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In comparison to the mighty facade of the Bank of Ireland opposite, the modest portico of Trinity College seems almost domestic in scale. Founded in 1591 by Queen Elizabeth I, it played a major role in the development of an Anglo-Irish tradition , with leading families often sending their sons to be educated here rather than in England. The statues outside represent Edmund Burke and Oliver Goldsmith, two of Trinity's most famous graduates. The philosopher and statesman Burke (1729-97) adopted an interesting political position, simultaneously defending Ireland's independence and insisting on its role as an integral part of the British Empire ; Goldsmith (1728-94) was a noted wit and poet . Other illustrious alumni include Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels and many other satirical works , and Wolfe Tone, leader of the United Irishmen and prime mover of the 1798 Rebellion, as well as Bram Stoker, of Dracula fame, the playwright J.M. Synge and playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett. Until recently, Trinity's Anglo-Irish connections gave it a strong Protestant bias . At its foundation, the college offered free education to Catholics who were prepared to change their religion, and right up to 1966 - long after the rule on religion had been dropped by the college itself - Catholics had to get a special dispensation to study at Trinity or risk excommunication. Nowadays, roughly seventy percent of the student population is Catholic, and Trinity is just one of Dublin's universities; University College Dublin is based just south of Donnybrook and forms part of the National University of Ireland; Dublin City University is in Glasnevin. Simply as an architectural set piece, Trinity takes some beating. It served as an English university in the film Educating Rita - bizarre but understandable, given that it looks the way a great university should. Its cream-stone college buildings are ranged around cobbled quadrangles in a grander version of the arrangement at Oxford and Cambridge (the cobbles apparently have to be relaid every seven years as the land, reclaimed from the sea, subsides). Entering the college via the Front Gate you are immediately struck with how quickly the noise and frenetic activity of the city gives way to the easy rhythms and tranquility of cloistered student life. The first buildings to catch your eye, facing one another across the cobbled square, are the Chapel and the Examination Hall , both designed by the Scottish architect Sir William Chambers who never actually visited Ireland. The Examination Hall's elegant, stuccoed interior makes a fine setting for the concerts sometimes held here (check the notice boards in the main entrance) while the room's chandelier once adorned the old Irish Parliament building on the other side of College Green. Beyond the chapel on the left is the Dining Hall , also used for exams, built by the German architect Richard Castle in 1743. The bell tower, or Campanile , in the middle of the square, was put up in 1853 and is believed to mark the site of the priory which long predated the university. A startling element of colour is introduced by the red brick of the Rubrics, student accommodation dating from 1712 and one of Trinity's oldest surviving buildings.
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