16th century foundation The town of Maynooth, County Kildare, was the seat of the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Kildare. The ivy-covered tower attached to St Mary's Church of Ireland is all that remains of the ancient college of St Mary of Maynooth, founded and endowed by Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, and dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin Mary. On 7 October 1515
Henry VIII granted licence for the establishment of a college. In 1518, the 9th Earl presented a petition to the
Archbishop of Dublin,
William Rokeby, for a license to found and endow a college at Maynooth: the College of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1535 the college was suppressed and its endowments and lands confiscated as part of the Reformation.
1795 re-establishment The present college was created in the 1790s against the background of the
upheaval during the French Revolution and the gradual removal of the
penal laws. The college was particularly intended to provide for the education of Catholic priests in Ireland, who until this Act had to go to continental Europe for their formation and theological education. Many were educated in France, and the church and government were concerned at the
Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution, and at the same time at the risk of revolutionary thinking arising from training in
revolutionary France (with whom Britain was at war). A number of the early lecturers in Maynooth, were exiles from France (such as sometimes called the French
founding fathers, Professors
Francois Anglade,
André Darré,
Louis-Gilles Delahogue, and
Pierre-Justin Delort), also among the first professors was a layman
James Bernard Clinch recommended by
Edmund Burke. Also relevant was the enactment of the
Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793. The college was legally established on 5 June 1795 by the
Maynooth College Act 1795 as
The Royal College of St Patrick, by act of the
Parliament of Ireland, to provide "for the better education of persons professing the
popish or
Roman Catholic religion". The college was originally established to provide a university education for Catholic lay and ecclesiastical students, the lay college was based in Riverstown House on the south campus from 1802. With the opening of
Clongowes Wood in 1814, the lay college (which had lay trustees) was closed and the college functioned solely as a Catholic seminary for almost 150 years. In 1800,
John Butler, 12th Baron Dunboyne, died and left a substantial fortune to the college. Butler had been a Roman Catholic, and Bishop of Cork, who had embraced
Protestantism in order to marry and guarantee the succession to his hereditary title. However, there were no children to his marriage and it was alleged that he had been reconciled to the Catholic Church at his death. Were this the case, a
Penal Law demanded that the
will was invalid and his wealth would pass to his family. Much
litigation followed before a negotiated settlement in 1808 that led to the establishment of a Dunboyne scholarship fund. The land was donated by
William FitzGerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster, who had argued in favour of Catholic Emancipation in the
Irish House of Lords. He lived nearby at
Carton and also at
Leinster House. The building work was paid for by the
British Government; parliament continued to give it an annual grant until the
Irish Church Act 1869. When this law was passed the college received a capital sum of £369,000. The trustees invested 75% of this in mortgages to Irish landowners at a yield of 4.25% or 4.75% per annum. This would have been considered a secure investment at that time but agitation for land reform and the depression of the 1870s eroded this security. The largest single mortgage was granted to the
Earl of Granard. Accumulated losses on these transactions reached £35,000 by 1906. The first building to go up on this site was designed by, and named after,
John Stoyte; Stoyte House, which can still be seen from the entrance to the old campus, is a well-known building to Maynooth students and stands very close to the very historic
Maynooth Castle. Over the next 15 years, the site at Maynooth underwent rapid construction so as to cater for the influx of new students, and the buildings which now border St Joseph's Square (to the rear of Stoyte House) were completed by 1824. The Rev.
Laurence F. Renehan (1797–1857), a noted antiquarian, church historian, and cleric, served as president of St Patrick's from 1845 until 1857. Under Renehan, many of the college's most important buildings were constructed by
Augustus Pugin.
Maynooth Grant Following the controversy regarding the
Maynooth Grant, the college received a higher annual grant from the British Government, as well as a sum for repairs. In 1845, the British government under
Robert Peel increased the annual grant to Maynooth College from £9,000 to £26,000, and provided a capital grant of £30,000 for building extensions again. However this was controversial as Roman Catholics saw it as a bribe, while most Protestants were not in favour of the government funding Roman Catholic education. For example, the
Anti-Maynooth Conference was hosted in London in May 1845 by Conservatives, evangelical Anglicans and the Protestant Association to campaign against the Maynooth Grant.
Oath of Allegiance As part of the Act on which Maynooth College was founded, students and trustees of the college were expected to take an Oath of Allegiance to the Crown. Some clerical students did not attend since they objected to pledging allegiance to the head of the Anglican church.
