| |
Founder Sir William Petty
Founder William Molyneux MP
 Phil Council circa 1895
Bram Stocker, President 1869
Oscar Wilde, a member of council
Eliz Committee circa 1906
|
|
|
| |
The Philosophical Society was founded in 1683 by the economists Sir William Petty and William Molyneux MP and based on London’s Royal Society. It was intended as an intellectual playground, a place where members could “discourse of philosophy, mathematics, and other polite literature”. The first incarnation of the Society bore little resemblance to todays, with meetings taking place in the home of Trinity College’s then-Provost, the Rev Dr Huntington. At these meetings, papers were read, and scientific and philosophical experiments performed.
In 1731, following the Philosophical Society’s expulsion from the college, the Royal Dublin Society was formed in its stead. Founded in the rooms of the old Philosophical Society, the RDS existed quite separately from the university for over a century: it was only in 1843 that the Society returned to Trinity College, now The University Philosophical Society as we know it today.
In the decades following its return to college, the Society – now dedicated to paper-reading above all else – elected a series of presidents who would go on to great things, among them the economist John Kells Ingram, the poet Edward Dowden, William Moore – later Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland – and Sir John Ross, the last Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Perhaps the most notable of the Society’s 19th century presidents was Bram Stoker, who headed the Society in 1869, and was also awarded its Second Certificate in Oratory for his rhetorical skills. Stoker would, of course, later create the world’s most famous vampire in his best-selling Dracula. During his tenure as president, Stoker helped the Society recruit one of Trinity College’s finest sons, Oscar Wilde, as a member; his brother, CK Wilde, sat on the Society’s council for two sessions.
Another notable member during this era was Edward Carson, who in 1872 presented his paper, “The Present Jury System”, to the society. Carson’s interest in the law helped him find fame beyond The University Philosophical Society: it was his cross-examination of Wilde, once a college contemporary, that dominated one of the most notorious trials of the Victorian era. Later, he would become a Cabinet Minister in the British parliament, a Law Lord, and the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
The present home of The University Philosophical Society, The Graduates’ Memorial Building, was completed in 1904, and is still the only student-owned building in Ireland. Throughout the 20th century, The Phil remained at the forefront of Trinity life. In the early 1940s, Egbert Udo Udoma, Ugandan independence hero and Lord Chief Justice, served as the Society’s President. The social reforms that took place across Europe in the 1960s were felt within the Society: in 1968, women were first admitted into the Society; shortly after this historic event, Trinity’s only all-female society, ‘The Elizabethan Society’, merged with The University Philosophical Society in 1982.
In the modern era, The University Philosophical Society strives to be both entertaining and thought-provoking to its massive student membership. Every Irish Taoiseach since Charles Haughey has addressed the society, and recently-named Honorary Patrons have included Hollywood actors such as Al Pacino and Helen Mirren, politicians like FW de Klerk and John McCain, and writers such as Salman Rushdie. The University Philosophical Society prides itself on providing a platform for guests as diverse as Desmond Tutu and David Hasselhoff, and hopes to remain Trinity College’s foremost Society for many years to come.
To learn more about the foundation of the Royal Dublin Society, click here.
The Dublin University Elizabethan Society
The Elizabethan Society was established in 1905 following the admittance of women into Trinity College and was “intended to act as a social and literary centre for women students”. The women of the society would come together every Wednesday during Michaelmas and Hillary term to partake in debates. By 1924, the society had begun the practise of annually awarding medals and prizes for excellence in oratory and composition. During the session of 1928-1929, the society branched out with the foundation of the Elizabethan Literary and Debating Society, and the Elizabethan Drama Society, nonetheless, within ten years the society would return to its original form. In the sixties ‘The Eliz’ (as it was more commonly known), was universally perceived to perform many of the functions of a student union and in 1965, it celebrated its diamond jubilee. However, with the admittance of women to The University Philosophical Society in 1968 it was only a matter of time before the two societies merged, an event which occurred in 1982.
return to top
|
|
|
