Exhibitions and Events
On this page:
- Current Exhibitions
- Forthcoming Exhibitions
- Forthcoming Lectures
- Past Exhibitions - Still Available Online
- Other Past Exhibitions
- Past Lectures
Current Exhibitions
Dublin: the College and the City 1250-1950 (SWF 225KB)
05 November 2009 to 13 May 2010
One of the oldest cities in Europe, Dublin’s settlement spans over 1000 years. The collections of Trinity College Library offer fascinating glimpses of that vibrant history. They reflect the everyday economic, social and intellectual concerns of Dubliners throughout the centuries, whether they were scholars, patriots, rebels, churchmen, politicians, landowners, servants or students. Since its foundation in 1592, Trinity’s identity has become inextricably linked with that of Dublin, and the College’s archives illustrate this relationship. This exhibition provides a rich view of life in Dublin, based on the words and experiences of generations of citizens of, and visitors to, the city. It begins with manuscripts generated by the Anglo- Norman administration, when Dublin emerged as the capital of Ireland, progressing through 700 years of change and renewal.
An explanatory leaflet (PDF 2.7MB) is available.
Forthcoming Exhibitions
Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray
April 2010
This exhibition is mounted in conjunction with the Dublin City Council initiative Dublin: One City, One Book, which this year features The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The exhibition will display some of the rich material the Library has on one of its most illustrious former graduates.
India: The Famed Orient and European Perspectives
20 May to 03 October 2010
The links with South Asia and Trinity College Dublin are very old, reaching back at least to the establishment of the Chair of Oriental Languages in 1762. This exhibition will explore the links between Trinity, Ireland, Britain and Europe with India, concentrating on the wealth of printed books and other related material from the 19th and early 20th century that is held in the Library.
Ireland in Turmoil: The Depositions of 1641
07 October 2010 to 03 April 2011
The 1641 Depositions held in the Manuscripts and Archives Research library comprise over 3,000 personal statement or “Depositions" of Protestant men and women of all classes, made following the outbreak of rebellion by the Catholic Irish in October 1641. The material was collected by special commissioners between 1641 and the end of the war in 1654 and was used as evidence in the subsequent trials of rebellion leaders. The depositions constitute the chief evidence for the contested allegation that the 1641 rebellion began with a general massacre of protestant settlers. The 1641 Deposition Project (2007- 2010) is currently under way to conserve, transcribe and digitize the depositions. On completion the material will be available on the web, creating a unique research tool and a comprehensive electronic resource.
Forthcoming Lectures
Antony Trollope: In, On and About Ireland
Michael Gleeson
19:30, Thursday 18 March 2010
Thomas Davis Lecture Theatre, Trinity College Dublin
Friends of the Library €2.50, non-members €5
Michael Gleeson was Secretary to the College and is now the College’s Director of Strategic Initiatives. Attendees may remember his enjoyable lecture on C.P. Snow.
Michael has a great interest in Anthony Trollope - in particular his Irish novels and his time in, and views on, Ireland.
Trollope came to Ireland as a Postal Surveyor’s Clerk in 1841 and lived here, with a few intermissions, until 1859. His first novel “The Macdermots of Ballycloran” is set in Ireland and was written here; his forty-seventh and last novel, the unfinished “The Landleaguers” is also set in Ireland as are three others: “The Kellys and the O’Kellys”, “Castle Richmond” and “An Eye for an Eye”. Phineas Finn, the central figure of the Palliser or parliamentary novels, was educated at Trinity!
Trollope had a very complex relationship with Ireland; his views on politics, the Famine, religion, Daniel O’Connell and Parnell will be explored in the talk against the background, and in the context of, the Irish novels and other writings.
Past Exhibitions - Still Available Online
A Window on the Middle Ages (SWF 3.12MB)
Medieval Manuscripts at Trinity College Library
Edmund Burke (SWF 2MB)
Marking the 260th Anniversary of the graduation of Edmund Burke
Napoleon: Emperor of the French (SWF 200KB)
18 June to 1 November 2009
Even today Napoleon casts a long shadow over Europe. His law reforms and political ideals remain important influences on the shape of the continent and its sense of identity. The exhibition examined his career and political philosophy through the use of contemporary image and print from the Library’s rich collection of 19th-century French materials, showing his meteoric rise and fall and the consequences of his reign for France.
