The Tourist Information Dublin website
[visit
link] tells us:
"Trinity College Dublin or
"Coláiste na Tríonóide, Baile Átha Cliath" in Irish, is formally known as the
College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth. It was founded in
1592 by from Queen Elizabeth and is is Ireland's oldest
university.
Trinity was set up in part to
consolidate the rule of the Tudor monarchy in Ireland, and it was the university
of the Protestant Ascendancy for much of its history. Roman Catholics had been
permitted to enter as early as 1753,although certain restrictions on their
membership of the college remained until 1873. However the Catholic Church in
Ireland forbade its adherents from attending until the late 20th century. It
wasn't until 1904 that women were first admitted to the college as full
members.
Trinity College is a legal deposit
library for Ireland and the United Kingdom, and 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 circa five
million books, including 30,000 current serials and significant collections of
manuscripts, maps, and printed music.
The Book of Kells is by far the
Library's most famous book and is located in the Old Library, along with the
Book of Durrow, the Book of Howth and other ancient texts. Also incorporating
the Long Room, the Old Library is one of Ireland's biggest tourist attractions,
and holds thousands of rare, very early, volumes.
Amongst the graduates are included
notable people in the fields of arts and sciences like Jonathan Swift, Bram
Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett (Nobel Laureate in Literature), Ernest
Walton (Nobel Laureate in Physics), three holders of the office of President of
Ireland, and one Premier of New Zealand (Edward Stafford)."
The Top Universities website [visit
link] tells us about Trinity:
"Trinity
College Dublin (TCD) is recognised internationally as Ireland?s premier
university and as one of the world's leading research-intensive universities.
Founded in 1592 on the general pattern of the ancient colleges at Oxford and
Cambridge, it is the oldest university in Ireland and one of the older
universities of Western Europe.
The pursuit of excellence through
research and scholarship is at the heart of a Trinity education. It provides a
unique educational experience encompassing all major academic disciplines in the
arts, humanities, engineering, science, human, social and health sciences.
Students benefit from a scholar teacher model where they have the opportunity of
being taught by world-leading experts in their field.
In 2011, Trinity was ranked in the
top 1% of research institutions in the world in 17 fields including Molecular
Biology and Genetics, Immunology, Microbiology, Chemistry, Life Sciences, Social
Sciences, Computer Science, Clinical Medicine and Engineering. It has an
outstanding record of publications in high-impact journals and a track record in
winning research funding which is among the best in the country. Its research
strategy is committed to world-class research activities in five key areas of
major interdisciplinary strength:
-
European & International
Integration
-
Culture & Creative
Arts
-
Materials & Intelligent
Systems
-
Biosciences & Translational
Research
-
Transport, Energy &
Environment
Trinity College Dublin?s campus is
situated in the centre of Ireland?s capital city. Its 47 acre campus of cobbled
squares, historic buildings and green playing fields stand alongside
state-of-the-art modern facilities such as the Science Gallery, the Douglas Hyde
Gallery, the Nanoscience research centre (CRANN), the Long Room Hub Institute
for Arts and Humanities, the new Biomedical Sciences Institute, and The Lir-the
National Academy for Dramatic Art. Its Library is the largest research library
in Ireland. It has had 200 years of legal deposit for publications in Ireland
and the UK and contains 5 million volumes, a considerable breadth of electronic
resources, and an extensive collection of manuscripts, the most famous being the
Book of Kells.
Today Trinity has a vibrant
international community of almost 17,000 students, 92,000 alumni and 2,860
members of staff. The student population represents 122 nationalities: not only
is it diverse in nationality, it also represents a wide range of social
backgrounds and cultures. The university also prides itself on attracting
academic staff from all over the world."