While 2020 marks the opening of the Trinity Long Room Hub building on Fellows’ Square, the story of the Hub starts long before this.

Between 2004 and 2006 the Arts, Humanities and Library community at Trinity came together to successfully make the case to the university for a research institute dedicated to the Arts and Humanities. In 2007, this support by the university in turn led to Trinity securing €10.8 million of Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) funding from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for the state-of-the-art building which is the home of the Trinity Long Room Hub today. As a conceptual, physical and intellectual platform the Hub represents a diverse community of scholars drawn from over twenty arts and humanities disciplines and the Library whose reach is both local and global. The Hub and its home is symbolic of our unique vantage point: an engagement with the past and present that deepens our understanding of ourselves with a firm focus on what is needed for the future flourishing of our society.

To mark a decade of the Hub building, the anniversary symposium reflectedt on the work done by our community over the last decade to pioneer new Arts and Humanities led approaches to the complex problems of today and take account of the social, political and cultural change in the world during those years. Looking to the future, three key research strands were discussed which have potential for maximum impact by the Arts and Humanities on critical societal challenges: the crises of democracy, what it means to be human in the 21st century and the future of this island.

Related links

Digging into the Archives: Professor Roy Foster

The Raft Project

The Anniversary Showcase

Anniversary Overview