Second college

dublincc2

Just curious, was there ever any plan to establish a second college in the University of Dublin, as with Oxford and Cambridge having multiple colleges?

If so, what are the details snd where would it have been located?

Charles Babbage

They should open one in North Armagh, which the British gave them in the Plantation of Ulster.

DeeAvery

On the University of Dublin Wiki page it says plans for a 2nd constituent college happened on at least two occasions but neither time the financial backing could be secured. I'm sure there are actual sources or local and academic historians that would definitely know more info than that.

As a current Trinner, it is not something that is commonly talked about other than the impression I have been given that it is not a priority at all to create more colleges and that a constituent college approach is related to history. There is more of a preference for investing and creating state of the art departments/faculties by subject. They bring in research funding after all.

I've studied with Oxbridge as well and (depending on who you ask admittedly) there are arguments that the college system today is about branding for the universities and they are, particularly at Oxford, becoming less and less autonomous. Basically, through a critical lens, they are glorified halls of residence, kept to keep the international student and tourist money coming in and maintain elitist power structures. There is a hierarchy within the college system, both official and unofficial, between both colleges and the members within the colleges themselves. So it is beneficial for those who benefit from the hierarchy to maintain it that way for as long as they can.

alexago

Have they already established it?

Peregrinus

The Irish Parliament did legislate in 1660 to authorise the Lord Lieutenant to establish a second college, to be called "King's College". I think the idea was that it was to be open to Catholics. But the money was never available, and the college was never established. And in 1793, when the Irish parliament enacted a limited degree of Catholic emancipation (reversed with the Act of Union in 1800) the legislation also envisaged the establishment of a second college of the university to serve Catholics - no name assigned this time - but, again, it never happened. The 1793 legislation also allowed Catholics to attend TCD as students (thought they could not become Scholars, Fellows or Professors) and that may have relieved the pressure a bit. Then along came the Act of Union and the whole idea was shelved.

Because neither college was ever established, no location was chosen, beyond the fact that it was to be in or near Dublin.

In the nineteenth century, when the tiresome question of university education for Catholics raised its head yet again, there was another proposal to establish a second college in the University of Dublin. This time, there were definite ideas about funding it. TCD was by then a very wealthy establishment; far richer than any single college of Oxford or Cambridge, and the owner of about 1% of the land of Ireland, which was a huge estate. By some accounts TCD was the wealthiest college in the world at the time. The idea was that a chunk of TCD's endowment would be, um, diverted and would form the initial endowment of a second, Catholic-friendly college.

TCD, unsurprisingly, was not wildly enthusiastic about this plan and lobbied strongly against it. The lobbying was successful; TCD and its endowment were left untouched. Instead state-funded Queen's Colleges were established in Belfast, Cork and Galway and a Queen's University was established as the degree-awarding body for those Colleges. The private Catholic University of Ireland (the predecessor of UCD) was established in Dublin, but it had no state funding and could not award legally-recognised degrees.

dublincc2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121010356#Comment_121010356

I believe the original plan was to have the University of Dublin sited at Trim.