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TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN has renamed its central library after the celebrated poet Eavan Boland, following a decision to remove the name of George Berkley from the building.
The ‘denaming’ of Berkeley – an Anglo-Irish Bishop, scholar and philosopher who lived in the 1700s – came about following protests from students and representatives over his ownership of slaves and connections to the slave trade.
It follows a consultation process the college was “marked by thoughtful conversations”, resulting in a total of 855 public submissions on the library’s name. The process was overseen by the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group (TLRWG).
The move also means that the Eavan Boland Library will be the first building on Trinity’s campus to be named after a woman.
Provost Dr Linda Doyle said that it would be a “fitting recognition of Eavan Boland’s poetic genius” that the university’s main library will now carry her name.
Trinity is renaming its main Library after acclaimed Irish poet and alumna Eavan Boland. This Board decision follows analysis and public consultation overseen by the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group. Read the full article here...
— Trinity College Dublin (@tcddublin) October 9, 2024
https://t.co/MMRUIdsXbD pic.twitter.com/k0aCpVgRmx
Boland, who studied at Trinity, won numerous awards throughout her career writing about Irish history and the role of women in Irish society. She died in 2020 aged 75.
“Eavan’s poetry is well-known across the generations, and her outstanding artistic contribution to highlighting the role of women in Irish society is widely appreciated,” Doyle said, paying thanks to all who took part in the process that led to today’s decision.
The working group said it identified several options for the renaming of the Library, with their preferred recommendation being The Eavan Boland Library.
Its chair, professor Eoin O’Sullivan paid tribute to students “who not only called for a change in the library’s name, but who worked with us to achieve that change”.
“We are grateful for the 855 submissions from within Trinity and outside which animated our deliberations and reflections on the matter,” he said.
This was led by the Students’ Union which said the name did not reflect the values of Trinity in the 21st century.
Students of colour also said they did not feel comfortable entering a library that was named after an enslaver and some labelled it “abhorrent”.
The library opened in 1967 and was named after George Berkeley in 1978.
In a statement in April last year, Trinity said the decision to dename the library “represented a nuanced approach and the result of careful consideration and detailed analysis”.
Trinity added that Berkeley bought slaves and “sought to advance ideology in support of slavery” and that the “continued use of the Berkeley name on its library is inconsistent with the University’s core values of human dignity, freedom, inclusivity, and equality”.
“The denaming does not deny Berkeley’s importance as a writer, philosopher, and towering intellectual figure,” said the Trinity statement.
Woke brigade at it’s best
@pauley870: nope
@pauley870: Grow up little boy
@pauley870: Better than the opposite, asleep.
What’s next? Streets, towns, areas, pull down statues????
Erase history?
@Paddy: places named after historical figures, writers etc should be reviewed and revised regularly. I don’t see the harm. Times change, people change.
@Paddy: History wasn’t erased when Nelson’s pillar was blown up – we just don’t have a statue of him on the main thoroughfare of our capital city
@Dermot Blaine: never mind that Berkeley was an absolutely reprehensible individual. Some people deserve to be cancelled and he’s one of them.
@Alan OConnor: for sure.
@Alan OConnor: Cancel history and it becomes forgotten. Only by remembering our history can we learn from it.
@Paddy: Ireland already renamed loads of streets, towns and even counties. When’s the last time you heard anyone talk about Sackville street or Kingstown?
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: but he’s not cancelled, his books are still in the library and his work will be continued. A building has been renamed is all, not for the first or last time.
@Dermot Blaine: continue to be studied I mean
@Dermot Blaine: Alan used the phrase, and I was pointing out howI feel that attitude is incorrect.
@Dermot Blaine: why cancel history ? Learning more about it is what’s needed.
The lrish like to blame the English for everything, and ignore the important part we played in the British Empire.
Peasants were treated abomnimably all over Europe. The French ended up eating snails and frogs legs. Then, the American and Australian continents opened up and European peasants got shipped off at a massive rate.
