The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-09-24
TRINITY COLLEGE,
A Famous Institution Of Learning
Which Ranks Second to None
in the Whole World.
THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY,
The Alma Mater of Grattan and
Emmett, Goldsmith and Moore,
Curran and Sheridan.

/ u,
Curran and Sheridan.
| A correspondent of the Boston Globe,
writing from Trinity College, gives the
following interesting description of the
| famous university:
! The celebration of the 3O0th anniver-
sary of Trinity College, Dublin, was an
event only eclipsed in national import
| ance by the excitement and trend OF the
general elections in Great Britain, on
the results of which rest the hopes of a
speedy realization of Irish autonomy.
Trinity College ranks on level with
Oxford and Cambridge, but, unlike the
English universities, it has always occu~
pied unique and conspicuous position
in the development Of Irish national life.
Founded Id Ireland it was endowed and
fostered by 4 policy calculated to
strengthen the powers of the minority.
Erected as the nucleus of national uni
versity it contracted it's privileges exclu
siyely to the Protestant denomina tions.
More than two-thirds of the population
were disqualified from participant in
the honors, degrees and emolumepts
which the college could confer, and for
the largest part Of it's existence Trinity
College, it's intelligence as whole, in
stead Of being the representative Of ad-
vanced thought and liberal reforms, has
stood out as the most unc1mpromisingl
conservative force of the country.
Unlike the other great English COL
leges, unlike almost all other venerable
colleges Of the world, trinity stands in
the midst of a populous city, in the very
heart of Dublin, by whose iron gates the
busiest portion of the city's population
pass and repass daily, the loudest traffic
keeping incessant noise from earliest
dawn to the latest moments of darkness.
Its gray, massive facade looks straight
down Dame street, the centre OF Dublin's
commerce and enterprise. At one angle
it fronts the no less historical building,
the Bank of Ireland, which with it's Ionic
pillars and rotunda-like design might by
some be mistaken for Grecian temple,
as it reminds one of the days Of Irish in
dependence.
It was in that place that Grattan, N
an oration, the beauty of whose diction,
the strength of whose logic and the
charm of whose periods rival the most
splendid efforts of Demosthenes. uttered
his last and most powerful appeal for the
independence of Ireland, while from the
gates of Trinity had already issued Ed
mund Burke, who was soon to deliver his
famous plea for the independence of
America
The statue Of Henry Grattan faces
Trinity, by whose gates stand Edmund
Burke and Goldsmith, the most repre-
sentative of the great men whose minds
were ripened within the walls of the col
lege Inside the gates it is as quiet and
undisturbed as If the academic atmos-
phere were naturally imperyions to the
most penetrating of every. day life COM
motions.
An undefnable charm haunts the gray
quadrangles, all built of massive stone
all bearing an air Of sombre majesty. To
the right is the stately examination hall,
the old theatre replete with historic re-
miniscences, where Swift was plucked
aud Emmett first learned to round his
periods, and where the students of to-
day pass through the ordeal of weighing
their knowledge in the balance of the
deans judgment
A long building of massive stone, with
an open corridor, is the famous library.
Upstairs, in the gallery, you are con-
fronted with rows of memorials and busts
of scholars and poets, Of saints and sages
who march in glorious procession through
the ages and centuries, and who, through
their sanctifying associations, have in
vested the college to every Trinity man
with hallowing property which could
hardly be surpassed by the ties and
memories of country and kin.
There is Bishop Berkley looking
strangely at Thomas Moore. A dusty bust
of Robert Emmet might be mistaken for
a younger Caesar; Swift looks terribly
g. um at an innocent provost, next whom
Goldsmith stands with az expression as
If he'll see about it later.
Curran can be seen, ready to indict
everybody there, not far from where the
complacent Sheridan stands with an ex-
preston as If it didn't matter.
Not far from them hangs q fac-simile
list Of the signatures of the members OF
the last Irish + Parliament.