (Trinity College Dublin quatercentenary series, 1992).
• McDowell, Robert Brendan, and David Allardice Webb. Trinity College Dublin, 1592–1952: an academic history (Trinity College Dublin Press, 2004) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Yn8lAQAAIAAJ online].
• McGurk, John. "Trinity College, Dublin: 1592–1992." History Today 42.3 (1992): 41–47.
• Mahaffy, John Pentland. An epoch in Irish history: Trinity College, Dublin, its foundation and early fortunes, 1591–1660 (T. Fisher Unwin, 1906) [https://books.google.com/books?id=DSkBAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Trinity+College%22+Dublin&pg=PR1 online].
• Morris, Ewan. "'God Save the King' Versus 'The Soldier's Song': The 1929 Trinity College National Anthem Dispute and the Politics of the Irish Free State." Irish Historical Studies 31.121 (1998): 72–90 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30007063 online].
• Moss, Jean Dietz. "'Discordant Consensus': Old and New Rhetoric at Trinity College, Dublin." Rhetorica 14.4 (1996): 383–441.
• O'Farrell, Fergus. "Trinity v. UCD." History Ireland 23.4 (2015): 48–49 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43556385 online], student rivalry.
• Parkes, Susan M., ed. A danger to the men?: a history of women in Trinity College Dublin 1904–2004 (Lilliput Press, 2004).
• Pašeta, Senia. "Trinity College, Dublin, and the Education of Irish Catholics, 1873–1908." Studia Hibernica 30 (1998): 7–20 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20495087 online].
• Post, Robert M. "Forensic activities at Trinity college, Dublin, in the eighteenth century." Communication Studies 19.1 (1968): 19–25.
• Raraty, M. M. "The Chair of German at Trinity College, Dublin 1775–1866." Hermathena (1966): 53–72 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23039790 online].
• Rembert, James A. W. "Dialectic at Trinity College, Dublin." in Swift and the Dialectical Tradition (Palgrave Macmillan, 1988) pp. 63–72. [https://rh.ucpress.edu/content/ucprhet/14/4/383.full.pdf online]
• Stanford, William Bedell. "Classical Studies in Trinity College, Dublin, since the Foundation." Hermathena 57 (1941): 3–24. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23037614 online]
• Urwick, William. The Early History of Trinity College Dublin 1591–1660: As Told in Contemporary Records on Occasion of Its Tercentenary (T. Fisher Unwin Paternoster Square, 1892) [https://books.google.com/books?id=MxhSAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Trinity+College%22+Dublin&pg=PA1 online].
• Ussher, H. "Account of the Observatory Belonging to Trinity College, Dublin." Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 1 (1787): 3–21. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/30079201 online].
• Walsh, John. "'The problem of Trinity College Dublin': a historical perspective on rationalisation in higher education in Ireland." Irish Educational Studies 33.1 (2014): 5–19.
• Webb, David A. "The herbarium of Trinity College, Dublin: its history and contents." Botanical journal of the Linnean Society 106.4 (1991): 295–327.
• West, Trevor. The bold collegians: the development of sport in Trinity College, Dublin (Lilliput Press in association with DUCAC, 1991).

{{Commons category|Trinity College Dublin}}

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• [http://www.tcd.ie/ Official website]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110607010713/http://www.tcd.ie/iss/avms/photocentre/gallery1.php Photo gallery of Trinity College]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071213221501/http://www.tcd.ie/info/trinity/history/ Trinity College official history]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080512061323/http://ireland.archiseek.com/buildings_ireland/dublin/southcity/trinity/index.html Buildings of Trinity College at Archiseek]
• [https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=53.344012,-6.256242&spn=0.006547,0.014596&t=k&hl=en Satellite Photo of Trinity College]
• [https://www.tcd.ie/courses/ Courses at Trinity College]
• [http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=57151330&postcount=45 Satellite Photo of Trinity Hall]
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20071117054752/http://acollegemiscellany.com/scarves/dublin/ Scarves of the University of Dublin]}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070315184859/http://www.trinityball.ie/ The Trinity Ball]
• [http://www.trinitynews.ie Trinity News]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/19970122025630/http://www.csc.tcd.ie/ Trinity College Central Societies Committee]
• [http://www.tcdsu.org Trinity College Dublin Students' Union]
• [http://panoramicireland.com/arch/trinity.html 360 Panorama of Long Room Library]

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{{University of Dublin, Trinity College}}

{{Coimbra Group}}

{{Laidlaw Scholars}}

{{League of European Research Universities}}

{{Universities in Ireland}}

{{Schools and colleges in County Dublin}}

{{Kingdom of Ireland}}

{{History of Dublin}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:1592 establishments in Ireland

Category:Anglican schools in the Republic of Ireland

Category:Archives in the Republic of Ireland

Category:Constituent colleges

Category:Education in Dublin (city)

Category:Educational institutions established in the 1590s

Category:University of Dublin