Trinity Welcomes the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls
Posted on: 24 April 2015
The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, visited Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s leading university today.
Welcoming the French Prime Minister, the Deputy President of Trinity College, Professor Linda Hogan said:
“We are delighted to welcome the French Prime Minister to Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s oldest university which has produced some of the world’s great minds across the sciences and the humanities, including two Nobel Laureates, Samuel Beckett in literature and Ernest Walton in science.”
“We are honoured by this visit which goes to strengthen our relations with France. Trinity has the oldest chair of French in the world, founded in the 18th century. One of our most renowned alumni and scholars, Samuel Beckett, who lived the majority of his life in France, also retained very close ties with the University over the course of his life, donating many of his works to Trinity College Library for further research. In addition to such scholarship we have many French students attending Trinity.”
The French Prime Minister visited Trinity’s Long Room situated in the College’s 18th century Old Library building.
During his visit he was escorted by the Deputy President, Professor Hogan along with Professor in French, Dr Sarah Alyn-Stacey, and member of the Académie de Savoie, and the Librarian and College Archivist, Helen Shenton.
He was shown the Book of Kells, a 9th century gospel manuscript written and illustrated by Columban monks, famous throughout the world for its beautifully intricate decoration and representative of Ireland as a seat of art and learning.
The French Prime Minister also viewed the Library’s collection of Samuel Beckett letters *. Trinity College Library recently acquired the largest number of letters (347 in number) ever to have been offered for public sale. It now holds the largest collection of Beckett letters of any research library in the world. It is a fitting home for the correspondence of one of Trinity College Dublin’s most famous alumni.
These letters and cards were sent from the Nobel-prizewinning author to artists Henri and Josette Hayden. Beckett and his wife, Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil, met the Haydens when both couples were in southern France evading discovery by the Nazis during the Second World War.
This latest acquisition cements Trinity College Library’s position as the world’s number one repository for the correspondence of Samuel Beckett explained the Librarian, Helen Shenton. She also emphasised Beckett’s generosity towards Trinity College Library both in terms of scholarship but also philanthropy, where he gave royalties from a year’s productions of Krapp’s Last Tape to the College’s first fundraising campaigns in 1959 for the construction of what is now the Berkeley Library.
Concluding the visit, the French Prime Minister met with French students attending Trinity and members of the French Department and academic staff with French links across a range of disciplines including the sciences, law, literature, history and business.
About Samuel Beckett and Trinity College Dublin
Samuel Beckett entered Trinity College in 1923 aged seventeen years. He specialised in French and Italian and graduated in 1927. While he was in College he represented the College in cricket.
Beckett was expected to continue in an academic career and was appointed assistant lecturer in French literature in Trinity in 1930. He disliked teaching, principally because, at this time, he was becoming more determined to become a writer.
Beckett always showed himself a friend to Trinity College Library Dublin. In 1959 the Library embarked upon a fundraising campaign to build what is now the Berkeley Library. Beckett was asked to write a play with a Library theme to assist with the campaign. He agreed to attempt it but, as he expected, could not comply: instead he granted the royalties from a year’s productions of Krapp’s Last Tape to the campaign.
The foundations for the Library’s internationally-renowned collection of Beckett manuscripts were laid in 1969 when the author generously presented four literary notebooks to Trinity College Library. These notebooks contain drafts of works, translations and abandoned prose and drama. One of the notebooks contains a fragment of Beckett’s novel Malone meurt/Malone Dies and another contains a significant amount of the radio play Embers.
The Library has continued to build on this collection; the key strength is in correspondence. The letters from Beckett to his good friend the poet Thomas MacGreevy are unusual in being so open; they show Beckett, as a young man and a young artist, writing frankly to a close friend. There is also a large collection of letters to his friend the theatre director Barbara Bray.
One of the major literary pieces in the collection is a notebook in which Beckett started writing what became his late great work Imagination dead imagine. Trinity College Library also holds the first edition of Waiting for Godot which was used in the rehearsal for the first performance of the play.
About The Book of Kells/ www.tcd.ie/library
Chi Rho page – the most celebrated image in the Book of Kells. The words Christi Autem Generatio open the narrative of St Matthew’s Gospel with the name of Christ in its abbreviated Greek form (Chi Rho) occupying the whole height of the page. The Chi forms a cross shape. The page is filled with visual reminders of the eucharistic sacrifice and resurrection of Christ.
The Book of Kells is celebrated for its lavish decoration. The manuscript contains the four Gospels in Latin based on a Vulgate text, written on vellum (prepared calfskin), in a bold and expert version of the script known as "insular majuscule".
The place of origin of the Book of Kells is generally attributed to the scriptorium of the monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille on Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland. In 806, following a Viking raid on the island which left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, County Meath. It must have been close to the year 800 that the Book of Kells was written, although there is no way of knowing if the book was produced wholly at Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location. Pages that are on display for the visit include: Gospel of Matthew 27.38 folio 124r. TUNC CRU/CIFIXERANT /XPI CUM/EO DU/OS LA/TRONES (translation : ‘Then were crucified with him two thieves’) Gospel of Mark 13.32-14.6 174v-175r scit neque angeli in caelo … fremebant in eam. Iesus(the Olivet discourse (concluded); Jesus’ command to watch for his return; Jesus in Bethania.
Ireland’s Oldest Harp
Dating from 15th century legend has it that this harp belonged to Brian Boru, who died at the battle of Clontarf in 1014. It is the finest known example of this traditional Irish instrument. The design for our national emblem is based on this harp.
French Collections at Trinity College Library
The Library has extensive collections in French, notably its Waldensian holdings, 16th and 17th century pamphlets, Napoleonic holdings and the Aspen collection concerning 17th-century drama.