The Irish have a number of national obsessions, including history, religion, politics and education. The story of Kilkenny's Royal College of St Canice - possibly the shortest-lived university ever - neatly marries most of them. The story of how the people of the city lost their university, and with it plans for the world's first Catholic medical school, is told in a fascinating book entitled A University for Kilkenny by Mayo man John Leonard (St Canice's Press, £5).
The idea that a university should be located in the "The Faire City", as the English poet Edmund Spenser named it, dates back to the short-lived Confederation of Kilkenny, which ceased in 1649. Plans for a second college of the University of Dublin had been mooted eight years earlier. Shortly after Cromwell's son, Henry, became Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1657, he moved to establish the college at St Stephen's Green and Baggot Street, on the same scale and budget (then about £1,600) as Trinity College.
Archbishop Ussher's library, bought at a cost of £2,200, was earmarked as the academic cornerstone of the new college, but after the fall of the Commonwealth in 1660, the Irish Parliament passed on the contents to Trinity College as a gift from King Charles II, and the initiative lapsed.
Petition to king
The only universities in Britain and Ireland at that time - Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrew's, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Trinity - were under Church of Ireland control. No doubt realising their political value, the wily Church of Ireland Bishop of Ossory, John Parry, sent a petition to King Charles II in 1677 pointing out that Kilkenny was "justly reckoned very fit for that service. . .the same distance from Dublin that Oxford and Cambridge is from London. . .and furnished with excellent quarries of marble and other stone. . .["]
Despite such weighty arguments, the good Bishop's proposal was rejected, and the plan for a second college in Dublin was also abandoned. However, the movement to set up a university and a medical school in Kilkenny was gathering momentum, and the political turmoil caused by King James II's enthusiastic embrace of his religious faith proved a useful catalyst for Catholics. In September 1686 a High School was established in the city under the presidency of the Catholic dean of the diocese, Dr Dalton. At that time, there were up to 30 schools on the Continent to educate men for the priesthood, including the Irish College in Paris. Catholics had good enough reason to feel cheerful under King James II. One of their coreligionists had been appointed head of TCD, another of their faith, Lord Gosworth, was Lord Chancellor of Ireland, while a third, the Earl of Tyrconnell, was Lord Deputy. In fact a warrant to establish a Royal College of Physicians in Kilkenny was granted to Tyrconnell in 1687, though the school was never developed, for reasons which have never been explained.
William of Orange
However, within a year James's wife had given birth to a son, and the tide had turned. Presented with the prospect of another Stuart monarch, aggrieved Protestants turned towards James's son-in-law, William III, of the Dutch Royal House of Orange, as their religious and political saviour. James fled to the safety of Catholic France to raise money to finance a small army to return to Ireland and reclaim his throne.
After unsuccessful sieges at Derry and Enniskillen, and faced with spending the winter of 1689 among his fever-ravaged troops in Kildare, James opted for the pleasant surroundings of Kilkenny city, where he was persuaded by loyal subjects to grant a Charter for a Royal College of St Canice. But history inconveniently intervened.
The triumphant Williamites ignored the many charters and decrees of the deposed and defeated James, as they exacted vengeance against the Grace family and others loyal to the Stuarts. The Catholic university had lasted officially from February 21st to July 1st, 1690. The lands allocated to it reverted to the control of Church of Ireland members, whose own school, Kilkenny College, would soon boast graduates of the calibre of Swift, Banim and Berkeley among its alumni.
Third-level education
Today Kilkenny has the unenviable record of one of the lowest rates of participation in third-level education on the island. It is also the only city in the Republic without either an officially recognised institute of technology or a university. But the Battle of the Royal College, continues. Campaigners have contacted several leading academic institutions with a plan to establish a college in Killkenny to allow students based in Kilkenny to study for degrees using technology such as video-conferencing and the World Wide Web.
A couple of interesting prospects have already emerged. One is Berkeley College California, a permanent and physical reminder of the efforts of one of Kilkenny's most famous sons, Bishop George Berkeley, to establish a university in the Americas. Another is Queen's University, Belfast. If these plans succeed the motto of the reborn Kilkenny University should surely be: "Queens giveth what Princes taketh away."
Fax: 01-7048038. MA in Journalism, DCU, (c/o School of School Secretary).