New Trinity College sculptures to honour 'four outstanding women'  

A new sculpture of Augusta Gregory by artist Guy Reid, one of four intalled in the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin on St Brigid's Day. Pictures: Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography

Trinity College has installed a series of sculptures in its Old Library to honour the scholarship of four trailblazing women.

The women represented are the scientist Rosalind Franklin, the folklorist, dramatist and Abbey Theatre-founder Augusta Gregory, the mathematician Ada Lovelace, and pioneering women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft.

The new sculptures, the first to be commissioned in more than a century, will be displayed among the 40 marble sculptures that line Trinity’s historic Long Room, which have always previously been of men, from Homer and Shakespeare to Dean Jonathan Swift, Rowan Hamilton and Wolfe Tone.

The new sculptures were launched by Trinity’s chancellor Mary McAleese at a ceremony in the Long Room.

Their addition represents, TCD says, a first step toward “a better representation of our diversity in all of Trinity’s public spaces”.

The sculptures are the work of four artists: Maudie Brady (Ada Lovelace); Rowan Gillespie (Mary Wollstonecraft); Vera Klute (Rosalind Franklin) and Guy Reid (Augusta Gregory).

Provost Linda Doyle said: “While it is important to respect tradition, it is also important to break tradition.

The addition of these sculptures of women has been a long time coming. 

"I want to thank everyone involved in the creation and installation of these beautiful pieces.

“Sculptures are an iconic feature of Trinity's Long Room, and I hope that the inclusion of these four outstanding women is the furthering of a collective recognition of the incredible contribution of women across many fields.”

Librarian Helen Shenton said: “On this auspicious day, St Brigid’s Day, we celebrate women’s scholarship with these sculptures in the Long Room of the Old Library.

Their individual contributions to knowledge and to society will now be permanently honoured in this cathedral of learning at the heart of Trinity.”

The four women being honoured were chosen in 2020 from more than 500 nominations by students, staff, and alumni covering a wide field of groundbreaking individuals who contributed significantly to scholarship and culture across history.

The new sculpture of pioneering women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft by artist Rowan Gillespie.

One of Mary Wollstonecraft’s claims to fame as a women’s rights activist was her 1792 book A Vindication of the Rights of Women.

Wollstonecraft, who argued ahead of her time that women were not inferior to men, died less than two weeks after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Shelley — who wrote Frankenstein.

The sculpture of mathematician Ada Lovelace and by artist Maudie Brady.

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, who died in 1852, is best known for her work with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, his conception of a calculating machine that — in effect — led to the birth of digital computing.

She is credited with being the first computer programmer for her work creating the first algorithm that could be used by Babbage’s Analytical Engine, which was never built in his lifetime.

The new sculpture of scientist Rosalind Franklin by artist Vera Klute.

Rosalind Elsie Franklin’s claim to fame is the work she did that helped the discovery of the structure of DNA.

An ‘In Conversation’ event with the artists and champions of the scholars will take place in TCD's Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Institute on Thursday.