Talk:Trinity College Dublin

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List for volunteers to make GA article

If you know editors who can help make this a Good Article, or else want to volunteer yourself only, please ping here. SeanBeans1981 (talk) 00:39, 20 February 2025 (UTC)

Veracity/fact checking (various)

Even as an alum and staff member of TCD, I'm have some issues with some of the assertions contained in this article.

Here's a couple of examples:

Firstly, saying "the first artificial nuclear reaction" took place on TCD seems to fly in the face of the readily accepted notion that this took place in a converted squash court beneath the University of Chicago's football stadium; said experiment, known as Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1), occurred on December 2, 1942 under the leadership of Enrico Fermi. Now, if this in fact DID take place in Dublin, could you please cite some proof sources.

Secondly, does it seem bizarre to list a number of notable writers who are alumni and then round off the list with " as well as the writers of The Game of Thrones"? Naturally, such eminent writers deserve to me mentioned, but in the same context as Beckett and Wilde?

Thirdly, stating that TCD was the centre of Anglo-Irish elitism up until recently (or perhaps it still is?) seems redundant and is neither specific to the Irish context (there are few of any societies which had universities of the nature of Trinity which facilitated entry from lower social classes; until recently (and excepting socialist/communist countries) access to university would have seen even the emerging lower middle-classes excluded from the "ivory towers". Perhaps this referred elitism suggests the exclusion of one religion, namely, the Irish Catholics? But the exclusion of Catholics was a prohibition, on pain of excommunication , issued by the Irish Catholic hierarchy. Catholics who chose to ignore the prohibition (and there were many) attended and graduated just as easily as any other person who could afford the fees. So the "elitism" reference seems either redundant, specifically unfair to TCD or inaccurate and at least warrants an edit/review.

I'm not fully decided how or if to mention the "Sally Rooney" entry.

Francis Neary (talk) 11:15, 15 June 2025 (UTC)

Also, what does "The university was also involved in the First World War,[51] noticeably in the Defence of Gallipoli at the Dardanelles.[52][53][54]"

The suggestion here is that the University (and not an alum or former staff-member or academic) was involved in this campaign. Also, if the Ottomans were defending against an Entente landing, could the reader be forgiven for coming to the conclusion, incorrectly, that TCD (as opposed to individuals connect d with it) were actually fighting on the side of the Ottomans in WWI? Francis Neary (talk) 11:34, 15 June 2025 (UTC)

Cassels Tower

It is unfortunate that the article makes no mention of Cassels Tower, the enormous Bell Tower that was a precursor to today's much smaller Campanile. Constructed between 1740 and 1746 in the Palladian style, it was torn down in the late 18th century since its sheer scale was viewed as architecturally unstable. Cassels Tower is clearly visible in Francis Wheatley's painting, 'The Dublin Volunteers on College Green, 4th November 1779'. It might be an idea to include Wheatley's painting with a brief description of this structure. Though short-lived, it seems an important component of Trinity's heritage. ~2026-13581-46 (talk) 20:41, 2 March 2026 (UTC)

Student life: trimming Societies and Clubs subsections

The Societies and Clubs subsections currently include a fairly arbitrary selection of individual societies and clubs, many sourced only to CSC or Trinity pages. Since this is the main article on Trinity College Dublin, I think these sections should be trimmed to summary style: overall scale, governance bodies, and potentially a few historically significant examples such as the Hist, Phil, Theo, major old clubs, etc. More detailed entries can sit at List of Trinity College Dublin student organisations. Another option to avoid duplication is to move everything into the list article and to make it "excerpt" in here.

This seems consistent with earlier talk-page concerns (in the archives) about clutter and arbitrary lists of student organisations. Would others support trimming these subsections and keeping detailed society-specific material in the list article? I can start by expanding the list in the meantime with independently-sources material. I also notice much of the section in this page has citation needed markers. 45thinkplant (talk) 11:43, 6 May 2026 (UTC)