State Papers: Trinity academics 'furious' over failure to be invited to Mary Robinson inauguration
Mary Robinson outside Aras an Uachtaran on the day of her inauguration as president. Picture: Denis Minihane.
Academics at Trinity College Dublin were furious at the perceived insult from the Charles Haughey-led government over its failure to invite the head of the university to the inauguration of Mary Robinson as President of Ireland in 1990.
The provost of Trinity, Willam A Watts, wrote to the chief of protocol in the Department of Foreign Affairs four days after the historic ceremony marking the election of Ireland’s first female president to complain that the college’s chancellor, Frank O’Reilly, had not been invited to the event.
Professor Watts expressed his disappointment at the perceived snub and demanded an apology in the letter sent on December 7, 1990.
Prof Watts said his secretary had spoken to a number of officials in both the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of the Taoiseach about the matter.
He said Trinity had been reassured that chancellors of universities were not being invited to the ceremony in Dublin Castle as a result of a decision that had been taken “at the highest level” in the Department of the Taoiseach.
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Prof Watts said he had attended the ceremony along with the heads of other universities but noted that it was also attended by the chancellor of the National University of Ireland, T K Whitaker.
While Prof Watts said he had no objection to Dr Whitaker’s presence at the inauguration, he said it was “very strange” that he should be there when Dr O’Reilly, who was chancellor of the university where Ms Robinson studied and which she had also represented in the Seanad for many years, was not invited.
She had also become Ireland’s youngest professor of law on her appointment to Trinity in 1969 at the age of 25 where she worked on a part-time basis until just before contesting the presidential election.
“I believe that a rather serious error of protocol occurred and one which is particularly undeserved by this university,” said Prof Watts.
He added: “I don’t think anything short of an apology from a high level will be sufficient.”
Prof Watts said Dr O’Reilly had written to him privately to express his distress at not being invited to the ceremony and claimed he was “greatly insulted".
“I believe that a prompt apology is now required to repair the situation,” he concluded.
State papers reveal that a reply was issued to the provost of Trinity five days later by the chief of protocol, Thelma Doran, although its content is unknown.
In a reply on December 14, 1990, Prof Watts said he looked forward to hearing from the then assistant secretary general at the Department of the Taoiseach, Frank Murray, about the issue.
However, Prof Watts added: “I must insist that something has gone wrong that cannot be brushed aside.”
He expressed hope that on reflection the Government would realise that “a serious hurt was caused to our chancellor.”
Files reveal that Prof Watts did not appear to have had any contact from the Department of the Taoiseach which led him to write to Mr Murray on January 29, 1991, when he asked the senior civil servant for a response to his original complaint.
However, Mr Murray wrote a terse reply in which he stated that he had nothing further to add to Ms Doran’s letter to the Trinity provost back in December 1990.
It prompted another letter from Prof Watts on February 7, 1991, in which he said that he would “simply repeat the facts” and outlined how the chancellor of the university was not invited to the inauguration of President Robinson despite her being a graduate of Trinity and maintaining “a very active interest in it.”
Prof Watts said Dr O’Reilly was greatly offended by the lack of an invitation as his absence from the ceremony had been noted and commented on by many of his friends who had questioned if he had been ill.
“It would have been generous to recognise that error with the briefest of apologies, especially as this university has for a long period of time paid a great deal of attention to visitors to the country brought to our attention by the Department of Foreign Affairs,” he wrote.
Prof Watts concluded: “I find it very regrettable in the circumstances that you have found it so impossible to show a very modest degree of courtesy as the situation required.”
Mr Murray replied the following day and remarked that he was “fully aware of the facts” but merely restated what he had said in his previous response.
He signed off by commenting that he did not propose “to enter into any further correspondence in the matter.” The then taoiseach, Charles Haughey, who was a graduate of University College Dublin, was known to have a chequered history with its rival university in Dublin.
Haughey was widely linked with stories of a group of students from UCD who staged a counter demonstration after students from Trinity celebrated V-E Day in May 1945 by hanging Union Jacks from buildings in the college. It has been alleged that the future Fianna Fáil leader at the time set a Union Jack flag alight after a Trinity student had set fire to an Irish tricolour.
Ms Robinson had also defeated Mr Haughey's party colleague and the candidate who was the original favourite to win the presidential election, Brian Lenihan.
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