University College Dublin and its Building Plans

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that hitherto very little capital has been spent on the country's greatest university institution, and that once this scheme is completed no such expenditure will ever again be required. The benefits which the country derives from the College must diminish if the task is any longer postponed; but once it is begun, and as it progresses, these benefits may be expected to increase and to repay their cost. Furthermore, to fill a void left by the centuries, to create from its foundations a great institution of learning in a country where learnig was so long forbidden, is a work to excite the imagiation and to stimulate generosity. One feels sure that so soon as the scheme has the saction and support of Dail Eireann, there will be valuable help - perhaps in particular towards the cost of research equipment and student amenities - forthcomming from other sources, at home and abroad.

The new College will have an almost inestimable advantate simply in being new. The students will move from overcrowded class-rooms, from dinginess and dilapidation, to space and brightness. We shall profit by all the modern improvements in university design and equipment, so that for the first time we can work on level terms with the rest of the world. When the sudents can spend their entire day at Belfield, their studies, sports, and social life all being centered there, they will enjoy, though they may no actually reside on the campus, most of the advantages of a residential univeristy. And in time it may be expected that most of those whose homes are not in Dublin will be able to live in hostels either on the campus or in close proximity to it.1

There need be no fear that the College will suffer in any way from its newness, that it will be a raw or rootless institution. The College is not a thing of yesterday, it can already stand on its reputation, at home and abroad. Further, no good university can be new in the bad sense of the owrd, since it deals with old and permanent things. As for tradition, the college will still have behind it an unbroken academic history going back to Newman and the Catholic Univeristy - a history always looking to and preparing for such a fulfilment as now appears to be close at hand. Behind that it will have, as it now has, the tradition of an ancient nation.

1 One of Archbishop Walsh's strongest complaints against the 1909 arrangement was that it included no provision for residence. Experience has shown that he was right in this matter. But it should be understood that the College makes no claim that the hostels whould be built or run at the cost of the taxpayer.

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IV. THE COMMISSION'S REPORT

The Commission on accommodations needs of the Constituent Colleges of the National University of Ireland was appointed by the Minister for Educaiton on the 26th September 1957. Its Chairman was Mr. Justice Cearbhall O Dalaigh. Its Report was submitted to the government and published in June 1959. On the 2nd June 1959, the following statement was issued by the Government Information Bureau on behalf of the Department of Education:

The Minister for Education to-day presented to each House of the Oireachtas the Report of the Commission appointed by him on 26th September, 1957, to inquire into the accommodation needs of the constituent colleges of the National University of Ireland.

The Report was submitted to the Minister in the form of three interim reports and a final report dated as follows:

First Interim Report - University of College, Dublin - 6th June, 1958. Second Interim Report - University of College, Cork - 8th October, 1958. Third Interim Report - University College, Galway - 17th April, 1959. Fourth and Final Report - General Considerations - 1st May, 1959.

Each report was signed by all members of the Commission, subject in the case of University College, Dublin, to a reservation by one member, and in the case of University College, Cork, to a reservation by another member.

Arising out of the urgent need for the immediate provision of additional accommodation for University College, Dublin, the Government have specially considered the Commissin's recommendations in regard to the erection of new buildings for the College and have agreed, in principle, subject to t he approval of Dail Eireann, that the College should be transferred gradually to a site in the College grounds on the Stillorgan Road. The Minister intends to take an early opportunity of seeking the approval of Dail Eireann in relation to the Government's proposal.

A decision will be taken by the Government in relation to other recommendations of the Commission after further consideration, by the interests concerned, of the Report in its entirety.

So far as University College, Dublin is concerned, the Report strongly confirmed oth ou estimate of space requirements and our proposed solution.

The Report states (p. 3) that all the Colleges have considerable needs, but that those of University College, Dublin, "have now reached very serious dimensions indeed." On their visits to the College, the Commissioners found it "grossly overcrowded" (p. 22), and its library

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accommodation, to take one example, "wholly inadequate"; of the Earlsfort Terrace restaurant they say "The crowding we saw is hardly to be believed." In thier final summary, speaking of all the Colleges, they say that "already break-down point has almost been reached" (p. 127).