Context is everything.
@H Woo: the past is important. Knowledge of history is more important than ever. I’m aware of the wordplay :
‘his-story’. You have to sift through the interference, that’s all.
@Paddy: we already did that. Should we put all the British names back on our streets? Put the column and royal statues back in our parks?
History is a living thing. Acknowledging that values once held and people once respected aren’t up to scratch isn’t anything new.
@offside again: I agree with you, there would not have been an empire without the Irish, but I don’t think he’s being cancelled. It’s a building being renamed is all.
@H Woo: no, nothing like that
@Dermot Blaine: I’m not being contrary but would not keeping the name be more of a reminder ? But as you seem to imply, it probably makes no difference what it’s called anyway. Not sure too many people actually care.
Left wing woke culture at it again, anyway history won’t change so what’s the point?
@Ned: There’s nothing left wing about these people, don’t not conflate me as a leftist with these people, either that learn who is a leftist to those screaming reactionary types.
@Ned: do you know what woke mean?
Changing names because a tiny minority is offended is crazy.
@Alex: so you’d rather an absolutely discount human being continue to be celebrated?
Says it all
@Alan OConnor: disgusting human being.
@Alan OConnor: Discount individual has a nice ring to it too
Stop changing history because you don’t like it , it’s important to remember people for both the bad and good they did , educate people to the name not change because someone’s offended .
@Patricia Doyle: so should we go back to Kingstown for Dun Laoghaire, Queens Town for Cobh, King’s County, Queens County, Sackvilke Street? Times change, attitudes change. Berkeley will still be studied in trinity, his books will still be there. Nobody is changing history, just the name of a building.
As someone on the radio just now pointed out, we should, based on Trinity’s “logic”, change the name of the month of July as it’s named for Julius Caesar, a slave owner. It’s getting more and more ridiculous!
@Patrice Ahern: It was already changed from Quintilis to July and I’d be all up for changing it back.
@Patrice Ahern: And also August as it’s named after Caesar Augustus, a slave owner!
Oh give me a f..k break
The word Royal should be removed from organisations based in the republic. It is terrible when RTE broadcasts royal events. Are they not aware that we are an independant country of over 100 years. As for the millions spent on the queens visit another example of the waste of taxpayers money.
@rory Mcgovern: check out all the post boxes most have GR on them but painted green no one notices
@rory Mcgovern: So we shouldn’t spend any money when a Head of State visits?
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: ONLY somebody spending other peoples money would consider millions as any money. The president of Vietnam recently visited and millions were NOT spent. As for the Irish people who curtsied the queen have they have NO shame. Her family continues to discriminate against Catholics. Her son head of a regiment who shot dead totally innocent people in Derry who were looking for basic human rights like housing and the right to vote. The late queen is now the same colour of DUST and BONES as all dead people. Something to consider before more millions are wasted.
@rory Mcgovern: As the visit demonstrated a lot of Irish people admired the Queen. Not everyone goes about with a chip on their shoulders where England is concerned. I’m more ashamed of what was done by the IRA in our name.
@H Woo: british royal family are PROTESTANTS. No such words in english greeding and majory. My wife would not let me also have a girlfriend. I will decide who is good enough for me. And yes in the seventies CATHOLICS in NORTHERN IRELAND were not given a vote in elections.
@rory Mcgovern: It is incorrect to say Catholics per se had no vote in the seventies. The Electoral Act was passed in the late sixties. Prior to that there was gerrymandering and a property requirement for voting in council elections. This also affected poor Protestants as well as Nationalists.
@Vincent Alexander: if it wasn’t for the ira you’d still be munching on English langer!
@den: We can thank the IRA for years of poverty after independence, handing over health and education to the church and the brown paper envelope culture.
PS Until 1970 there was RC ban on catholics attending TC.
As if it wasn’t already bad enough that the woke brigade changed Kings County and Queens County to Offaly and Laois. Snowflakes need to stop now!
