Trinity College Dublin is renaming its main Library, formerly named after George Berkeley, after the acclaimed Irish poet Eavan Boland.
This decision was made by the University Board on Wednesday, October 9 after a period of research, analysis, and public consultation overseen by the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group (TLRWG).
The Eavan Boland Library will be the first building on Trinity’s campus to be named after a woman.
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
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Dublin-born Eavan Boland spent some early years in London and New York before returning to Ireland to attend secondary school in Killiney and later university at Trinity College Dublin.
Boland, who died in 2020, is remembered today as one of the foremost women in Irish literature, publishing many collections of poetry, a memoir "Object Lessons" (1995), as well as teaching and lecturing in Ireland and in the US.
The Library at Trinity College Dublin was previously The Berkeley Library, named after George Berkeley, who published philosophical works while at Trinity in the 1700s.
However, Berkeley also bought slaves – named Philip, Anthony, Edward, and Agnes Berkeley – to work on his Rhode Island estate in 1730-31 and sought to advance ideology in support of slavery.
In August 2022, the Trinity College Dublin Students' Union announced that it would be referring to the Library as the ‘X’ Library in all future communications, until Trinity provided a renaming plan.
Soon after, the TLRWG began its consultation on the matter.
The following April, Trinity announced it was "denaming" the Library after deciding that the continued use of George Berkeley’s name was inconsistent with the University’s core values of human dignity, freedom, inclusivity, and equality.
Since then, its largest Library has been known simply as ‘The Library.'
At a debate on the new name in February 2024 hosted by the University Historical Society with the support of the TLRWG, five guest speakers and five students spoke in favour of ten names selected by the society based on popular suggestions received.
Along with Boland, the names included Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Paul Koralek (the architect of the Library building), Oscar Wilde, and Wolfe Tone.
Trinity History student Méabh Scahill called Boland “a seminal poet in the Irish literary tradition, whose work carved out a space for women within that tradition."
(Despite a campaign to rename the library after Co Kildare actor Paul Mescal, Trinity says it wasn't considering the names of living people.)
In September 2024, after a process of deliberation including consideration of the 855 public submissions, the TLRWG identified several options for the renaming of the Library, with their preferred recommendation being The Eavan Boland Library.
A paper by TLRWG member Catriona Crowe noted that Boland’s “great achievement was to move women from the object (muse, dream, symbol) of poetry to the subject who was writing the poem."
Her name, she wrote, “would bring a magnificent poetic, scholarly and feminist reputation to a building dedicated to the humanities."
Commenting on the Library's new name, Provost Dr Linda Doyle said: “It is a fitting recognition of Eavan Boland’s poetic genius that our main Library, used by so many students and staff, will now carry her name.
"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.
"I want to sincerely thank everyone who participated in the process that has led us to today’s decision. It was marked by broad consultation and very thoughtful conversations.”
Professor Eoin O Sullivan, Senior Dean and Chair of the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group, said: “We arrived at this point because of the hard work and conviction of many people in Trinity’s community, not least the 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.”
Helen Shenton, Librarian and College Archivist at Trinity College Dublin, said: “Libraries are both fundamental constants in the university and simultaneously constantly in flux. Technological advances, societal changes and cultural evolutions shape the Library for each generation.
"As a 21st century Library, the name change to this unique library building prioritises the current generation of students’ experience of a welcoming and supportive Library space.
"Under its new name, it will provide an inclusive and inspirational space for generations of students to come, bolstered now by Eavan Boland’s scholarly and feminist reputation.”
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