The renaming of Trinity College Dublin’s former Berkeley Library after Eavan Boland is “rooted in the determination of staff and students that the building should no longer commemorate a slave owner”, the audience at an event to celebrate the change has heard.
Before helping unveil a plaque proclaiming its new name on Monday night, Boland’s friend and fellow writer Paula Meehan also hailed it as a “magnificent gesture” that would ensure the late poet’s “name will outlive all of us”.
The first woman to have a public building in Trinity named after her, Boland has taken the place vacated by Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753), a Kilkenny-born theologian philosopher who was considered one of the great thinkers of his era but who is also known to have kept slaves during his years in America.
Jointly unveiling the plaque on Monday, Trinity College Chancellor Mary McAleese said it was part of dealing with the university’s “colonial legacies”. The former president linked it to such other events as the return of 13 skulls to Inishbofin in 2023 after more than a century.
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Noting that Boland’s debut poetry collection was titled New Territories, Ms McAleese called the renaming “a statement of intent about the future” and a sign that “a new generation will have its say”.
The event coincided with the opening of two exhibitions at the library: one on Boland’s life and work; the other on the de-naming and renaming process itself. The name change was originally announced last October.
Impetus for the change began with a campaign by students, inspired by the Black Lives Matter and other movements.
The University Board removed Berkeley’s name in 2023, saying it was now “inconsistent with the university’s core values of human dignity, freedom, inclusivity and equality”. It then started a public consultation process overseen by the Trinity legacies review working group.
Separately, in a letter The Irish Times, Ms McAleese joined more than 50 poets, writers and academics in calling on Trinity to consider a permanent exhibition on the life and work of Boland, one of its most eminent graduates.
[ Goodbye George Berkeley, hello Eavan Boland: why has Trinity renamed its biggest library? ]
The naming review group had received more 860 submissions relating to people, places, concepts and dates relevant to the college and reflecting its “current values”.
Among the suggested names were Peig Sayers, Paul Mescal, Our Lady of Knock, Jesus Christ, Library McLibraryface, the “Snowflake Library”, and An Bradán Feasa (The Salmon of Knowledge). Nominations also included Queen Elizabeth I, the British monarch who founded Trinity College Dublin in 1592.
As noted in the exhibits, there were notable opponents of the decision to cut the connection with Berkeley.
These included Fellow Emeritus in Genetics, David McConnell, who had argued that denaming “would contradict the fundamental commitment of Trinity College to a system of education which emphasises that knowledge and ideas are produced and assessed by scholars”.
He has said: “In this tradition we draw attention to and commemorate great thinkers, among whom Berkeley is one of the very few from Trinity whose reputation is secure and likely to endure in the academic world.”
Bishop Berkeley is still commemorated in California, where the Black Lives Matter movement has enjoyed some of its strongest support. The Berkeley city and college there were founded in the 19th century, inspired by the philosopher’s verse “westward the course of empire takes its way”.
