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Alumni & campus news CHRISTMAS CAROL SERVICE A service of Lessons and Carols for Advent Produced by Trinity Development & Alumni Thursday 1 December 2022 Trinity Carol Service For the first time since 2019, Trinity’s much-loved Carol Service was performed to a live congregation, as well as being livestreamed online, enabling it to be viewed by alumni around the world. Readings and reflections from college chaplains, the Provost and members of the college community were joined with carols and hymns including Out of Dazzling Darkness, The Magnificat, O Magnum Mysterium and the old favourites, O come, O come, Emmanuel, We Three Kings and Adestes Fideles, and ending with a magnificent Hark the Herald Angels Sing. In case you missed this wonderful Christmas event, you can watch online here. Trinity Trust supports the Old Library Redevelopment Project The Trinity Trust - a voluntary committee made up of Trinity graduates - has announced a €1 million donation to the Old Library Redevelopment Project, the single largest donation that the Trust has made in its history. Enabling works for the project are underway, and renovations to preserve and safeguard the Old Library and its treasures will begin in late 2023, under Heneghan Peng Architects, who previously renovated the National Gallery of Ireland. The redevelopment project will involve the removal of 700,000 books, some printed on silk and vellum, for cleaning and repair to ensure their preservation. The Book of Kells will be moved to Printing House Square for the duration of the redevelopment project which will introduce new fire safety measures and environmental controls to the Old Library, as well as a new Research Collections Study Centre, a reimagined Book of Kells exhibition and a new Treasures Gallery. The Trinity Trust receives its income from alumni who hold Bank of Ireland Affinity credit cards - a small percentage of the spend on each card is given to the Trust. To date, the Trust has contributed almost €5 million to the college, with major donations to the Berkeley Library and Trinity Hall, as well as grant aid to student and staff-led projects.
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Trinity announces changes to historic Charter to enable governance reforms Trinity’s Founding Charter of 1592 is part of the archives of the university and is kept in the Manuscripts & Archives Research Collection in the Library. In December, a Supplemental Charter was joined to the Founding Charter by Provost Linda Doyle, and the College Secretary, John Coman, in the Old Library. The decision to reform Trinity’s governance structures follows a period of consultation on reform of the Board and governance structures and an internal report in 2021 by the University’s Board Review Working Group. Trinity will now begin to institute those reforms along with the reforms required by new legislation to reform university governance across the sector under the Higher Education Authority Act, 2022. Three Trinity researchers win prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants Dr Kenneth Silver, Dr Colm Delaney and Dr Elaine Corbett were among just seven researchers in Ireland to receive the coveted awards worth up to €5 million from the ERC. The Starting Grants support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are starting their own independent research team or programme. Supporting five- year projects, these grants are among the most sought-after and competitive in the world of research. New bird species found on remote Indonesian islands Zoologists from Trinity, working with a research team in Indonesia, have found several new species of colourful, tropical sunbirds. The zoologists have identified a new species, the Wakatobi sunbird (Cinnyris infrenatus), which lives on the tiny Wakatobi Islands in central Indonesia. They also examined the more widespread olive-backed sunbirds and black sunbirds, and found that individuals named as such actually belonged to multiple unrecognized species. These exciting findings have important implications for our understanding of evolution in this biodiverse region. National study on LGBTQI+ mental health Belong To and Trinity have partnered for a national study: Being LGBTQI+ in Ireland which will examine the mental health and wellbeing of LGBTQI+ people in the Republic of Ireland and investigate public attitudes towards LGBTQI+ people. The research is being conducted by a group of researchers led by Professor Agnes Higgins in the School of Nursing & Midwifery at Trinity in collaboration with Belong To. This anonymous research is now open and provides a chance for LGBTQI+ people over 14 years old to share their experiences of being LGBTQI+ in Ireland today.
