Trinity's Berkeley Library to be named after Eavan Boland

Excellent choice.

A fitting tribute to woman who was an important and authentic female voice in Irish literature.

https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/top-stories/featured/trinity-renaming/

If they did a vox-pop on Grafton St asking people about it, 99% of people would say “who”?

Yeah, pretty much the same way everyone still calls it Sackville St, despite the name plates saying O'Connell St.

Peoples knowledge of obscure poets.

I guess you get used to a name - be it a bridge, a train station or in this case a library.

in 1966 Amiens st station was renamed Connolly Station and Kingsbridge to Heuston station.

I wasn’t alive at this time but years later I’d often hear my parents say Amiens or Kingsbridge when referring to the stations - something you probably wouldn’t hear happen anymore now .

Reckon the staff will keep referring to it as Berkeley till they retire but any new students entering the college will likely refer to its new name.

It’s probably not a bad idea to consider a few other building or bridge name changes etc to commemorate more contemporary people who have contributed to Irish society but what I wouldn’t like to see is a complete eradication of history either no matter how disturbing it may be

I did my Higher Level English in my Leaving and today is the first I’ve heard of her.

There's a Berkeley library?

At least they didn't name it after mickey D.

"I've never heard of her, so I'm gonna assume that everyone else is just as ignorant as me, even though I never knew who Berkely was either"

Fixed that for you

You could equally say the same about Berkeley

Trinity Legacies Review Working Group, established by the college in November 2022 in an effort “to contextualise and historicise the university’sdeep links to colonialism” 

👀

This is stupid. People like him are remembered and celebrated for their achievements, in spite of their shortcomings because the good they did greatly outweighs any (real or perceived) bad. It's like the removal of those statues from that hotel, removing and destroying art and legacy in the name of ideology - I wonder who else do that?

I'm not saying that Eavan Boland doesn't deserve the honor, what I'm saying is that George Berkley doesn't deserve this disgrace.

Never heard of her. I'm not into poetry and I couldn't care less what they call a library. What is bothersome is the fuss over nothing and the shoe-horning of who I am sure was a great woman onto a name plate to placate whining students and staff with no left legs. I don't see them going after VW for a renaming considering its direct association with the most evil man in recent history. Could be that he didn't like Jews.

Really? A protest is no longer a fuss. Times are a changin'

You see no connection with Mr. H (VW), or anti-semitism? You must have missed this bit

SOURCE

https://trinitynews.ie/2024/05/protestors-rebrand-former-berkeley-library-in-honour-of-slain-palestinian-poet/

Never heard of either of them. I really don't see what the problem is. It's their building, they can rename it if they want. I'm just happy they haven't gone down the road if naming things after corporate donors yet, waiting for the Allianz library.

You said

I doubt Trinity's staff and academics are going to exert themselves to whitewash the memory of a slaver.

I said that I find it bothersome that Students and Staff shoe-horned a name onto a famous Library by whining…referring to their protests and petitions.

I pointed to the hypocrisy that VW hasn't been re-named despite its history and connection with Hitler.

By the way, I'm not suggesting it should be re-named.

Hitler famously killed more than a few Jews incase you didn't know. The connection you are missing is the single sided and blinkered view held by the Students and to a large extent, the Staff at Trinity college in relation to the ongoing war in Gaza.

I linked an inside Trinity Newspaper story to connect the dots for you. By the way, Mr Alareer condoned the Hamas massacre on October 7th in a BBC interview. This is the "poet" the Students wanted to commend as a hero.

Do you still stand by your statement which I quoted above about lack of exertion by Trinity et al?

Why do I need to do this? I have no interest in modern Irish literature. Almost all the box ticking was done in the re-naming project it seems. Not many boxes left.

The university decided to change the name last year, the article you linked is from May. It had nothing to do with the name change.

In relation to Gaza, most Irish people are not happy with Israel killing a huge number of civilians on a daily basis. There are plenty of Jewish people who have an issue with it too.

But I will concede, I fully support renaming the Henry Ford Library in Trinity... Most would.

In fairness, you and a few other posters have tried to claim she's a nobody.

Has Dublin gone that far backward now 99% of people haven't done the Leaving Cert?