College Green

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see College Green (disambiguation).

Front Arch, Trinity College
The main entrance of Trinity College faces west towards Dame Street.

College Green (Irish: Faiche an Choláiste), previously called Hoggen Green, is a three-sided "square" in the centre of Dublin. On its northern side is a building known today as the Bank of Ireland which until 1800 was Ireland's Parliament House. To its east stands Trinity College Dublin, the only constituent college of the University of Dublin. To its south stands a series of nineteenth-century buildings that are mostly banks. A major street, called Dame Street, enters the square from the west.

College Green has been used as an assembly point for major political rallies. In the mid 1990s, United States President Bill Clinton addressed a mass crowd, during his Irish visit.

Three major public monuments stand in College Green. A nineteenth century statue of Henry Grattan, one of the leading members of the old Irish Parliament, stands facing Trinity College (though the statue is badly obscured by planted trees). Further back stands what is generally perceived as a poor statue of patriot Thomas Davis; because of the deformed body shown and out of scale hands, the statue has occasionally been nicknamed "Frankenstein". Previously, that was the location of one of Dublin's finest equestrian statues, of King "Billy" (William of Orange) on Horseback. It was blown up by Irish republicans in the 1930s.

Freemen of the City of Dublin have the right to graze livestock on common ground, which includes College Green.

College Green is no longer a "Green" and now exists as a street running from the front gates of Trinity College Dublin to pedestrian traffic lights close to The Central Bank in Dame Street at the junction of Trinity Street. The houses are numbered starting with 1 on the north side of the Street at Westmoreland Street and TCD and continuing across to the south side and back on the opposite side to TCD and the bottom of Grafton Street. Dubliners often incorrectly identify the street as Dame Street because it continues into Dame Street. College Street which runs from Pearse Street and Westmoreland Street passing railings on the Northern side of Trinity College Dublin is often thought to be College Green.