History
Political Science has been taught at Trinity College since the middle of the nineteenth century (see details in Undergraduate section below). The Department of Political Science itself was not founded until 1960, with Professor Basil Chubb (1921–2002) as its first chair. The Department as such produced its first graduates in 1963, a landmark being celebrated by a series of special events for alumni taking place in August 2013 (further details here). Basil Chubb (PDF, 86KB) had earlier become the first full-time appointment in Political Science. He came to TCD in 1948 following the completion of his PhD at the University of Oxford. He held the chair until his retirement in 1991, and two years later the chair was filled by Professor Michael Laver, who moved east from his previous position in NUI Galway. Michael Laver took up a new position at New York University in January 2005 and the Chair in Political Science has lain vacant ever since.
The Department was situated within the Faculty of Business, Economic and Social Studies (BESS) from the formation of the faculty in 1969 until the 2005 dissolution of the existing faculty structure and its replacement by a series of Schools. It is now a member of the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, along with the Departments of Economics, Philosophy, and Sociology. The school is, in turn, a member of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
PhD and masters programmes
The Department always had a number of doctoral students working on an individual basis with little or no methodological training, and many excellent theses emerged from their work. In a major initiative in 1995, Political Science introduced a new PhD programme, under which graduate students would undergo intensive coursework, with a particular emphasis on research design and methods, which would be followed by a completion of a thesis. After an initial lead-in period, the programme has produced a steady flow of PhDs. The Department's intellectual vibrancy has been greatly enhanced by the presence of, at any given time, around 20-25 PhD students, who contribute to the research and teaching work of the department and present their research findings at weekly departmental seminars and international conferences.
In a further strengthening of its postgraduate training, the Department introduced a Masters in Comparative European Politics in 2008. This has now been replaced by a Masters in Politics and Public Policy. In 2010 a Masters in International Politics was introduced.
Undergraduate
The Department has also expanded its undergraduate teaching commitments over the years. The term 'Political Science' seems to have appeared in Trinity College in 1870; at this time Ulysses S Grant was President of the USA, William Gladstone was prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in France the 'emperor' Louis Napoleon was overthrown, the Prussian army under Bismarck defeated the French army and the unification of Germany was virtually completed, and in Ireland Isaac Butt established the Home Rule movement. In that year a Moderatorship in History, Political Science and English Literature was established, and in 1873 this became a Moderatorship in History and Political Science. By 1910 it was also possible to obtain a Moderatorship in Legal and Political Science. In 1924 the former degree programme was expanded into a Moderatorship in Ancient History and Political Science and a Moderatorship in Modern History and Political Science; in 1933 a Moderatorship in Economics and Political Science was introduced; and in 1964 the combination of history and politics was rationalised into a new degree of History and Political Science.
There is no doubt that Political Science was very much the junior partner in these degree programmes. The University of Dublin Calendar for 1960–61, for example, gives the syllabus for Modern History and Political Science, and shows that there were no Political Science courses (or modules, in post-2012 terminology) in either JF or SF year. The predominance of History was attenuated slightly in JS year, where Political Science supplied the module 'History of Political Thought in Europe', while in SS year the offerings were solidly from History apart from one module titled 'Problems in Modern Political and Social Philosophy'. There was a slightly greater Political Science contribution to the Economics and Political Science degree programme, with a JF module titled 'Social and political institutions' and a SF module on 'Public administration'. In JS and SS the same modules as in History and Political Science were available, as well as, in SS, a module on 'Vocational representation'. Political Science staff at this time were confined, according to the Calendar, to Basil Chubb, appointed Professor of Political Science on 16 March 1960; David Thornley, appointed Junior Lecturer on 21 December 1959; and Donal O'Sullivan, appointed 'Lecturer in international affairs' in 1949, possibly on a part-time basis.
In the 1961–62 Calendar the SS module 'Problems in Modern Political and Social Philosophy' has been replaced by 'Contemporary political theories'. As from 1963–4 the module offerings in the Economics and Political Science degree programme began to grow, with 'Political institutions 1' in JF and 'Political institutions 2' in SF year. In JS two new modules appear, 'Development of political thought' and 'International political institutions', the latter reflecting the appointment of Patrick Keatinge as a junior lecturer in September 1963. In SS year there were 'Political theory 1', 'Political theory 2' and a third dose of 'Political institutions'. Political science retained its marginal role in the Modern History and Political Science degree, though.
Seemingly all these degrees came to an end in 1974 with the establishment of the ESS (Economics and Social Studies) degree programme, a title that rather unhelpfully made no mention of Political Science. Students' options were now limited to studying Political Science along with Business Studies, Economics, or Sociology.
From the early 1990s, a number of new degree programmes have been introduced; in some cases, probably unknown to the designers of the new degree programmes, these were in effect a reinstatement of programmes that had been in existence in earlier decades. In the 1990, a new programme, History and Political Science, was introduced, with Philosophy and Political Science following a few years later. The former continues to flourish, though PhilPol has now been subsumed into the PPES (Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Sociology) degree, introduced in 2008, through which students can study these two subjects together. Two further programmes began in October 2009: Law and Political Science, and Political Science and Geography. The first cohort in both of these programmes graduated in the summer of 2013. Full details are on the Undergraduate page.
Location
From 1960 to 1978 the Department was physically located in House 6, near the main entrance to Trinity's campus. In 1978 it moved to the then-new Arts Building, occupying rooms on the 3rd floor. In 1998 it moved to a new location off campus, adjacent to the Temple Bar area, in 1 College Green. The Department occupies the top two floors of the building, with sweeping views across the city skyline taking in College Green, the Millennium Spire, Croke Park and the Hill of Howth, though these views are being progressively obscured by the growth of the trees in Foster Place. You will find details of how to find us on our contact page. Much of the Department's teaching still takes place in the Arts Building.
Academic Staff
The News and News Archive pages contain information on arrivals and departures in recent years. Going further back, apart from Professors Basil Chubb and Michael Laver, already mentioned, other former members of the permanent staff include: Dr John O'Day, who resigned in 1976 to return to the USA; Professor David Thornley (1935–78), a noted historian, television journalist, TD (member of parliament) and MEP, who died at a tragically young age and is the subject of Unquiet Spirit: Essays in memory of David Thornley (Dublin: Liberties Press, 2008); Professor Patrick Keatinge, for many years Ireland's leading authority on Irish foreign policy and the European Community/Union, who retired in 1999 after 36 years in the Department; Dr Nalini Persram, who left the department in 2006, after seven successful years in TCD, to take up a position at York University in Toronto; Professor Ron Hill, long regarded as one of the world's leading experts on communist politics, who retired in September 2007 after 38 years in the department; and Professor Robert Thomson, a leading scholar of decision-making in the EU and of pledge fulfilment by political parties, who left in December 2012 to take up a chair at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.