Trinity College Dublin (TCD) is renaming its main library, formerly called the Berkeley Library, after the acclaimed Irish poet and Trinity alumna Eavan Boland.
The decision was made by the University Board on Wednesday after a period of research, analysis and public consultation overseen by the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group.
The Eavan Boland Library will be the first building on Trinity’s campus to be named after a woman.
Boland was one of the foremost women of Irish literature, publishing many collections of poetry, a memoir, as well as teaching and lecturing in Ireland and in the US.
Provost Dr Linda Doyle said: “It is a fitting recognition of Eavan Boland’s poetic genius that our main Library, used by so many students and staff, will now carry her name.
“Eavan’s poetry is well-known across the generations, and her outstanding artistic contribution to highlighting the role of women in Irish society is widely appreciated.
In April 2023, TCD decided to remove George Berkeley’s name from its main library because of the Irish philosopher’s association with slavery. Since this ‘denaming’, its largest library has been known simply as The Library.
This decision was made on the basis that the continued use of Berkeley’s name was “inconsistent with the university’s core values of human dignity, freedom, inclusivity and equality”.
Trinity Legacies Review Working Group, established by the college in November 2022 in an effort “to contextualise and historicise the university’s deep links to colonialism” took into consideration “evidence-based submissions”, which were open to the public, on the naming of the library.
In February, a debate was held by the Trinity’s College Historical Society (the Hist) over what the library should be renamed. Suggestions included Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, the Freedom Library and Eavan Boland.
Student Méabh Scahill called Boland “a seminal poet in the Irish literary tradition, whose work carved out a space for women within that tradition”.
