Our Commitment to You

At TCD Students’ Union, your privacy is a top priority. It is at the core of the representative services we provide to our members and the relationships we have with external parties.

We appreciate that you put your trust in us — we do not take this lightly. 

The personal data which you provide to TCD Students’ Union (TCDSU) is processed in compliance with Irish and European Data Protection legislation, specifically the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (‘GDPR’) and the Data Protection Act 2018, and in accordance with our privacy policy which explains the following:

1. Who We Are
2. Where This Privacy Policy Applies
3. Data Protection Officer
4. Data You Give Us
5. How We Use Your Data
6. Why Can We Collect and Use Your Data?
7. Who We Share Your Data With
8. Data Retention
9. Your Privacy Rights
10. Data Protection Commission (DPC)
11. Privacy Policy Changes
12. How to Contact Us

If you have any questions, you can contact the TCDSU Data Protection Officer at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

TCDSU Privacy Policy

Your Privacy Rights

Individuals are entitled to certain privacy rights under the law. It is important to note that these Rights are not absolute, and may be subject to certain exceptions as set out under GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. To exercise your rights, please follow these procedures:

Right of Access 

You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we are processing about you and to exercise that right easily and at reasonable intervals (Article 15). 

Right to Erasure

The right to erasure – also known as the right to be forgotten – allows a data subject to stop all processing of their data and request their personal data be erased (Article 17). 

1. Complete the Data Access Request Form or the Data Erasure Request Form. To help TCDSU to respond to a request, individuals should be as specific as possible about the information sought. Any additional details that assist to locate the information, for example; names of relevant officers, relevant time periods, etc. will be most useful in processing the request in a compliant manner. 
2. Email it to the TCDSU Data Protection Officer at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with proof of identity attached (e.g. a copy of your passport, drivers licence or staff/student ID card). 
3. Responses to requests will be issued within one month unless an extension is required.

Right to Withdraw Consent; To Rectification; To Restrict Processing; To Object

You have the right to withdraw your consent where that is the legal basis of our processing (Article 7). Individuals have the right to request rectification of their personal data, including the correction or errors and the updating of incomplete information (Article 16). You may also have the right to restrict processing in certain circumstances (Article 18). If a request to stop data processing is rejected by a data controller, the data subject has the right to object to their Article 18 right being denied (Article 21).

1. To exercise the rights set out above, submit a written request via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with proof of identity attached (e.g. a copy of your passport, drivers licence or staff/student ID card). 
2. Responses to requests will be issued within one month unless an extension is required.

It is important to note that these rights are not absolute. In certain situations, TCDSU may not be able to accommodate a request. For example, if it would interfere with the provision of a service that you have asked TCDSU to provide you with. You will be notified if this is the case.

Data Protection Commission (DPC)

If you are not satisfied with the information we have provided to you in relation to the processing of your data you can raise a concern with the Data Protection Commission via their online form or contact the Commission at: dataprotection.ie

Privacy Policy Changes

We will always strive to keep explanations about our data practices up-to-date, so this policy may be reviewed and changed over time. An updated version will always be made available on this webpage.

How to Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact the TCDSU Data Protection Officer at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Postgraduate Common Room - Event Bookings

The TCDSU Postgrad Common Room on the first floor of House 7, Front Square, is now bookable for events by postgraduate students. Please avoid disappointment by starting the booking process well in advance as the space is in high demand. 

Please note that your booking is not confirmed until you receive a confirmation email from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If the Postgrad Common Room is unavailable at the requested time, more information on booking other rooms across campus can be found here: trinitysocieties.ie/room-bookings

Room bookings form

1937 Postgraduate Reading Room Lockers

1937 Reading Room lockers are now available to rent by postgraduate students. Click here for the locker rentals form.

Each locker costs €20 to rent, €10 of which is a refundable deposit that will be returned to you after you return your key. The deadline for returns has not been set yet but will be in late summer 2023 to accommodate those conducting research over the summer months.

The lockers are being administered by the TCDSU Front Office team who you can reach at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any questions. 

Rent a locker

The University Board has De-Named the X Library!

On 26 April 2023, the University Board of Trinity College Dublin voted to dename the library currently bearing the philosopher George Berkeley’s name, a former slave-owner and vocal proponent of slavery. It will soon launch a community consultation to choose a new name.

Opened in 1967, the library was named in 1978 after George Berkeley, the world-renowned philosopher and former Librarian at Trinity. Berkeley published some of his most important philosophical works while at Trinity in the 1700s. He bought slaves – named Philip, Anthony, Edward and Agnes Berkeley – to work on his Rhode Island estate in 1730-31, and sought to advance ideology in support of slavery.

Today’s decisions were taken by the University’s Board following several months of research, analysis and public consultation overseen by the Trinity Legacies Review Working Group. Trinity decided that the continued use of the Berkeley name on its Library building is inconsistent with the University’s core values of human dignity, freedom, inclusivity and equality.

