University College Dublin
University College Dublin, commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With more than 38,000 students, it is Ireland's largest university.
UCD originates in a body founded in 1854, which opened as the Catholic University of Ireland on the feast of St. Malachy with John Henry Newman as its first rector; it re-formed in 1880 and chartered in its own right in 1908. The Universities Act, 1997 renamed the constituent university as the "National University of Ireland, Dublin", and a ministerial order of 1998 renamed the institution as "University College Dublin – National University of Ireland, Dublin".
Originally located at St Stephen's Green and Earlsfort terrace in Dublin's city centre, all faculties later relocated to a campus at Belfield, six kilometres to the south of the city centre. In 1991, it purchased a second site in Blackrock, which currently houses the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. A report published in May 2015 asserted that the economic output generated by UCD and its students in Ireland amounted to €1.3 billion annually.
History
UCD can trace its history to the institution founded in 1854 as the Catholic University of Ireland. Renamed University College in 1883 and put under the control of the Jesuits in 1883, it became University College Dublin in 1908, a constituent college of the National University of Ireland under the Universities Act.Catholic University of Ireland
After the Catholic Emancipation period of Irish history, the Archbishop of Armagh attempted to provide, for the first time in Ireland, higher-level education for followers of the Catholic Church and taught by such people. The Catholic hierarchy demanded a Catholic alternative to the University of Dublin's Trinity College, whose Anglican origins the hierarchy refused to overlook. Since the 1780s, the University of Dublin had admitted Catholics to study; a religious test, however, hindered the efforts of Catholics in their desire to obtain membership in the university's governing bodies. Thus, in 1850 at the Synod of Thurles, it was decided to open a university in Dublin for Catholics.As a result of these efforts, a new "Catholic University of Ireland" opened in 1854 on St Stephen's Green, with John Henry Newman appointed as its first rector. The Catholic University opened its doors on the feast of St Malachy, 3 November 1854. In 1855, the Catholic University Medical School was opened on Cecilia Street.
As a private university, Catholic University was never given a royal charter, and so was unable to award recognised degrees and suffered from chronic financial difficulties. Newman left the university in 1857. In 1861, Bartholomew Woodlock was appointed Rector and served until he became Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise in 1879. Henry Neville was appointed Rector to replace Woodlock.
In 1880, the Royal University of Ireland was established and allowed students from any college to take examinations for a degree.
Foundation of University College Dublin
In 1882, Catholic University reorganised, and the St Stephen's Green institution run by the Irish Jesuits, was renamed University College, and it began participating in the Royal University system. In 1883, Fr William Delany SJ was appointed the first president of University College. The college attracted academics from around Ireland, including Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins and James Joyce. Some notable staff and students at the school during this period included Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Patrick Pearse, Hugh Kennedy, Hannah O'Leary, Eoin MacNeill, Kevin O'Higgins, Tom Kettle, James Ryan, Douglas Hyde and John A. Costello.In 1908, the National University of Ireland was founded and the following year the Royal University was dissolved. This new university was brought into existence with three constituent University Colleges – Dublin, Galway and Cork. Following the establishment of the NUI, D. J. Coffey, Professor of Physiology, Catholic University Medical School, became the first president of UCD. The Medical School in Cecilia Street became the UCD Medical Faculty and the Faculty of Commerce was established. Under the Universities Act, 1997, University College Dublin was established as a constituent university within the National University of Ireland framework.
In 1911, land donated by Lord Iveagh helped the university expand in Earlsfort Terrace/Hatch Street/ St Stephen's Green. Iveagh Gardens was part of this donation.
UCD and the Irish War of Independence
UCD is a major holder of archives of national and international significance relating to the Irish War of Independence.In 1913, in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers, Eóin MacNeill, professor of early Irish history, called for the formation of an Irish nationalist force to counteract it. The Irish Volunteers were formed later that year and MacNeill was elected its Chief-of-staff. At the outbreak of World War I, in view of the Home Rule Act 1914 and the political perception that it might not be implemented, the leader of the Home Rule Party, John Redmond, urged the Irish Volunteers to support the British war effort as a way of supporting Irish Home Rule. This effort on behalf of Home Rule included many UCD staff and students. Many of those who opposed this move later participated in the Easter Rising.
