Widely considered one of Europe’s elite institutions, Trinity is Ireland’s most prestigious university, in part due to its long and distinguished history.
Academically, it is divided into three faculties comprising 23 schools, offering degree and diploma courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The admission procedure is based exclusively on academic merit, with the college being particularly acclaimed in law, literature and humanities.
It also carries out extensive research in nanotechnology, information technology, immunology, mathematics, engineering, psychology, politics and English.
Trinity College was originally established outside Dublin’s city walls in the buildings of the outlawed Catholic Augustinian Priory of All Hallows. It was set up in part to consolidate the rule of the Tudor monarchy in Ireland, and as a result was the university of the Protestant Ascendancy for much of its history.
While Catholics were admitted from the college’s foundation, for a period graduation required the taking of an oath that was objectionable to them. In 1793 this requirement was removed, but certain restrictions on membership of the college remained, as professorships, fellowships and scholarships were reserved for Protestants.
An 1873 Act of Parliament lifted these remaining restrictions. While Catholics were not formally banned from attending Trinity from that time, Ireland’s Catholic hierarchy discouraged it. Women were first admitted to the college as full members in 1904.
The Library of Trinity College is a legal deposit library for Ireland and Great Britain, containing around 7 million printed volumes and significant quantities of manuscripts, including the Book of Kells, which arrived at the college in 1661 for safekeeping after the Cromwellian raids on religious institutions. The collection housed in the Long Room includes a rare copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a 15th-century wooden harp, which is the model for the current emblem of Ireland. The library receives more than 500,000 visitors per year, making it the most important in Ireland.
RECLINING AND CONNECTED FORMS BY HENRY MOORE – A 1969 BRONZE SCULPTURE AT TRINITY COLLEGE
For some strange reason this appears to be ignored by visitors and tourists who photograph everything except this.
Years ago Henry Moore provided , on loan, a sculpture which became known as ‘The King And Queen’ and it was located on the Library forecourt but as he was not happy about the location he decided that it should be returned. He had not been happy with the location because he felt that there was a conflict with the forecourt lanterns and because there was not enough sunlight on the north facing forecourt.
The university worked persistently to find a replacement for the King and Queen and eventually proposed the work by Pomodoro which is now permanently installed on the forecourt and which appears to have been made for it. A perfect outcome.
Eventually Trinity obtained another work by Henry Moore, for which a location in Library Square was agreed and where it has remained.
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.
His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore’s works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his Yorkshire birthplace.
Moore became well known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom. His ability in later life to fulfil large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Despite this, he lived frugally; most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.
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