The Commissioners, examining our estimate of space requirement in relation to the space provided in economically planned English and Danish universities, find that it is entirely reasonable; they say, indeed, that our estimate is in general "modest", and that in respect of research facilities we have not asked enough (p. 25). The Report shows clearly that the College has not sought any extravagant or grandiose expansion at the expense of the State and the taxpayer; as the Commissioners put it, we have asked for "no more than the space for the job" (p. 126).

Having satisfied themselves that our space estimates were reasonable, the Commissioners set themselves to consider where the neccessary additional space could be found. They seem to have thought at first that our decision to abandon our central site and our present main buildings at Earlsfort Terrace was needless and unwise. It was fortunate that they refused to take our conclusions on trust and went over the whole problem independently and thoroughly, because this means that an all-important question has been absolutley and finally settled. The Commissioners fairly soon saw that the whole College could not be built on the Iveagh Gardens, even in very tall blocks. They then investigated the entire district in quest of ground that might be added to the site, but they found that little could be counted on unless there were compulsory acquisition. They went so far as to calculate that, in the unlikely event of compulsory powers being granted, the maximum total of the ground that could be hoped for would be twenty-one acres. Visits to other universities convinced then that this, while costing at least L400,00 (p. 31) and causing great disturbance to homes and business, would be too little to provide "a proper and final solution"(p. 34). They observe that those British universities which have decided to remain within their cities, Manchester and Liverpool, had to do so because the only outer sites available were in one case fifteen miles and in the other seven miles from the centre.

The Commissioners are very definite in their rejection of any solution that would leave a part of the College at Earsfort Terrace and a part

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in Merrion Street, and provide for the rest of Belfield. As the whole College cannot possible be built at Earlsfort Terrace, the whole College must be built somewhere else. To divide the College, they say, would "make it less than a university, and seriously affect the quality of the graduates" (p. 34). They then urge that the transfer of the College should be as rapid as possilbe, so as to re-establish its unity in its new home (p. 38).1 On p. 37 they accept the view that the present buildings of the College will be useful for government purposes. This, of course, carries the implication that the total transfer of the College will cost no more, or little more, than a solution which, while dispersing the College, would provide it with the same amound of space. In its rejection of the notion that the College ought to be satisfied to be given buildign here and therem the Report vindicates the decisions of successive Governing Bodies of the College.

Having concluded that the College should move out, the Commissioners found no difficulty in giving approval to the Belfield site; they "have little doubt that it would not now be possible to find a site as suitable" (p. 34). They are not daunted by the fact that it is two and a half miles from St. Stephen's Green; they know, as do the authorities of the College, that there must be come incovenience and some loss in moving away from the centre, but as they also realise that the move is essential to the whole well-being of the College, they waste no time in useless regrets.

The Commissioners insist that needs so urgent should be provided for with the least possible delay, and propose ten years as the period within which all their recommendations should be put into effet (p. 128). They say too: "While interim relief of existing conditions would be well warranted we do not recommend it. It is better in our opinion to concentrate upon the radical solution which the accommodation problem of the College requires" (p. 45). They add recommendations concerning the administrative machinery and liaison between the College and the government with the accomplishment of this great building programme will require.

1 Actually, the College will then be unified, so far as it can be, for the first time. The distance between its present main centres at Earlsfort Terrace and Merrion Street, though only half a mile, has been found over the past thirty years to constitute quite a serious and troublsome division. Further disunity, not in all cases remediable, arises from the various locations of the Agriculture Faculty, the teaching Hospitals, the Dental Hospital, and the Veterinary College.

