Trinity College Dublin to ‘dename’ George Berkeley library over slavery links

Trinity College Dublin is to remove George Berkeley’s name from its biggest library because of the Irish philosopher’s links with slavery in the 18th century.

The university said on Wednesday it would “dename” the Berkeley library and review an academic award that carries his name as well as portraits of the scholar.

Berkeley was born in County Kilkenny, entered Trinity in 1700 and became a celebrated philosopher, scientist and Anglo-Irish Anglican bishop.

The university said he bought enslaved people named Philip, Anthony, Edward and Agnes Berkeley to work on his Rhode Island estate in 1730-31 and sought to “advance ideology in support of slavery”.

The library’s continued use of Berkeley’s name was inconsistent with the university’s values of human dignity, freedom, inclusivity and equality, a statement said.

“The denaming does not deny Berkeley’s importance as a writer, philosopher and towering intellectual figure. His philosophical work will still be taught at Trinity and remains of significant contemporary relevance.”

The library opened in 1967 and was named after Berkeley in 1978. No new name has been chosen. The university board made the decision after research and consultation overseen by the Trinity legacies review working group, which is reviewing other cases. The board said it would adopt a “retain-and-explain” approach to a stained-glass window commemorating Berkeley.

The provost said an institution as old as Trinity could not be static. Linda Doyle said: “Each generation of students and staff deserves a chance to influence decisions. In this case, it was our students who called on us to address the issue.”

Eoin O’Sullivan, a senior dean who chairs the legacies review group, said it had been influenced by the universities of Glasgow, Dalhousie, Brown and Harvard, which have probed their own legacies as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

A city and university in the San Francisco bay area are named after Berkeley.

In February Trinity College Dublin decided to return 13 skulls stolen by academic headhunters from a medieval monastery on the Galway island of Inishbofin in 1890. It set a possible precedent for other controversial human remains and artefacts held by the university.

Last month the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian, apologised for the role the newspaper’s founders had in transatlantic slavery and announced a programme of restorative justice.