Category: History
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Pride of Trinity
In October 1973 the first meeting of Ireland’s Sexual Liberation Movement (SLM) took place at Trinity. What started as a small meeting in House 5 would see the organisation of Ireland’s first gay disco, a landmark symposium on gay rights in Regent’s House and the Republic of Ireland’s very first…
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Joe Duffy: The Most Radical TCDSU President?
In the wake of a revival of student activism, the past of grass-roots action is beginning to resurface. From the successful BDS encampment last year to a constant presence of protest on campus, this revival demonstrates itself with an increased turnout and engagement, each SU election successfully outperforming the…
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Lover, You Should’ve Come To T-Ball
Trinity Ball is a college institution. Though its reputation wavers each year depending on the line-up and the exorbitant prices of food and beverages, all can agree that it is a unique social phenomenon in Ireland –one that seems more like a celebration that an Oxbridge college would hold…
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265 & Me
I never thought I would be faced with the details of how my grandmother was conceived. Yet there I was, sitting in a stuffy military archive, reading intimate details about how my grandmother came into being. Surrounded by sombre academics researching battle tactics and troops’ movements, I wondered how…
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Without Balls
The Irish people are historically hard to silence. Under British colonial rule, the suppression of language and religion did not stifle the people — it drove them underground. Schools sprung up in the whispering leaves of hedgerows, away from the prying eyes of the authorities. People safeguarded their linguistic…
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Fishing for Salmon
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, a recent graduate from UCD, when the inescapable question of Master’s programmes came up. I was surprised to hear that she was staunchly opposed to following up her degree in Trinity College. “Why,” she asked me, “would I ever…
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Tunnels? What Tunnels?
Anonymous Scour Trinity News, or the internet and a carefully curated image of the trinity tunnels will emerge. For decades, if not centuries, if not days, if not hours – you have been convinced, hoodwinked and lied to. Try to find information, and your curiosity will no doubt be sparked,…
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George Berkeley: An Immaterial Shadow?
George Berkeley’s reputation, once secure, has come under great scrutiny in more recent years. Hailing from Kilkenny, Bishop Berkeley was a hugely influential philosopher, mathematician and man of the cloth – but, most pertinent to the times we live in, Berkeley was a slave owner and strong proponent of pro-slavery…
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Slow Surrender: Trinity and the inclusion of Catholics
The last column discussed the rabidly anti-papist ethos which characterised the first centuries of Trinity’s existence. Also highlighted was the idea of Trinity as a political and academic fortress, a redoubt for the Reformed faith. For many years Trinity had acted as a citadel to inject Anglicanism into an intransigently…
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A Columned College: A History of Trinity Exclusionism
Everyone who goes to Trinity is aware of its elitist reputation. In Irish households, eyes roll at family gatherings and eyebrows raise at its mention. We know that students educated in private schools are disproportionately represented in the student body, and while earning enough CAO points to successfully apply to…