TCD invites views on dropping Berkeley’s name from library over slave ownership

Trinity College Dublin has begun the process that may lead to philosopher George Berkeley’s name removed from its main library because of his association with slavery.

The Berkeley Library was named after the Kilkenny man who entered TCD as a graduate in March 1700 and was elected a fellow in 1707. He served as Church of Ireland Bishop of Cloyne and became one of the world’s most famous philosophers. The city of Berkeley, California and its university were named after him.

Calls for the library to be renamed have surfaced since the Black Lives Matter movement drew attention to the legacy of transatlantic slavery. TCD Students Union voted in February to rename the library.

The Trinity Legacies Review Working Group, set up last year to examine the university’s links with slavery and British imperialism, has prioritised the name of the Berkeley Library as one of its first considerations.

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Trinity has asked for submissions to its working group to be made by the end of January, before the board makes a decision on renaming the library.

Trinity Provost Dr Linda Doyle said she was glad to see the process under way: “The goal is to shed light, not heat, on these complex legacy issues.

“Key to this process are the evidence-based submissions, which are an important part of broadening our understanding of all the dimensions of these matters.

“It is also a learning process for all of us and, if necessary, we will evolve the process as we learn.”

[ What to do about George Berkeley, Trinity figurehead and slave owner? ]

As Trinity librarian from 1709, Berkeley played an active role in bringing the project for a new library (now the Old Library) to fruition.

From the mid-1720s he began to develop the idea of a university in the American colonies, the so-called Bermuda Scheme.

A working paper produced by three academics at the university, Dr Mobeen Hussain, Dr Ciaran O’Neill and Dr Patrick Walsh, states that documents show Berkeley bought and sold slaves on his Rhode Island estate. He also produced a pamphlet suggesting that slaves should be baptised as it would encourage greater obedience to their owners.

The review group has also been considering the removal of a dozen skulls from a graveyard on Inishbofin Island in Co Galway in 1890. Islanders petitioned the university last year to return the skulls.

The skulls were taken from a graveyard attached to St Colman’s Church on the island by two academics from Trinity’s Old Anatomy Museum, Profs Alfred C Haddon and Andrew F Dixon. In a letter Prof Haddon openly admitted smuggling them off the island and depositing them in TCD.

The practice of taking body parts was common in the 18th and 19th century. Trinity College Dublin holds more than 484 human remains sourced from various parts of the globe.

A separate working paper on the Inishbofin Island skulls has pointed out that many universities worldwide have returned human remains at the request of families and relatives.

They have noted a “paradigm shift in museum practice in this area” in the UK, as articulated by the University of Edinburgh. “The university’s policy is to return human remains, when so requested, to appropriate representatives of cultures in which such had particular significance, subject to appropriate safeguards.”