Foundation The first meeting of the College Historical Society took place on Wednesday 21 March 1770 in the Senior Common Room in Trinity College. The society took into its care the minute book of '''Burke's Club
, founded 1747, from which the Hist has since drawn inspiration. Its other precursor was the Historical Club''', founded in 1753, of which
Henry Grattan was a member. James Reid became the first auditor of the Hist later in 1770. It was a time of great change in
Ireland and the
Western world, at the height of the
Enlightenment and before the
American War of Independence and the
French Revolution. From its inception, it showed itself to be at the forefront of intellectual thought in Ireland, and many of its members later went into politics. In 1782,
Lawrence Parsons was elected as an MP for
Dublin University at 24, having served as auditor of the Hist just the previous year.
Restrictions and expulsions Theobald Wolfe Tone, later leader of the
United Irishmen, was elected auditor in 1785, and
Thomas Addis Emmet was a member of the committee. The society was briefly expelled from the college in 1794, but readmitted on the condition that "No question of modern politics shall be debated". In 1797, the poet
Thomas Moore and the nationalist
Robert Emmet were elected as members. Eight members of The Hist were expelled in 1798 in the run-up to the
Rebellion, and a motion was later carried condemning the rebellion, against their former auditor. Tension between the society and the college flourished in the early nineteenth century, with the auditor being called before the provost in 1810. In 1812 the provost, Dr
Thomas Elrington, objected vehemently to the question ‘Was Brutus justifiable in putting Julius Caesar to death?’. After a number of members were removed at the request of the college board, the society left the college in 1815.
Extern Society The society continued from 1815 as the Extern Historical Society. Among its members at this time were
Isaac Butt, a president of the society who tried unsuccessfully in 1832 to have the society readmitted,
Joseph Sheridan LeFanu,
Thomas Davis (a president of the society) and
John Blake Dillon and many other notables of the nationalist cause. In 1843, under auditor
William Connor Magee, future
Archbishop of York, the society re-formed within the college after a student petition, again on the condition that no subject of current politics was debated. This provision remains in the laws of the society as a nod to the past, but the college authorities have long since ceased to restrict the subjects of the society's debates.
19th century The society continued successfully after that with many lively debates, including the motion on June 10, 1857 ‘That the Reform Bill of Lord Grey was not framed in accordance with the wants of the country’, proposed by Isaac Butt and opposed by
Edward Gibson. This era was considered by many to be the high point of the society, with many of its members moving to high political positions. It was common for the
Members of Parliament for
Dublin University to have served on the Committee of the Hist, such as Edward Gibson and
David Plunkett, who were both auditors, and
Edward Carson, who was the librarian.
Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, became auditor in 1872. In 1877,
Charles O'Connor (judge), the last
Master of the Rolls in Ireland, became auditor. In 1864 the society collected money from its members to erect statues of Edmund Burke and
Oliver Goldsmith at the Front Gate of the college. The society moved to the Graduates' Memorial Building (GMB) in 1904, which it shares with the
University Philosophical Society. The college board relaxed its rules, allowing such motions as ‘That the Gaelic League is deserving of the support of every Irishman’ in 1905 and 1906.
20th and 21st centuries The society continued well through the twentieth century, although the
First World War hit it badly, with 136 of its former members killed. Eoin O'Mahony was elected auditor in 1930 and faced impeachment when he raised a toast to Ireland instead of the King. Eoin O'Mahony offered Lord Carson the presidency of the society in 1931, although Carson declined due to ill health, recommending that the position be offered to former gold medallist and future
President of Ireland Douglas Hyde, who was elected to the position. The current president is Prof. David McConnell, a former librarian and auditor of the society and a winner of The Irish Times Debating Competition, and now chairman of
The Irish Times Trust and one of Europe's foremost geneticists. Son of
W. B. Yeats,
Michael Yeats became auditor in 1944, and in that capacity organised the inaugural meeting on 'The small nations'; Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and Jan Masaryk, minister for foreign affairs in the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London, were his main speakers. Yeats had further involvement with the society in 1969 when it proposed admitting women members. The proposal passed by a single vote; having supported it, Yeats contended that had he stayed at home on the night of the vote the society would have remained all-male. Women had been refused membership in the society until 1969. Soon after the change in the rules, the society debated the motion 'That this House reveres the memory of
Mrs Pankhurst' with
Rosaleen Mills participating (the motion, however, was defeated). The first female auditor, future
Tánaiste Mary Harney, was elected in 1976. the society has had eleven female auditors. The society's Bicentennial Meeting in 1970 was addressed by US Senator
Edward Kennedy, at which he called the society "the greatest of the school of the orators". In September 2020, the society reportedly cancelled an invitation to
Richard Dawkins to address the society. To mark the society's acknowledgement as the world's oldest student society, by
Guinness World Records, a successful attempt to break the record for longest debate was made in October 2023, breaking 27 hours. ==Chamber debating==