DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s oldest university, Trinity College Dublin, has announced it will remove the name of philosopher George Berkeley from one of its main libraries over his ownership of slaves and efforts to “advance ideology in support of slavery”.
The college said in a statement it will retain a stained-glass window commemorating the philosopher, whose name was given to the Berkeley Library and to the U.S. city of Berkeley, in what it said was a “nuanced approach” to criticism of one of its most famous scholars.
“George Berkeley’s enormous contribution to philosophical thought is not in question,” Trinity’s Provost Linda Doyle said in a statement that confirmed Berkeley’s work would still be taught at the university.
“However, it is also clear that he was both an owner of enslaved people and a theorist of slavery and racial discrimination, which is in clear conflict with Trinity’s core values,” said Doyle, a reference to four slaves Berkeley bought to work on his Rhode Island estate in 1730-31.
The university made the decision after a process that involved 93 written submissions. It said it had not yet decided on a new name for the library, which was opened in 1967.
The owners of Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel in 2020 removed four historic statues from its entrance in the belief that they represented female slaves. The statues were reinstated when it was determined they did not.
(Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Nick Macfie)
