ABOUT UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN TRINITY COLLEGE :
Trinity College, the single constituent college of the University of Dublin, was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, and thus celebrated its Quatercentenary in 1992. It is the oldest university in Ireland and one of the older universities of Western Europe.

Based on the general pattern of the ancient colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, Trinity is larger, with a campus extending over 40 acres in a unique site in the heart of the city. The west end includes five quadrangles of squares with many buildings from the 18th century, notably the Old Library - home to the priceless 8th century manuscript, The Book of Kells. The most recent of these squares was completed however as recently as 1978, with the award winning Arts and Social Science Building in which many visiting students attend lectures and classes. Further east, the Hamilton and O'Reilly buildings, Biotechnology Building, Panoz Institute and the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, house many of Trinity's science, pharmacology and technology departments. Close by, the College Park with its sports fields, remains one of the largest green spaces in the city.

Trinity College is the sole constituent college of the University. At present there are over 12,000 students and 1,200 staff members working on the College campus.

The history of Trinity College can be conveniently divided into four epochs-a century or so during which the foundations were laid, a period of colourful expansion extending over the eighteenth century, and a century and a half of strenuous adaptation to a rapidly changing world.

Standing on a self-contained site in the heart of Dublin, the College covers some 40 acres of cobbled squares and green spaces, around buildings which represent the accumulated architectural riches of nearly three centuries. Its thirteen and a half thousand staff and students form a compact academic community and are at the same time an intimate part of the city's life. Dublin offers a particularly congenial atmosphere for students and, while small by international standards, it has in all respects the resources of a capital city with a full and varied cultural and intellectual life.

Trinity College is one of Irelands leading historical sites, attracting in excess of half a million visitors every year. Heritage attractions available to visitors include The Book of Kells and Walking Tours of the Campus.

HISTORY :
Trinity was founded just before the Tudor monarchy had completed the task of extending its authority over the whole of Ireland. The idea of an Irish university had been in the air for some time, and in 1592 a small group of Dublin citizens obtained a charter from Queen Elizabeth incorporating Trinity College juxta Dublin. The Corporation of Dublin granted to the new foundation the lands and dilapidated buildings of the monastery of All Hallows, lying about a quarter of a mile south-east of the city walls. Two years later a few Fellows and students began to work in the new College, which then consisted of one small square. During the next fifty years the community increased. Endowments, including considerable landed estates, were secured, new fellowships were founded, the books which formed the beginning of the great library were acquired, a curriculum was devised and statutes were framed.

The second half-century of the College's history was a time of turmoil, marked in Ireland by an interregnum and two civil wars. In 1641 the Provost fled, and two years later the College had to pawn its plate; some Fellows were expelled by the Commonwealth authorities, others were excluded at the Restoration, and in 1689 all the Fellows and students were expelled when the College was turned into a barrack for the soldiers of James II. But the seventeenth century was also an age of ardent learning; and Trinity men such as Ussher, a kindly polymath, Marsh, the orientalist, Dodwell, the historian, Stearne, who founded the Irish College of Physicians, and Molyneux, the correspondent of Locke, were typical of the adventurous and wide-ranging scholarship of their day.

MISSION:
Trinity College builds on its four-hundred-year-old tradition of scholarship to confirm its position as one of the great universities of the world, providing a liberal environment where independence of thought is highly valued and where staff and students are nurtured as individuals and are encouraged to achieve their full potential.

The College is committed to excellence in both research and teaching, to the enhancement of the learning experience of each of its students and to an inclusive College community with equality of access for all. The College will continue to disseminate its knowledge and expertise to the benefit of the City of Dublin, the country and the international community.

THE CITY :
Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, enjoys one of the best settings of any European city. Stretching around the wide expanse of Dublin Bay from the imposing mass of Howth Head in the north to the granite outcrops of the Wicklow massif in the south, few parts of the city are far from the sights and smells of the sea, while many centre-city streets seem to end in a vista of mountains.

Cosmopolitan in its origins, Dublin - Báile Átha Cliath in Irish - arose originally from a Viking settlement on the right
bank of the Liffey. The principal city of Ireland for most of its thousand-year history, it experienced a period of rapid expansion in the eighteenth century, when it attained the status of one of Europe's great cities, with magnificent squares and stately public buildings. Much of the elegance of that period is conserved in and around Trinity.

With one of the youngest populations of Europe's major cities, Dublin offers an unusually congenial atmosphere for students. While the economic upsurge of recent years has brought a proliferation of fashionable boutiques and expensive restaurants, the shorter purse is well catered for in second-hand bookshops, street markets, fast food outlets and ethnic 'eateries' of all kinds, many located in the revitalised Temple Bar area opposite the front entrance to the College.

As capital of the Republic and major commercial centre of the whole island, Dublin is the hub of communications for the country as a whole. Most parts of Ireland, including the renowned scenic areas of Cork, Kerry, Clare and Galway, can be easily reached by train or bus. For vacation travel, few European capitals are more than two hours away by air by direct flights.