There’s also a Berkeley Street in Phibsboro, guess they’ll want that changed too.
Then when they find out Eavan Boland told a racist joke at a private dinner party they’ll insist on the college denaming her.
A good decision and choice by Trinity in my view.
A good pick.
@Dermot Blaine: much better writers than boland. Even among her own generation
@Alan: I’m sure there are. But she was chosen by students so I’ve no problem with it
@Dermot Blaine: If they chose it then you should have a problem with it.
@Billy Joe: why? She’s an ex student and teacher of the college and a world renowned poet. The students that use the library helped choose the name. Nothing wrong with any of that.
@Dermot Blaine: World renowned? I doubt few people outside of Trinity has actually heard of her.
Berkeley in California is name after him too.
Trinity, the bastion of Anglo Irish establishment criticising Berkeley?
They might need to look at the full legal name of the college (Look it up!) Woke nonsense. If we judge everyone in the past by today’s standards, we will have to cancel half of history or more!
Sad little edgelords out in force in the comments. They would have ratted to the brits too, no doubt.
Politically correct nonsense. The Trinity Authorities should be ashamed. Far better to have left the name of the library unchanged but put notices at entrances confirming Berkeley was a beneficiary of the slave trade. Much better to explain and contextualise history than to deny it.
@Minnie Mouse: no one’s denying it man, this is a clear recognition of it.
There’s an Arch in Youghal called Cromwells Arch, maybe we should pull it down??? The world is gone mad.
@Martin O Connell: no need to pull it down, though cork co co might consider renaming it
@Kevin Kerr: why should it be renamed? Doing so achieves nothing other than appeasing revisionists.
@Kevin Kerr: it was named because of its historical significance.!!! Historical!!!!!!!! Renaming things eradicate s our history. Ignorance of where we “as a nation” came from and what we endured is an insult to all that came before us.
@Martin O Connell: relax pal, you’ll live longer
How ironic considering trinity was a absentee landlord who employed middle men to evict families in this country and built there college out of peasant rent money
Incredibly proud to know that a building in Trinity College is to be called after a woman for the first time and who is also a cousin of mine!
@Shelley Keary: well whoppie s…
As an ex Trinity student it’s amazing how in 20 years since I went there we’ve finally arrived at this. Berkley was, as was Burke, figures of their time, to literally now remove them because it is politically expedient and emotionally upsetting to a few shows you that the future generation will be further molly coddled and insulated by actions carried out by dead people a few centuries ago. While we are at it let us start trawling through modern chapters of political figures, Simon Harris hasn’t thrown out the Israeli Ambassador here, he’s complicit in Israel’s actions, shall we now see him as a divisive figure in 100 years, see where this goes?
@Marcus Maher – Triskellion Films: I mean, yes? History likely won’t treat Harris kindly. You’re suggesting people if the past deserve a pass because what they did happened a long time ago, which seems a bit odd.
How about Anglo Irish Banks should they be remembered the golden circle, some of those guys should be never be remembered, they puts this country almost on its knees, the pin stripe brigade.
@Phillip Smyth: and they are still calling the shots how silly are we all changing names
Berkeley was a great man this name change is typical of the nonsense going on in the college
Would it have it been named after her if she was still alive? Doubt it
What’s next? Rename Adolf Hitler Plaza in Berlin?
Fantastic decision. Eavan Boland is a great choice, though I would have preferred Brendan Keneally.
The crazies here would defend the Jimmy Saville Children’s ward and the Joseph Stalin memerorial gardens if they existed. Horrible figures from the past should NOT be honoured.
Oh good god!!you far lefties or righties,need to cop on!just go straight down the middle lads,life is easier and common sense is abundant!ps grow up
Can we not just rename it as a number, a letter or a symbol, and then refer to it as ‘formally known as’? That’s….so in ever since ‘¥’ (formally known as Prince) intro’d it.
not as entertaining as usual
Brilliant
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