Sir, - Senator Mary Henry (April 29th) is undoubtedly correct in asserting that Trinity College and The University of Dublin are, today, synonymous. However, this is not the complete story.
The first charter to Trinity College in 1592 described it as "mater universitas" and, to quote Moody and Beckett from their history of Queen's, Belfast, "it is reasonably certain that the foundation of the college was intended to lead to the foundation of a university on the model of the ancient universities of England, that is, a university with constituent colleges". Having discussed proposals of James I in 1613 to establish another college of the university, they go on to note: "This was the first of a long line of projects for adding new colleges to the University of Dublin. As none of them ever came to maturity, Trinity College and the University of Dublin remained in practice a single entity, though in theory they were distinguishable and the distinction between them had a certain formal significance."
The most recent such project was proposed long after the ruling of the Master of the Rolls in 1888 which Senator Henry cites. The report of the Fry Commission in 1907 suggested the enlargement of the University of Dublin so as to include, as well as Trinity College, the Queen's Colleges of Belfast and Cork, and University College Dublin, with Maynooth, Galway and Magee colleges as "affiliated institutions". This proposal, which was espoused by the Liberal government of the day, was defeated, not by a legal claim that Trinity and Dublin University were inseparable, but by political opposition from conservative and unionist opinion in Dublin, Belfast and Great Britain.
It appears, therefore, that there is ample legal and historical justification for the amendments proposed by the Progressive Democrats. Their political and educational justification is a matter upon which it would be foolhardy of me to comment. - Yours, etc.
Patrick J. O'Flynn, Department of Chemical Engineering, University College Dublin.