Pages 20 & 21

20

disused for about forthy years, was reconditioned. It has since been in
constant use for examinations, the conferring of degrees, and many
other purposes, and we could not have gone on without it. Beside the
Great Hall was the "Pillar Hall", with a ground floor and a wide gallery
on all four sides, never used by the College except as a store. Adjacent
to this was the Convocatio Hall, used for examinations and as a
studio for Architecture, for which purpose it was not really suitable.
The utilisation of the "Pillar Hall" has been the pivot on which sereral
recent changes (March-November 1959) have turned. The College
Library formerly occupied two remote sections of the old buidlings,
and the Counsil Chambers of the new building; its space was incon-
veniently divided and very insufficient. The Library is now about to
open in two very large adjacent halls; The Dr. Denis J. Coffey Hall
(the former Convocation Hall), and the Eugene O'Curry Hall (the
gallery of the former "Pillar Hall", with its gap bridged over); and
in two very large rooms, the John Henry Hewman Room and the
George Sigerson Room. In this way the Library's seating accom-
modation has been very nearly doubled; further, the ground floor
of the old "Pillar Hall" has provided a spacious two-tier stackroom.
Among the consequential gains to other departments the most important
are the Architecture, formerly spread here and there through the College,
is no concentrated, with sufficient space, in the former main Library
block, and that the Council Chambers are providing three good class-
rooms, with about 350 new lecure seats.

The amount spent on the work described above at Belfield, in Earls-
fort Terrace, and in Merrion Street, is about L150,000; a considerable
part of this has been borne by the State and (for the work at Ardmore)
by Messrs. Guinness and Bord na Mona. Undoubtedly there would
have been a saving if the money could have been put into permanent
building. But numbers have been growing, and it was an imperative
duty to provide for the students as they came; we could not ignore
the present for the sake of the future. The work done at Earlsfort
Terrace and Merrion Street will perform neccessary service until the
transfer of the College is completed, and some of it will be valuable to
the future users of those buildings. What has been lost up to the present
is not very much. But we have reached the point where, all possibilities

21

of adaptation having been exhausted, further temporary expedients must
involve serious loss. The favourable Report of the Commission has
come just in time; and we may congratulate ourselves on having in
readiness the excellent site which, if we had not acquired it before
building was a practical proposition, we very certainly could not
obtain now.

So much has been said of these temporary works because, temporary
as they are, they will make the College a better place for students of
more than one student-generation, and because graduates and other
will be interested to know something of the extent to which, while wait-
ing for a permanent solution, the College has managed to overcome many of the difficulties of its situationn.