Slavery is not a thing of the past. Right now, almost 50 million people are trapped in slavery worldwide. What is modern slavery?

If you're interested in learning more about the Trinity Colonial Legacies Project, click here.

Read our full statement here

Background

“Philip, Anthony and Agnes Berkeley were the property of George Berkeley, formerly a fellow at Trinity College Dublin and Dean of Derry in the Church of Ireland on his Rhode Island estate in the late 1720s. Berkeley was resident in Rhode Island from 1728, where he had acquired a plantation while setting plans in motion for a colonial university in Bermuda intended to educate missionaries to proselytise amongst the Native American population.”

- Memo From Vice Chancellor Mary McAleese, on behalf of the Trinity’s Colonial Legacies Advisory Board, addressed to Linda Doyle, Provost, March 2022.

Trinity’s main library was named in 1978 after the philosopher George Berkeley, whose history as a slave-owner has since been well documented. The Rename the Berkeley Campaign is a grassroots effort from students troubled by his presence within college. The Berkeley Memorial Window in the College Chapel, medals which are named after him, and most notably, the Berkeley Library. The Students' Union has and always will support any efforts College makes towards Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, but to ignore something so pivotal is to undermine any efforts made. 

Berkeley's Colonial Legacy

On Feb 22nd 2022, TCDSU voted to support a grassroots petition to rename the library. On August 23rd 2022, TCDSU de-named the Berkeley Library in all of its communications. Until the library is re-named by College, it will be referred to as The X Library in all TCDSU Communications. 

Make a Submission

Following the de-naming petition from students, the Trinity Colonial Legacies Project launched a public consultation on the name of the X Library. It is vital that the overwhelming majority of submissions oppose the commemoration of a former slave-owner on campus. TCDSU urges you to submit an evidence-based submission calling for the X Library to be re-named, you can write your own or use the template provided below!

If you wish to make an evidence-based submission, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please note: All submissions will be published on this website

DEADLINE:

Tuesday January 31, 2023

Submission Template

A Chara, 

My name is [Insert name]. As a student/alumni of Trinity College Dublin, I believe that it is unacceptable for our main library to bear the name of an individual complicit in the ideology and practice of racial discrimination and enslavement.

It is well-documented that George Berkeley bought and sold human beings in the early 18th century. As a bishop and philosopher, he was a vocal advocate for slavery as a social and economic institution. The "Working Paper on Berkeley’s Legacies at Trinity" published by the Trinity Colonial Legacies Project in November 2022 details that:

1. Between 1728 and 1731, he purchased 3-5 enslaved people to work at his personal residence, Whitehall, a plantation in Rhode Island.
2. He drew up plans for what he called the “Bermuda Scheme”, a school for Native Americans, which he proposed to fill with kidnapped Native Americans that would have seen further enslavement on his part.
3. He was a vocal proponent of the Yorke-Talbot opinion. He argued that enslavement was justified as it enabled the conversion of enslaved Africans to Christianity, but denied the possibility of a route to freedom through religious conversion. This opinion was heavily applied in supplying a legal basis for the continued enslavement of men, women and children in the US.
4. Berkeley’s opinions on the benefits of enslavement applied to the enslaved African, Native Americans, and to the native Irish Catholic population as well.

Berkeley's views were not a product of his time. It is false to argue that Berkeley had no agency in his actions or words. In his own time, we have a multitude of voices propounding the injustice of the slave trade, from the Quakers to the Irish philosopher and Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University, Francis Hutcheson. This anti-slavery opinion was widespread and familiar to intellectual circles. George Berkeley chose to support the enslavement of human beings. 

The act of de-naming the X Library cannot and will not bury him or his work in Trinity's history. Scholars will still be able to study George Berkeley. Removing his name from the wall of our main library will not destroy his writings. Rather, it will represent our choice not to glorify an individual who dedicated his life to oppressing the lives of others.

An appropriate decolonisation of Trinity College would recognise that the Berkeley Library, the eponymous Gold Medals, and memorial window are no longer appropriate to the 21st century university that Trinity projects to the world. Their continued existence reflects poorly on Trinity College Dublin’s ability to meet its goals of inclusivity and the fostering of a positive environment in which students can learn. Berkeley’s continued lionisation is a failure on the part of Trinity College Dublin to engage with this problematic legacy.

For these reasons, I call on Provost. Linda Doyle, and Trinity College Dublin to:

1. Immediately remove the sign which bears Berkeley’s name outside the X Library, de-name the X Library and Gold Medals in all College communications, and re-dedicate the memorial window;
2. Launch a public consultation on a new long-term name for the X Library.

As a University that claims to inspire the next generation of global citizens and leaders, we have a duty to engage critically with our past and change when necessary. The decision to name Trinity's main library after George Berkeley in 1978 was a mistake — retaining it would be another one. 

Kind regards, 

[Insert name]

[Insert course name]