Other Past Exhibitions
Dublin Culture Night 2009
The Old Library and the Book of Kells exhibition was open free of charge from 17:00 to 22:00 on Friday 25 September 2009. See the Culture Night website for more details.
Michael de Larrabeiti (1934 - 2008) - author
This exhibition, situated in the West End of the Long Room, is in honour of Michael de Larrabeiti - author, travel writer and editor of Trinity Tales: Trinity College Dublin in the Sixties (2009). Larrabeiti was born in Battersea, London. He drew on his surroundings and upbringing when he created his best known work The Borribles (1976), The Borribles go for Broke (1981) and The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis (1986). In the author’s own words "The Borribles are scruffy London runaways living in derelict houses and cellars".
Michael de Larrabeiti’s papers were acquired by Trinity College Library Dublin in February 2009.
Adelaide Hospital
The archives of the Adelaide Hospital, including those of the School of Nursing, were donated to the Manuscripts and Archives Research Library, Trinity College Library Dublin in 2007 by the Adelaide Hospital Society. A major project was initiated in September 2009, with the support of the Society, to catalogue the collection and make it available to the public.
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Adelaide School of Nursing, and to celebrate the start of the Adelaide Hospital Project, Trinity College Library Dublin has mounted a display of items from the archive that relate to the School of Nursing, in the West End of the Long Room. This exhibition wass on view until 23rd December 2009.
Past Lectures
Character in Costume: Lady Lavery
Nora Connolly
19:00, Thursday 24 September 2009
J.M. Synge Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
Friends of the Library €2.50, non-members €5
Dressed in appropriate costume, Nora traced the glamorous life of Hazel Lavery from her birth in Chicago in 1880 to her death in London in 1935. The lecture included her relationships with Ned Trudeau, John Lavery, Michael Collins and Kevin O’Higgins among others.
Napoleon
Dr Hubert O’Connor
19:30, Thursday 15 October 2009
Thomas Davis Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
Friends of the Library €2.50, non-members €5
All Welcome. A well known gynecologist, Dr O’Connor is also an enthusiast for Napoleon, and has made a special study of the deposed Emperor’s last years on St Helena seen through the eyes of his Irish doctor Barry Edward O’Meara. His medical attendant’s records of the long, almost daily conversations with the Emperor are one of the main sources we have for the personal views of Napoleon. In his lecture Dr O’Connor shared his insights into not only Napoleon's years of exile but also his years of power.
Yesterday and Long Ago
Professor David Simms
19:30, Thursday 26 November 2009
Thomas Davis Theatre, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin
Friends of the Library €2.50, non-members €5
His own childhood was marked by the experience of being torpedoed in the South Atlantic, with his mother and siblings, and their fourteen days in a lifeboat.
Bibliography:
Goodnight, sorry for sinking you : the story of the S.S. City of Cairo
Left to the wolves : Irish victims of Stalinist terror
The twentieth Congress & after
Doorways of Ireland
Michael Fewer
19:30, Thursday 18 February 2010
Thomas Davis Lecture Theatre, Trinity College Dublin
Friends of the Library €2.50, non-members €5
Michael Fewer practiced as an architect for many years before becoming a fulltime writer. A keen walker and mountaineer, he has written fifteen books about the topography of Ireland and his travels around the country. His most recent book is ‘Doorways of Ireland’, published in 2008. In it he examines doors, ranging from the Seefin cairn at Kilbride, dating from 3000 B.C., to the 18th-century doors of Merrion Square and the contemporary entrance of the National Gallery Millennium Wing.
Architecture is made up of many facets and elements, all of them intertwined and only a part of the whole. The handling of the approach and entrance to a building has always been a powerful tool in the architect’s repertoire for informing those who view the building about the building’s purpose. The doorway, the portal to the interior, most thoroughly expresses the character, purpose and soul of the building.
