Library to be renamed over links to slavery

TriniT y College Dublin is removing the name of slave owner Bishop George Berkeley from its main library.

The 18th Century philosopher’s fall from grace was endorsed by the Trinity board today because of his links to slavery, including his advocacy for the practice.

For generations, Berkeley has been memorialised at ireland’s oldest university including naming the library after him in 1978.

However, while the Berkeley name will be dropped from the library Trinity is adopting “a retain-and-explain” approach to a stained-glass window commemorating him.

Trinity also has several portraits depicting Berkeley, which will be assessed in the future by a new, overall college policy on artwork.

Meanwhile the academic gold medals memorialising Berkeley will be reviewed by the relevant academic department. The university will continue to hold George Berkeley’s philosophical works in the library collections and continue to teach and to research his works.

Trinity said today that the name has been judged inconsistent with the university’s core values of human dignity, freedom, inclusivity, and equality.

The denaming “does not deny Berkeley’s importance as a writer, philosopher, and towering intellectual figure. His philosophical work will still be taught at Trinity and remains of significant contemporary relevance,” a spokesperson said.

The decisions represented “a nuanced approach and are the result of careful the consideration and detailed analysis,” the spokesperson added A separate process will determine what the new name for the library should be.

The board’s decisions follow several months of research, analysis and public consultation overseen by the Trinity Legacies review Working Group, which is considering legacy issues on a case-by-case basis.

Trinity’s Provost, Dr Linda Doyle, said the landscape of a university, especially one as old as Trinity, was not static.

“Each generation of students and staff deserves a chance to influence decisions. in this case, it was our students who called on us to address the issue.

“George Berkeley’s enormous contribution to philosophical thought is not in question. However, it is also clear that he was both an owner of enslaved people and a theorist of slavery and racial discrimination, which is in clear conflict with Trinity’s core values.”

Following a separate review, Trinity recently decided to return human remains to the island of inishbofin, off the west coast from where they were taken without the community’s consent more than a century ago.

Co Kilkenny-born Berkeley, who went on to become Dean of Derry in the Church of ireland, was once a student at the university and later held the academic honour of a Trinity ‘fellow’.