Several UCD staff and students participated in the rising, including Pádraig Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, Michael Hayes and James Ryan, and a smaller number, including Tom Kettle and Willie Redmond, fought for the British in World War I.
Many UCD staff, students and alumni fought in the Irish War of Independence. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, four UCD graduates joined the government of the Irish Free State.
UCD graduates have since participated in Irish political life – three of the nine Presidents of Ireland and six of the fourteen Taoisigh have been either former staff or graduates.
Expansion
In 1926, the University Education Act transferred the Royal College of Science in Merrion Street and Albert Agricultural College in Glasnevin to UCD. In 1933, Belfield House was purchased for sporting purposes.Move to Belfield
In 1940, Arthur Conway was appointed president. By the early 1940s, the college had become the largest third-level institution in the state and the college attempted to expand the existing city centre campus. It was later decided that the best solution would be to move the college to a larger greenfield site outside of the city centre and create a modern campus university. This move started in the early 1960s when the faculty of science moved to the new park campus at Belfield in a suburb on the south side of Dublin. The Belfield campus developed into a complex of modern buildings and inherited Georgian townhouses, accommodating the colleges of the university as well as its student residences and many leisure and sporting facilities.One of UCD's previous locations, the Royal College of Science on Merrion Street, is now the location of the renovated Irish Government Building, where the Department of the Taoiseach is situated. University College Dublin also had a site in Glasnevin for much of the last century, the Albert Agricultural College, the southern part of which is now occupied by Dublin City University, the northern part is where parts of the suburb of Ballymun are located.
Architecture
The new campus was largely designed by A&D Wejchert & Partners Architects and includes several notable structures, including the UCD Water Tower which was built in 1972 by John Paul Construction. The Tower won the 1979 Irish Concrete Society Award. It stands 60 metres high with a dodecahedron tank atop a pentagonal pillar. The Tower is part of the UCD Environmental Research Station. O'Reilly Hall, opened in 1994, was designed by the Irish architecture firm Scott Tallon Walker.1950–2000
In 1964, Jeremiah Hogan was appointed president and Thomas E. Nevin led the science faculty to move to a new campus at Belfield. Also that year, UCD became the first university in Europe to launch an MBA programme. In 1967, Donogh O'Malley proposed a plan to merge UCD and Trinity. Between 1969 and 1970, the Faculties of Commerce, Arts and Law moved to Belfield. In 1972, Thomas Murphy was appointed president. In 1973, the library opened. In 1980, the college purchased Richview and 17.4 acres and the architecture faculty moved there. In 1981, the Sports Complex opened. In 1986, Patrick Masterson was appointed president.From the 1980s until his death in January 2021, a solitary, non-verbal homeless man affectionately known as Old Man Belfield became a fixture of campus life at Belfield, becoming well known to students and staff alike. The man, whose real name was Michael Byrne, slept rough on campus for the last 30, if not 40 years, of his life. Despite not speaking, he came to be "loved and respected by generations of students and staff" and accepted as "part of the UCD community".
During the 1990s, some of the students of Women's Studies, led by Niamh Nolan, petitioned to rename their Gender Studies building after Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington to honour her contribution to women's rights and equal access to third-level education. Her husband Francis Sheehy-Skeffington was himself an alumnus of the university and Hanna of the Royal University, a sister university of UCD. Their campaign was successful and the building was renamed the Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington Building.
In 1990, UCD purchased Carysfort College, Blackrock, and became the location of the Smurfit Graduate school of business. The first student village, Belgrove, opened that year as well. In 1992, the second student village, Merville, opened and the Centre for Film studies was established. In 1993, Art Cosgrove was appointed president. In 1994, O'Reilly Hall was opened.
In Malaysia, UCD and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland owns a private medical university RCSI & UCD Malaysia Campus within George Town, Penang. Established in 1996, RUMC, as a branch campus of UCD, offers a twinning programme in medicine where students spend the first half of their course in either RCSI or UCD, before completing their clinical years at RUMC.