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To sum up, the College had presented a plan drawn up in accordance with modern requirements and standards, aiming at sufficiency without extravagance, and leaving room for future development. The Commissioners went over the whole matter independently. Their broad conclusion, though they think we have not provided sufficiently for research and that our tentavie lay-out is too rigid, is that our plan meets the case. The Report is broadly and solidly based, convinccing in its arguments, clear and practical in its conclusions; it assuredly marks a turning-point in the history of Irish higher educaiton. 1

V. TRANSITION AND IMPROVISATION, 1949-59

It would be in many ways ideal if an institution which is to be moved and rebuilt could remain quietly in its old quarters while its new quarters were being methodically plannned and erected, and then move in a single operation. The College will not be able to do this; as soon as there is a bulding, or part of one, ready at Belfield, it must be occupied; the remaining departmetns must gain relief by spreading into the space vacated at Earlsfort Terrace or Merrion Street.

Indeed, the time has long since passed when the College could sit tight and wait just as it was for new permanent buildings. Expansion, in the form of rather large-scale temporary expedients, was forced on us, and it has been going on for ten years. The pace of this expansion has lately been much increased - and also its cost - to prevent any breakdown in the Session 1959-60, and, it is hoped, in those of 1960 -1 and 1961-2; by October 1962 some teaching space will have to be ready at Belfield. In this campaign of enlargement and adaptation we have gained experience which will be valuable when permanent building begins.

1 Since the publication of the Report, the suggestion has been made at University College need not move out of town, and need not spend so much money on building, if it were joined, in some fashion not precisely defined, with Trinity College. It is certainly possible that an advant-ageous arrangement may at some time be made between the two university institutions in Dublin. But in this many interest would be concerned, and the negotiations must be too lengthy for our urgent space needs to await their conclusion. Anyhow, no arrangment short of a complete fusion could have a bearing on that problem. Further, even it anything so unlikely were to happen the problem would be little altered. The building of T.C.D. are small and old, and they are pretty full of students. Nor would T.C.D.'s vacant space suffice for building on our scale; its whole area, built and unbuilt, is only equal to the area within the ring-road of the Belgrove lay-out, which the Commissioners consider to be too cramped.

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Though no new building could be undertaken on the campus in advance of a government decision, the neccessary expansion of the College has already flowed out there to a considerable extent. First, the President of the College, as an act of faith in the furture, took up residence in 1952 at the former White Oaks, transformed into University Lodge. Since then, the old houses, one by one, have been reconditioned as research departments. In some instances this has enabled us to gain precious teaching space in our main building by moving out a research laboratory (thus the moving out of research Biochemistry has given elbow-room to Physics); in other cases it allowed us to establish valuable new research units. Already installed and in operation, or in active preparation, we have Medical and Industrial Microbiology at Ardmore, Biochemistry and Pharmacology at Merville, Medicine and Surgery at Woodview, Experimental Psychology, and an Institute for research into the history of Irish families abroad, at Belgrove.

Valuable preparation for the future use of the campus as a site was made possible in the winter of 1956-7, when a government relief grant of L20,000 was used for fencing, tree-planting, draining and levelling, and the construction of an inner communication road.

Meanwhile, at the present main buildings in Earlsfort Terrace and Merrion Street, a great deal has been completed or undertaken for the accommodation of the large teaching departments. At Merrion Street, an intermediate floor put into the large Chemistry Laboratory during the long vacation of 1958 double its floor area; in the recent (1959) long vacation similar work on a smaller scale has been done in the same building.

At Earlsfort Terrace the old buildings have come to be our greatest resource. In the earlier days of the College these old buildings, except the Library block and the Convocation Hall, were not only too dilapidated but also on too vast a scale to seem worth reconditioning; further, any rational building scheme for the College seemed to require their demolition. But when the College grew to the scale of these vast halls, and when also it was settled that our permanent buildings must be sited elsewhere, their possibilities as temporary accommodation became evident.

First, in 1950, the Great Hall, the Aula Maxima of the Royal University,

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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 inconveniently 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 accommodation 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 classrooms, with about 350 new lecure seats.

The amount spent on the work described above at Belfield, in Earlsfort 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

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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 waiting for a permanent solution, the College has managed to overcome many of the difficulties of its situationn.

