Inside, too, they are similar in design, with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and long apsed auditorium. But they are totally different in mood. The theater is the more immediately spectacular with its decorated ceiling by one of Dublin's finest stuccoers, Michael Stapleton, its carved organ case, its gilded oak chandelier, its nine large portraits of college worthies. But I prefer the simplicity of the chapel. I like the way in which the curve of the gallery echoes that of the apse, the fine carving of the paired pilasters, the tall collegiate pews so reminiscent of Cambridge college chapels.
T here is, of course, nothing here of the original Elizabethan Trinity.
Those who seek some trace of those early origins can find it hidden away behind the chapel in the simple memorials to some of the men connected with the foundation of the college. It is appropriate that its sponsor should have been the first Elizabeth, easily the most learned of English queens. But her motives were not entirely academic. But this was also the Queen who proclaimed that she had no wish to make windows to pry into men's souls, and we can, I think, assume that she would have approved the decision in 1793 to admit Roman Catholics and would welcome the fact that Trinity is now a nondenominational college interested in the scholarship of applicants, not in their religious allegiance. For me the most exciting building in Trinity is the museum.