National University of Ireland

Federal university of the Republic of Ireland. Founded under the Irish Universities' Act (1908) to provide acceptable higher education for Catholics, it originally consisted of three constituent colleges: University College, Dublin; University College, Cork; and University College, Galway. St Patrick's College, Maynooth, established in 1795 for the training of Catholic priests, became a ‘recognized college’ of the university in 1913. In 1997 the four colleges became constituent universities of the National University of Ireland.

The Irish Universities' Act was a compromise measure resulting from a protracted struggle between the Catholic Church and the state. The secular Queen's Colleges, founded in 1845, were condemned by the Catholic Church as ‘godless colleges’, but the government refused to grant a charter to the denominational Catholic University founded in 1854. The Royal University of Ireland (1879-1908), an examining university, served as a stop-gap measure while the Royal Commission on University Education (1901-03) sought an alternative solution. The subsequent Irish Universities' Act dissolved the Royal University and created the Queen's University of Belfast and the National University of Ireland, leaving Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) untouched.