RETROSPECT, 1959-1909

It happens that the turning-point in our history which is the occation of this brochure coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the College, 2nd November 1909. For this reason it may be appropriate to conclude with a glance backward and some brief comparison of the College as it began with the college of today.

The staff lists of 1909-10 and the student rolls of that year show that many of the first staff are happily still with us, and bear out the claim already made, that our graduates have played an important roll in the development of modern Ireland. Thirteen of the 1909 staff of sixty-four remian to celebrate thi golden jubilee: Right Reb. Mgr. P. Boulan, Right Rev. Mgr. J. Shine, Mr. Justice James Murnaghan, Professor Mary Macken, P.F. Purcell, M.F. Egan, S.J., J. J. Dowling, J. Bayley Butler, H. Barniville, W. D. O'Kelly, T. T. O'Farrel, M. Power (Galway), T. Dillon (Galway). The postgraduate students of that year included Mr. De Valera, President of Ireland, His Eminence Cardinal D'Alton, Right Rev. Mrg P. Browne (President of U.C.G., 1945-59), Mr. Henry Kennedy, Professor Liam O'Briain. The undergraduates included Dr. E.P. Carey, Mr. J.A. Costello, Mr. Authur Cox, Right Rev. Mgr. M. Curran, Professor W. Doolin, Professor J. Doyle, Dr. E. T. Freeman, Miss Louise Gavan-Duffy, Rev. Professor A. Gwynn, S.J., Mr. P.J. Little, Professor P. McGilligan, Chief Justice C. Maguire, Professor G. O'Brien,, Miss K. Phelan.

Before and during the session 1909-10, 36 professors, 12 lecturers, and 16 "Demonstrators and Assistants" were appointed. In Comparison with this, we have now 64 professors, 26 lecturers, and not less than 160 teaching officers of various ranks in place of the original "Demonstrators and Assistants"; we have also a large number of occasional specialist lecturers and of student demonstrators (in 1909 there were 6 student demonstrators).

An analysis of the student total of 530 in 1909-10- will show that many changes have taken place since then. It included 488 men and 42 women. The relative number of women students rose pretty rapidly, and by 1921-2 was a quarter of the whole. Today it is a third of the whole; and of the total number in Faculties other than Engineering, Argiculture, and Veterinary Medicine, women studnets form almost exactly a half.

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There were then204 students in Arts and Science. Between these Faculties there was an amount of overlapping which seems strange today; proobably not more than 30 were properly speaking Science students. Medicine stood at 314, making up more than half the College. there was indeed nothing else, except 5 Law students (not including those who were taking Arts degrees), and 7 in Engineering. As yet there was no Architecture, no Agriculture; Denistry was small and not counted separately from Medicine, Veterinary Medicine lay very far in the future. The Faculty of Commerce existed by had as yet attracted no students.

With the above small and simple beginning may be compared the 1958-9 totals for the various Faculties and subdivision of Faculties:

Arts ... ... ... 1,465 Science ... ... ... 544 Medicine ... ... ... 558 Denistry ... ... ... 189 Law ... ... ... 99 Engineering ... ... 406 Architecture ... ... 95 Commerce ... ... 517 Agriculture .. ... ... 315 Veterinary Medicine 282

The increasingly wide contribution of the College to the national life appears in the great development of Faculties originally very small, like Engineering and Science, and of others which simply did not exist at the time. Arts has grown steadily, so that in spite of the development of new Faculties it is by far the largest and nearly one third of the whole. Teh old preponderance of Medicine had disappeared, so that it no longer makes up half but only one eighth of the College (one sixth if the Dental students are counted with the medical). But the pattern is every-changing; already the registration of October 1959 shows a new upward tendency in Medicine, and a leveling out or slight decrease in Agriculture and Engineering, with a considerable over-all increase. The one conclusion that can be drawn is that of Dr. Coffey's presidental Report at the end of his term of office, that "the permeation of the counrty by the College is as yet far from complete."