Michael O'Hickey In 1909, Irish language activist and scholar
Micheál Pádraig Ó hIcí (1860–1916) was dismissed from his position as Professor of Irish for his conduct in the controversy over Irish as a matriculation subject for the new
National University of Ireland. He was supported by such Maynooth figures as the college president,
Daniel Mannix, and the Professor of Theology,
Walter McDonald (1854–1920). In
An Linn Bhuí, the Irish-language journal of Co Waterford, O'Hickey's home county, Mícheál Briody, lecturer at the Languages Centre, Helsinki University, Finland, says that O'Hickey was a prominent member of the Gaelic League and fiercely in favour of compulsory Irish for the new University of Ireland, whereas Mannix, then President of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, together with most of the Catholic bishops, was opposed. This was the cause of O'Hickey's sacking. Briody says that the senate of the new university, one year after O'Hickey's sacking, agreed to Irish being compulsory for matriculation and not long after that Mannix was posted as the Archbishop of Melbourne in Australia against his own will. Mannix, however, later became a strong supporter of Irish republicanism and something of a thorn in the side of the authorities both ecclesiastical and civil, in Australia as well as Britain.
Expansion In 1876 the college became a constituent college of the
Catholic University of Ireland, and later offered
Royal University of Ireland degrees in arts and science. Even after the granting of the Pontifical Charter in 1896 the college became a
recognised college of the
National University of Ireland in 1910, and from this time its arts and science degrees were awarded by the National University of Ireland. However, during this time the Pontifical University of Maynooth continued to confer its degrees in theology, because until 1997 theology degrees were prohibited by the Royal University of Ireland and its successor the National University of Ireland.
Lay entry In 1966 after a gap of nearly 150 years lay students again entered the college, these being the members of lay
religious institutes, and in 1968 all
laity were accepted; by 1977 they outnumbered religious students.
Separation of NUI Maynooth / Maynooth University In 1997 the Universities Act, 1997 was passed by the
Oireachtas. Chapter IX of the Act provided for the creation of the separate
Maynooth University. This new university was created from the college's
faculties of Arts, Celtic Studies and Philosophy, and Science. In 1994, W. J. Smyth had been appointed to the position of Master of St Patrick's College Maynooth (NUI). In 1997 this position was converted into President of MU. After his 10-year term ended in 2004, he was replaced by John Hughes as president of Maynooth University and a new line of heads for the college.
Seminary in 21st century By 2016, the number of resident seminarians dropped from several hundreds to just 40 to 60. In August 2016 it was revealed that, due to frequent use of
Grindr by college students, the then
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin decided to transfer the students from his diocese to the
Irish Pontifical College in Rome.
Timeline • 1518 –
Garret Óg Fitzgerald,
Earl of Kildare, founded the College of St Mary, in Maynooth • 1535 – College of St. Mary confiscated as part of
Henry VIII's religious policies • 1795 –
The Royal College of St Patrick established on 5 June 1795 • 1800 –
Act of Union 1800 results in the transfer of Maynooth grant from Dublin to London • 1808 – Dunboyne Establishment case settled between the Maynooth Trustees and Butler family • 1817 - Maynooth College Cemetery opened • 1869–71 – Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland by the British parliament (promoted by
Gladstone), Maynooth was disendowed, and the lay trustees left the board. • 1875 –
Second National Synod held in Maynooth • 1876 – Maynooth became a constituent college of the
Catholic University of Ireland • 1891 – College Chapel built by
J. J. McCarthy opened • 1896 – Maynooth granted
pontifical university status by Papal Charter from
Pope Leo XIII • 1910 – St. Patrick's College, Maynooth officially became a
recognised college of the
National University of Ireland • 1911 – Coronation Visit of King George V to the Royal College of St Patrick, Maynooth • 1918 –
Maynooth Mission to China founded • 1979 – Visit of
Pope John Paul II • 1981 – Publication of
An Bíobla Naofa, the first complete Irish Language version of The Bible • 1996 –
National Centre for Liturgy moves to Maynooth from
Carlow College. • 1997 –
Maynooth University founded from the faculties of Science, Arts and Celtic studies, with the faculties of Philosophy, Canon Law and Theology remaining as St. Patrick's College, degrees awarded by the Pontifical University. ==Student activities and alumni==