Visiting Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s oldest university founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I was not really in my agenda, but the German girl I met during the first night’s Irish pub crawl advised I must visit the Old Library because it’s the one thing I should never miss in Dublin. Alright. Now, if you buy a Trinity College Dublin Tour ticket, you get the free entrance to the Old Library. Done DEAL.
The tour was actually nice, and a few tales that stuck to mind was George Salmon, the staunch and intensely conservative former provost in the late 1800’s who didn’t allow women to enter the university. He was eventually overruled by the school board dropping his sanction in favour of women studying in the university, and just after he died, which was a few weeks later, women were admitted. George Salmon is buried in the school grounds and a somewhat urban legend there was that he once swore, ‘Under my dead body would women walk through the gates of Trinity…’ (or something like that). So it’s been a practice ever since for all women admitted into the university to walk over his grave. See men, DO NOT mess with women!
Another one is an old incident about a professor who lived in one of the buildings in the campus and one night a couple of intoxicated students thought it would be fun to pester the professor late at night while he was sleeping. This actually got worse, and I mean really WORSE that the whole melee resulted into gunfire exchange. HUH. Can you believe that?! Anyway, I have poor memory so I don’t remember how the story ended except that the students were expelled from attending the university thereafter.
Have fun touring the campus through my fotos below.
Main entrance to the university and the ‘Campanile’ on Parliament square inside the campus.
Freshman orientation week.
The statue of George Salmon, the extremely (and annoyingly) old-fashioned former provost who did not allow women to enter/study in the university… and our tour guide.
The brick building is where gunfire exchange ensued after a brawl between a couple of drunken male students and a awoken-from-a-deep-sleep irritated professor.
The Berkely Library with the world ball called ‘Sphere’.
It was Freshman orientation week when I was there just before the new semester started, so the campus was quite busy.
Travel Period: September 2010
Destination: Dublin, Ireland
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