About this place

A serene oasis in the centre of bustling Dublin City, Trinity College Dublin was founded in 1592 on a site deemed to be quite distant from the city centre at the time. Dubliners nowadays, however, cannot imagine walking through the true centre of the city without passing by the front gates of the 'Harvard of Ireland'.

Originally designed for Protestant men, the institution became more lenient towards Catholics (making up the majority of the population throughout the ages) from the late 1700s, and has been allowing women places from 1904. As the oldest surviving university on the island of Ireland, Trinity has attracted the most ambitious students; whether it's Robert Emmet and his desire for Irish freedom, materialising in his 1803 rebellion, Oscar Wilde whose social skills were probably tuned here to prepare him to delight London with his Irish wit, or Jonathan Swift, who noticed and lamented how divided Irish society was: the Dublin of his day favoured Protestants over Catholics, and Britishness over Irishness.

And still today the university attracts not only some of the most talented students in the country, but also the world - Trinity College Dublin is regarded as one of the greatest third-level learning institutions in the world. With around 17,000 students and nearly every subject from Law and Medicine to the Arts, Trinity is a shining hope for the future of Ireland. 

And the pride of Trinity is the shining hope of the past that was The Book of Kells. 'The most beautiful book in the world' is housed inside the Old Library of Trinity College and is regarded as one of the top three must-dos in Dublin. 

Many people simply enjoy the campus itself, with its lush greenery, parks, buildings dating back to 1700 and its vibrancy, provided by the optimism of its students. Trinity College today is as much a part of Dublin as the River Liffey!