What is the college experience if not to bear witness to the rise and fall of niche, Trinity-based social media accounts? You might do well to consider that the college degree you claim you’re getting actually amounts to nothing if you’re not following the Instagram pages that document Trinity in lights you’ve never considered before. Normal People might have beautifully captured the isolation of college, but @tcd.toilet.shoes (pronouns per/ve) have alerted students to up-and-coming footwear in a manner comparable to Fashion Soc’s ‘Campus Couture’. These pages often appear out of nowhere and follow a somewhat predictable trajectory. “Huh,” a friend will say at lunch, “I was just followed by @trinitybirdsociety”. Over the next few days, most of your peers will have also received this request. Initial posting will be frequent, but after a while will even out, perhaps reaching a steady once-a-week posting rate. Slowly this rate will decline and, eventually, cease to exist. The abandoned page leaves behind perhaps fifty posts and a multitude of mournful devotees. Not until the next account steps up to fill the gap left behind can campus truly feel whole again.

Arguably, what is more fascinating than the pages themselves are the mysterious figures behind them. These pioneering students are widely accepted as the best and brightest TCD has to offer, often providing a unique form of social commentary or acting as amplification for the voices of their fellow students. Alumni who have managed Trinity-based Instagram pages include Sir William Rowan Hamilton (also known for his work in quaternions), Samuel Beckett and Eamon de Valera. Though many admins are anonymous, their identities are often open secrets – @mathsconfessions_tcd creators have been recognised more than once in public by followers, leading to concerns for their safety and the eventual cancellation of their TFM show.

Having combed through searches for ‘Trinity’ and ‘TCD’ on my Instagram explore page, I have amassed a list of some of the most notorious accounts college has to offer.

@trinitybirdsociety

The most recent page to pop up, @trinitybirdsociety is ‘giving a voice to all the fellow birds at tcd’ according to their bio. Let it be known that the author of this article does not follow @trinitybirdsociety, as I believe that such a page is glorifying the bloodthirsty nature of seagulls on campus.

@mathsconfessions_tcd

Originally conceived as a confessions page for JF mathematics students in November 2021, @mathsconfessions_tcd has left behind a legacy far beyond that. It has spawned multiple copycat accounts, was blocked by Fashion Soc and even briefly had a podcast on TFM. I was able to track the anonymous founders down (who would like to be referred to as X and Y out of respect for their course), and set up an interview.

What made you decide to make a confessions page?

X: It looked funny

Y: I saw other confessions accounts and thought, “this looks fun as fuck”. I made it on the train.

And your audience? Maths students?

Y: Maths people are kind of weird.

X: They’re not, like, normal.

Y: Maths is just so obscure and strange and odd.

X: It started with maths people and it just spread. Lots of other people started following.

Why do you think you attracted followers beyond maths students?

X: Because of the recurring names in the confessions, you could very much see a story and be involved in first year maths, without being in first year maths.

Y: We’d post grindset reels and horoscopes.

How important has anonymity been for your identities?

X: The anonymity didn’t last that long. But my girlfriend doesn’t know. I’m able to say “I love you,” to my girlfriend, but not “I am mathsconfessions_tcd”.

Mathsconfessions_tcd hasn’t been active recently — is the page used for anything now?

X: Asking people for concert tickets. It’s worked every single time. That’s how I got Black Country, New Road tickets.

Y: We still have 300 unused confessions, so you never know.

I followed up with the admins after our interview, messaging them to ask if they thought fame had impacted their lives in any way. 

“Prolly,” X texted back, “not sure how”.

Y appears to have handled their brush with celebrity better: “No. I think I stayed humble”.

@tcdtrinder

Half of all marriages end in divorce and Trinder is (or was) here to change that. Possibly the most famous TCD instagram account, Trinder has had several incarnations over the years — first as a Facebook page, then on Instagram as @trindertcd, and now @tcdtrinder after the previous page was taken down. Even though the page hasn’t been active in over a year, it still retains 5,013 followers, and once had an Irish Times article written about it, referring to it as “the epitome of dead-dating culture”.

Many of my peers remember recurring confessors on Trinder, with one such protagonist being the “the TP poet”. Some have even submitted confessions themselves – though mostly to make fun of friends, rather than confess their undying love. I slid into Trinder’s DMs to ask the most mysterious matchmaker on campus about their role but alas, I was left on delivered. I can only conclude that ‘romantic Ireland’ is dead and gone, and with Trinder in the grave.

@tfm_weatherandtraffic

Described by founder and International Editor of Misc. Buster Whaley as “the weather and the traffic on Trinity FM”, @tfm_weatherandtraffic is the Instagram page for the TFM show of the same name, hosted by Buster Whaley, Brian Lennon and James Wolfe. The show takes place on Wednesdays at 8pm,and has held events such as ‘Tramline: A Tearful Farewell’ and interviewed guests of the likes of Barack Obama. I reached out to the admins to ask them some questions about the success of their page.

Are your followers comprised solely of your listeners on TFM?

Brian Lennon: Not exclusively. While Instagram is vital for audience outreach, we’ve been surprised by how many people outside our Instagram listen to the show. For example, today we’re interviewing a fan of the show, Raj, who has been listening for months and didn’t even know about the Instagram until a few days ago!

What position do you think @weatherandtraffic occupies in the landscape of trinity-based instagram accounts?

Buster Whaley: We’re the only account that helps people stay informed about the weather and the traffic. We have no equals in this regard.

Brian Lennon: It occupies a rather small but lively corner of student life, and attracts a certain type of person to its airwaves; namely, those predisposed to whimsy.

James Wolfe: Shit’s fire.

@chairs_of_trinity

“A very niche artistic account dedicated to showing you the most aesthetic chairs on campus,” according to their bio. Does what it says on the tin.

From what I have assessed, it appears that the future of ‘Trinstagram’ is not only bright but blinding, and that the possibilities of what these accounts may focus on next is limitless. The only question remaining is who will be next to step up and take on the mantle of being one of the celebrated creators of these pages?