Library of Trinity College Dublin. The Library of Trinity College Dublin serves Trinity College and the University of Dublin.
It is a legal deposit or copyright library, under which, publishers in Ireland must deposit a copy of all their publications there, without charge. It is the only Irish library to hold such rights for works published in the United Kingdom.
The Library is the permanent home to the Brian Boru harp which is a national symbol of Ireland, a copy of 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, and the Book of Kells. One of the four volumes of the Book of Kells is on public display at any given time.
The volumes and pages shown are regularly changed; a new display case installed in 2020 will allow all pages to be displayed including many not seen in public for several decades. Members of the University of Dublin also have access to the libraries of Tallaght University Hospital and the Irish School of Ecumenics, Milltown.
The Library proper occupies several buildings, six of which are at the Trinity College campus itself, with another part of the Trinity Centre at St James's Hospital, Dublin: The oldest library building, now known as the Old Library, is Thomas Burgh's magnum opus. Construction began in 1712. A large building which took twenty years to complete in its original form, it towered over the university and city after its completion in 1732. Even today, surrounded by similarly scaled buildin