Trinity College renames library after Dublin poet having removed name of famous Kilkenny philosopher

Trinity College Dublin has renamed its main library after the acclaimed Irish poet Eavan Boland. The decision was made by the University Board today after a period of research, analysis and public consultation overseen by the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group (TLRWG).  

The Eavan Boland Library will be the first building on Trinity’s campus to be named after a woman. The building was formerly named after the renowned Kilkenny philosopher George Berkeley, who was born near Thomastown in 1685, and has a city in California named after him.

However, due to the fact he also owned a small slave plantation in the early 18th Century, Trinity College decided in April 2023 that the continued use of Berkeley’s name on its main library was inconsistent with the university’s core values of human dignity, freedom, inclusivity, and equality. 

Eavan Boland was one of the foremost women in Irish literature, publishing many collections of poetry, a memoir Object Lessons (1995), as well as teaching and lecturing in Ireland and in the US. 

In September 2024, after a process of deliberation including consideration of the 855 public submissions, the TLRWG identified several options for the renaming of the Library, with their preferred recommendation being The Eavan Boland Library. 

A paper by TLRWG member Catriona Crowe noted that Boland’s “great achievement was to move women from the object (muse, dream, symbol) of poetry to the subject who was writing the poem”. Her name, she wrote, “would bring a magnificent poetic, scholarly and feminist reputation to a building dedicated to the humanities”.  

Provost Dr Linda Doyle said: “It is a fitting recognition of Eavan Boland’s poetic genius that our main Library, used by so many students and staff, will now carry her name. 

"Eavan’s poetry is well known across the generations, and her outstanding artistic contribution to highlighting the role of women in Irish society is widely appreciated.   

"I want to sincerely thank everyone who participated in the process that has led us to today’s decision. It was marked by broad consultation and very thoughtful conversations.” 

Professor Eoin O Sullivan, Senior Dean and Chair of the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group, said: “We arrived at this point because of the hard work and conviction of many people in Trinity’s community, not least the students who not only called for a change in the Library’s name, but who worked with us to achieve that change.  

"We are grateful for the 855 submissions from within Trinity and outside which animated our deliberations and reflections on the matter.” 

Helen Shenton, Librarian and College Archivist at Trinity College Dublin, said: “Libraries are both fundamental constants in the university and simultaneously constantly in flux. Technological advances, societal changes and cultural evolutions shape the Library for each generation. As a 21st century Library, the name change to this unique library building prioritises the current generation of students’ experience of a welcoming and supportive Library space. 

"Under its new name, it will provide an inclusive and inspirational space for generations of students to come, bolstered now by Eavan Boland’s scholarly and feminist reputation.”  

At a debate on the new name in February 2024 hosted by the University Historical Society with the support of the TLRWG, five guest speakers and five students spoke in favour of ten names selected by the society based on popular suggestions received. The names included Eavan Boland, Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Paul Koralek (the architect of the Library building), Oscar Wilde and Wolfe Tone. Trinity History student Méabh Scahill called Boland “a seminal poet in the Irish literary tradition, whose work carved out a space for women within that tradition".