Remarks at the Exhibition Opening – ‘A great many choice books: 300 years of the Old Library’
Trinity College Dublin, 27th May 2012
Provost, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honour to be invited here today to launch the celebrations marking the Tercentenary of the Old Library and I would like to thank most sincerely Patrick Prendergast, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, for his kind invitation.
The Old Library is not just one of Trinity’s iconic buildings, but also one of Ireland’s as well. It is a wonderful jewel in Trinity's Crown. The tercentenary celebrations are being marked by the opening of the Exhibition – ‘A great many choice books: 300 years of the Old Library’, which will be the first in a series of events planned by Trinity College to mark this momentous occasion.
The foundation stone for the Old Library was laid in 1712 and in the three hundred years since, the building has become internationally recognised as an outstanding example of library design. It was the sole College library for over 200 years and was the place of study for many of Trinity’s famous alumni. Designed by Thomas Burgh, the Library epitomises the Georgian age of expansion and optimism. It took twenty years to complete at a cost of over £20,000.
The Long Room was ready for use by the end of 1733 but unfortunately Thomas Burgh died shortly before his greatest building was completed. However, the Library stands as a monument to his achievement and as a permanent reminder of the importance we must place on our cultural heritage.
The College’s Elizabethan library, which had housed only a few thousand books, greatly expanded in the 17th and 18th centuries through the generosity of such benefactors as Archbishop James Ussher, Charles II, Claudius Gilbert and Bishop John Stearne. However, it was the Copyright Act of 1801 that entitled the Library to claim a free copy of every book, pamphlet, map and periodical published in Britain and Ireland, which was to change its status from that of a scholars’ library to one of the great research libraries.
The breadth of the Library’s collections reflects the vision of generations of scholars and librarians. The Library has acquired, and cared for, items of recorded thought covering millennia, from papyri of the 13th Century BC to contemporary literary manuscripts and printed books. Its collections include Books of the Dead, records of Ireland’s history, literature and political events, examples of the earliest printing from its invention and the finest collection of maps of Ireland.
This new and wonderful exhibition - ‘A great many choice books: 300 of the Old Library’ features archival records on the design and construction of the Old Library, map collections, printed books and unique manuscripts.
Particular highlights of the exhibition include:
Archbishop Ussher’s major contribution through his strenuous efforts to build up the Library by frequent book-buying trips to England;
The Annals of Ulster which were compiled by Cathal Mac Maghnusa, Archdeacon of Clogher and span the years from AD 431 to 1504. They were written in both Latin and Irish and contain a narrative of events, year by year, recording deaths, battles, raids, burnings, drownings, royal and abbatial successions, plagues, harvests, and the weather – a kind of Wikipedia of the early and late medieval period.
The Book of Leinster is the earliest manuscript in Trinity College Library. Written in the 12th century, it is entirely in Irish and only one of the scribes who worked on it is known by name – Aed mac meic Crimthaind, an abbot from Tír-Dá-Glas monastery on the Shannon in Co. Tipperary. Baineann an lámhscríbhinn seo le duanaire próis, filíochta agus ginealaigh. Tá sí ar cheann de na lámhscríbhnní is tábhachtaí dá bhfuil againn ó thréimhse na Meán-Ghaeilge. It is utterly unique and we should bear in mind that it comes nearly 400 years before the poet and playwright, William Shakespeare, would make an important and rich contribution to the English language.
The Exhibition also includes the largest collection of manuscripts of medieval Irish law texts, known as the Brehon Laws which date from the 7th - 8th centuries.
In summary, the collections on display in this Exhibition provide a vivid insight into the history of our people, our language, our creativity and the issues that were of concern to the people who lived in Ireland during and after the middle ages and right up to more recent times.
Today, libraries help to encourage students to be inquisitive about the world we live, about how our past has shaped our present and about how we use our knowledge and talents to create a better future. The books they contain intrigue us with information and ideas and stimulate us to pursue more knowledge and to form new ideas of our own that add value to the welfare of our community.
Irish people are known worldwide for their creativity and innovation. We are fortunate that this country has an abundance of talented, creative and generous people and we need to harness those attributes, abilities, and skills to create a positive roadmap towards our shared futures. We are privileged to have educational institutions such as Trinity College that do not just disseminate data but give their students the tools and the space – both physical and intellectual - to think and grow as rounded human beings. This provides, I believe, the essential building blocks to create new knowledge within and across our academic institutions.
It was Yeats who told us that education is not about the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire. And the great American jurist Oliver Wendall Holmes once said, "a mind, once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.” Trinity College has through its promotion of scholarly vocations in the sciences and the arts and humanities has stretched many minds and changed the trajectory of many lives.
Universities have an indispensable role in fostering innovation in each new generation; it is in universities that "boundaries to our existing knowledge are explored and crossed; it is there that unfettered thinking can thrive and unconstrained intellectual partnerships can be created. It is there, within each new class, within each new generation that the future is forged."1
In these difficult economic times, and times of great uncertainty for many people, including young students and scholars, many challenges remain for both Ireland as a society and for Irish people as individuals. People in Ireland are hurting from the recession. They are dismayed that the transient, boom, built on the emptiness of property speculation has turned into ashes. And they have a righteous anger that various institutions let them down.
Yet wherever I go, I find that people are setting about finding a better version of Irishness than the acquisitive individualism that drove the worst aspects of the Celtic Tiger; they are reaffirming the old decencies in Irish life and drawing on the ethical values that are being forged by our talented and energetic people of all generations; they are demonstrating community cohesion, neighbourly cooperation and creative endeavour; they are renewing our Republic so that it does full justice to the values of fairness and participation.
There is an important role for our Universities in Ireland’s renewal and that role is best achieved as Universities recommit themselves to the development of the truly creative and immense capacities of their students and faculties. A recommitment to original and emancipatory research which probes, investigates and challenges those conventional wisdoms, so many of which have failed us, to find new solutions and articulate these honestly and with integrity.
The Trinity College Dublin library is now one of the largest in Europe with 4.25 million books and electronic access to over 30,000 journals. The Library is the largest research library in Ireland and is an invaluable resource to scholars. It is the heart of the university. Although the Library is an institution that greatly values antiquity, tradition and heritage, it also pioneers modern methods of resource discovery and supports developments in the teaching, learning and research processes. The Library is building its Digital Library of images to widen access to people via the internet, to preserve the originals and to facilitate new methods of research in the field of digital humanities. It also captures the research output of the College, so that it is freely available to researchers worldwide as a shop window to Irish scholarship.
The Library is not just for the academic community, it also greatly values its engagement with the public and its outreach to wider society. The Glucksman Conservation Department is participating in the Dublin City of Science Public Engagement Programme this year with opportunities for the public and schools to learn about heritage preservation and to see the work carried out by the Conservators.
The Library is also a partner in the Bookmarks Programme which forges links to schools in order to widen access and participation of under-represented groups at university.
I recently visited Deansrath Community College in Clondalkin and opened a new library in that very dynamic and progressive school. I can tell you that the thirst for knowledge and love of books was as palpable among those secondary school students as it is among those Trinity students who cross College Square each day. It is up to all of us who value the transformative power of education to ensure that prestigious learning facilities, like the Old Library, are accessible to all young people of talent and potential.
I would like to conclude by formally opening this Exhibition and to wish Trinity College well with its tercentenary celebrations. I know that Trinity College will maintain its great tradition as a centre of learning, scholarship, critical enquiry and the articulation of ideas.
Ends.
1 http://www.glion.org/glion_declaration_2010.aspx