Opening of Alumni Room

Alumni Room, East Chapel

10th October

Thank you Gillian, and good evening all,

And Welcome, everyone, to Trinity’s newest space, the Alumni Room, a dedicated space on campus where alumni can call home, a place for individuals and alumni groups to meet and relax.

As we are fond of saying, Trinity is a community of students, staff and alumni – and it’s the alumni that make this such a global community. Here on campus, staff and students have a number of dedicated spaces. And we are delighted now to be acknowledging the great role of our alumni with this Room, which I hope will become a Trinity and a Dublin meeting point for graduates when they return to campus from all over the world.

I believe this Room will fast become a fixture in alumni lives - I think this because, quite simply, it’s such a lovely room – at once beautiful and cosy and a place you immediately want to spend time in. It has been renovated and outfitted to the highest possible standards, and the walls are adorned with some of the college’s finest and most attractive paintings.

I was lucky enough to live with the Sean McSweeney in my office, and the Norah McGuinness in the Provost’s House for a number of years. I found them wonderful and inspiring companions, and I know they will continue to uplift the spirits of all alumni who come in here.

I’ve just come back myself from a trip to the Middle East, where I visited Cairo, Beirut, Kuwait, Muscat, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. At each major city we travelled to, we met with alumni. Their willingness to come out to meet us and their enthusiasm for the College – after, in many cases, years not living in Ireland - was inspiring. I was reminded – although indeed I need no reminding – that Trinity’s great success is due to its people, and we’re exceptionally lucky to have such supportive graduates. We must continue to celebrate them, and with this Room, to provide them with ‘a home of their own’ on campus.

The Alumni Room has been generously funded in its entirety by philanthropy. On behalf of the whole college community, I thank in particular Fergal Naughton and Alan Dargan for their wonderful generosity and their spirit of initiative in making this room happen.

‘If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well’ as the saying goes. And this Room is the living proof of it. I know that alumni will feel very proud to have such a room at their disposal – the charm and serenity of this space as a meeting room – for business and leisure - makes itself felt immediately.

I thank Trinity Association & Trust for their on-going support. This Room is recognition of all the great work that alumni do in support of Trinity, frequently through our alumni groups – the Trinity Association & Trust, Trinity Women’s Graduates, and Trinity Business Alumni.

Trinity Women’s Graduates are owed a particular thanks because they gave up their room in 36 Fenian Street when we created the Centre for Literary Translation, which we did with the generous support of Trinity Association & Trust. This new Alumni Room is the promised replacement for Trinity Women’s Graduates Room - we’re delighted to be now fulfilling that promise.

It is, I think, fitting and appropriate that this Room is entirely funded by our alumni. It is a tangible reminder of what alumni, together with the College’s leadership team, can do when they work in concert with a single aim.

As many of you know, the College has created a Provost’s Council which provides an external leadership group for the university. The Provost’s Council is a unique body, which has been an invaluable support to me and the Board. It’s made up of friends and graduates of Trinity – people of exceptional vision and expertise who are helping to advance the cause of the University in its 5th century.

Next year we intend to launch the first Philanthropic Campaign in Trinity’s history. This Campaign is being launched with the full support and advice of the Provost’s Council.

We’re excited about the campaign because we’re not coming from a standing start. Already, our friends and alumni have proved their support for many of our initiatives, including the Trinity Business School and E3. The Campaign is about coordinating this support and taking it to the next level.

Through the Provost’s Council and the Philanthropic Campaign, we acknowledge and celebrate and formalise the great role which alumni play, and have always played, in advancing the cause of Trinity, Dublin and Ireland.

The best wish I have for this Room is that it is used comprehensively and completely. I would be delighted were it to become a kind of conversation room – and meeting place where Trinity graduates would gather when they are in Dublin. This is such an attractive space and it has the great advantage that one might meet anyone here from one’s years in college.

When I enter this Room myself I will come as a graduate, not as a Provost or college officer.

I thank, again, all who have made this happen. I thank Gillian Quinn de Schonen, a distinguished member of the Provost’s Council, for inviting me here this evening, and I now declare the Alumni Room open!

Thank you.

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