TCD Miscellany

Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. Founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 through a royal charter, it is one of the extant seven "ancient universities" of Great Britain and Ireland. Trinity contributed to Irish literature during the Georgian and Victorian eras, and areas of the natural sciences and medicine.

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

The college contains several landmarks such as the Campanile, the GMB, and The Rubrics, as well as the historic Old Library. Trinity's legal deposit library serves both Ireland and the United Kingdom, and has housed the Book of Kells since 1661, the Brian Boru harp since 1782, and a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic since 1916. A major destination in Ireland's tourism, the campus receives over two million visitors annually, and has been used as a location in movies and novels. The university was also involved in the First World War, noticeably in the Defence of Gallipoli at the Dardanelles.

Notable alumni of Trinity include Irish literary figures Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, Oliver Goldsmith, Bram Stoker, Sheridan Le Fanu, and Sally Rooney; philosophers George Berkeley and Edmund Burke; leaders Lord Carson and Éamon de Valera; and the writers of the ''Game of Thrones'' TV series. Trinity researchers invented the binaural stethoscope, steam turbine, hypodermic needle, seismology, and linear algebra; performed the first artificial nuclear reaction and transmutation; coined the term ''electron''; and co-invented the graphophone. Alumni and faculty include 56 Fellows of the Royal Society, eight Nobel laureates, six Copley Medalists, five Victoria Cross and five ''Pour le Mérite'' recipients, and 14 Chief Justices of the Supreme Court.

History

First 50 years

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

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

During the initial 50 years following the foundation, the community increased the endowments, considerable landed estates were secured, and new fellowships and academic chairs were established. The books which formed the foundation of the great library were acquired, either by private purchase or donations, a curriculum was devised, and statutes were framed.

18th and 19th centuries

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

The 19th century was also marked by important developments in the professional schools. The law school was reorganized after the middle of the century. 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. The Engineering School was established in 1842, and was among the first of its kind in Ireland and Britain.

Access and religion

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. 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. 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. Heron appealed to the Irish courts, which issued a writ of requiring the case to be adjudicated by the Archbishop of Dublin and the Primate of Ireland. The decision of Richard Whately and John George de la Poer Beresford was that Heron would remain excluded from Scholarship. 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. In 1873, all religious tests, except for those relating to entry to the Divinity school, were abolished by an Act of Parliament.

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. "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.

20th century

In April 1900, Queen Victoria visited College Green in Dublin. Women were admitted to Trinity College as full members for the first time in 1904. 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.

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. 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.

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, 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. In the post-independence period, Trinity College suffered from a cool relationship with the new state. 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, in particular during the Gallipoli campaign.

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".

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.

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. The ban was extended nationally at the Plenary Synod of Maynooth in August 1956. Despite this sectarianism, 1958 saw the first Catholic reach the Board of Trinity as a Senior fellow.

In 1962 the School of Commerce and the School of Social Studies amalgamated to form the School of Business and Social Studies. 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. This plan, suggested by Brian Lenihan and Donogh O'Malley, was dropped after officials of both universities opposed it.

In 1970 the Catholic Church lifted its ban on Catholics attending the college without special dispensation. At the same time, Trinity College authorities invited the appointment of a Catholic chaplain to be based in the college. There are now two such Catholic chaplains.

From 1975, the Colleges of Technology that later formed the Dublin Institute of Technology had their degrees conferred by the University of Dublin. This arrangement was discontinued in 1998 when the DIT obtained degree-granting powers of its own.

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. In 1991, Thomas Noel Mitchell became the first Roman Catholic elected Provost of Trinity College.

21st century

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. 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.

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.

In 2021, Linda Doyle was elected the first woman Provost, succeeding Patrick Prendergast. 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.

Buildings and grounds

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, and despite it being one of Dublin's, and Ireland's, most prominent tourist attractions, with more than 2 million visitors annually. 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. 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."

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.

Main site

The main college grounds are approximately 190,000 m² (47 acres), 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.

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. 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. The gilt oak chandelier which hangs in the Examination Hall was taken from the old Irish House of Commons in nearby College Green.

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. 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. 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. In 2010, ''Forbes'' ranked it one of the 15 most beautiful college grounds in the world.

Chapel

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. 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.

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. 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". 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.

Behind the chapel is a small cemetery named Challenor's Corner, which is reserved for the burial of Provosts of the college. The space is named after Luke Challenor, who was buried there in 1613.

Library

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. 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. Three million books are held in the book depository, known as the "Stacks", in Santry, from which requests are retrieved twice daily.

The Library proper comprises several buildings in the college. The original (Old) Library is Thomas Burgh's masterpiece. 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. 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. 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. Also incorporating the Long Room, the Old Library receives over 900,000 visitors per year, making it Dublin's second-most visited tourist destination. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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. In April 2023, Trinity College announced that it would 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. 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.

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

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. 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". The near-zero energy building provides a link between the city and the main University grounds.

Other facilities

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.

The 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.

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. These plans were later scaled back.

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.

Charter

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. Further major changes were made in the reign of Queen Victoria, and more again by the Oireachtas, including in 2000.

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.

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. 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.

Governance

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.

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. 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.

Provost

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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

Fellows and Scholars

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. 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.

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.

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). 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).

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.

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. 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. 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.

Board

Aside from the Provost, Fellows and Scholars, Trinity College has a Board (dating from 1637), which carries out general governance. 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.

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. 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. 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.

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. This was introduced separately from the Universities Act 1997.

It states that the Board shall comprise
* 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.

Council

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. 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. 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.

Senate

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").

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.

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. 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. The most common example of when the two bodies must collaborate is when a decision is made to establish a new degree.

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. 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.

Visitors

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. The current judicial Visitor is Maureen Harding Clark. In the event of a disagreement between the two Visitors, the opinion of the Chancellor prevails.

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.

Academic associations

Trinity College is a sister college to Oriel College of the University of Oxford and St John's College of the University of Cambridge. In accordance with the formula of , 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''.

Teaching and affiliated hospitals

As of 2021, the teaching and associated hospitals are:
* 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

Associated Institutions

* Royal Irish Academy of Music
* Marino Institute of Education
* Church of Ireland Theological Institute

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. 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. The Lir is also advised by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the UK.

Parliamentary representation

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. 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. 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.

Academic profile

Since considerable academic restructuring in 2008, the college has three academic faculties:
* 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.

Academic year

The academic year is divided into three terms:

* Michaelmas term lasts from October to December

* Hilary term