Trinity College

 

The college was founded in 1592, on the order of Queen Elizabeth I, on land confiscated from the Augustine priory. The college was established to keep young Protestant Dubliners away from becoming 'infected with popery' when they traveled abroad to be educated. While Catholics were admitted beginning in 1793, the Church forbade it; until 1970, any Catholic who enrolled was considered excommunicated.

The Old Library is a great draw due to the Long Room (above) that houses 200,000 of the of the library's oldest treasures, including the Book of Kells and an original copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, read on the steps of the General Post Office at the beginning of the 1916 Rising.

There is a special exhibit that tells the history of the Book of Kells, where you are able to see two pages on display. The Book of Kells, a richly decorated copy of the four gospels, was probably written in the 9th century by monks in Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland, or in Kells (in County Meath north of Dublin) where the monks fled after an attack by the Vikings.

The harp is the oldest to survive in Ireland and dates to the 14th century.

 

 

 

 

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