This is a list of notable alumni and faculty members of Trinity College Dublin.

Armed forces

  • Tom Clonan, retired Irish Army officer, author and security analyst
  • Eyre Coote (1762–1823), Irish British Army soldier and politician; Governor-General of Jamaica (1806–1808)
  • Henry George Gore-Browne (1830–1912), Irish British Army colonial of the 100th Regiment of Foot; awarded the Victoria Cross (circa 1857, while a captain of the 32nd Regiment of Foot)
  • James Murray Irwin (1858–1938), Irish British Army major-general doctor
  • Col. Ernest Achey Loftus, CBE, soldier, teacher and diarist
  • Michael Lynch, MMG (1942–2008), Irish Army officer and recipient of the Military Medal for Gallantry
  • Robert Nairac (1948–1977), English British Army captain; abducted and killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1977; posthumously awarded the George Cross (1979)
  • Robert Ross (1766–1814), Anglo-Irish British Army officer; participated in the Napoleonic Wars (various ranks); commander of the British force which sacked Washington, D.C., and burned down the White House, during the War of 1812 (as major-general)
  • Sir Hovenden Walker (1656/1666–1725/1728), Royal Navy officer

Arts

  • Lenny Abrahamson, Oscar-nominated film director
  • Thomas Bateson, 17th-century writer of madrigals
  • Aisling Bea, actress and comedian
  • Cathy Belton, actress
  • John Butler Yeats, artist
  • David Benioff, filmmaker and co-creator of Game of Thrones
  • Michael Bogdanov, theatre director
  • Sammy Copley, singer and musician
  • Derbhle Crotty, actress
  • Brian Boydell, composer
  • Selina Cartmell, theatre director, and director of the Gate Theatre
  • Michael Colgan, director of the Gate Theatre, film and television producer
  • Houston Collisson, musician
  • Anne Crookshank, emeritus professor of the history of art and founder of the faculty
  • Chris de Burgh, singer and musician
  • Thomas Manly Deane, architect
  • Pádraic Delaney, actor
  • Donnacha Dennehy, composer
  • Ciarán Farrell, composer
  • Margaret Fiedler, musician and singer
  • Susan Fitzgerald, actress
  • Percy French, songwriter and entertainer
  • Jack Gleeson, actor
  • Constantine Gregory, actor
  • Lisa Hannigan, singer
  • Aaron Heffernan, actor
  • Rachael Hegarty, poet
  • Ciaran Hope, composer of orchestral, choral, and film music
  • Andrew Hozier-Byrne, singer-songwriter (did not finish course)
  • Fergus Johnston, composer
  • Dillie Keane, singer-songwriter and actress
  • Lisa Lambe, actress and singer
  • Nathaniel Lande, author, filmmaker and former creative director of Time
  • Jacknife Lee, record producer
  • Allen Leech, actor
  • Damien Leith, singer
  • Eleanor McEvoy, singer-songwriter
  • Katie McGrath, actress
  • Sean Pol McGreevy, actor/musician
  • Paul McGuinness, manager of U2
  • Pauline McLynn, actress, comedian and novelist
  • Katie McMahon, singer and musician
  • Ruth Negga, actress
  • Jonathon Ng, musician
  • Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, singer
  • Sylvia O'Brien, opera singer
  • David O'Doherty, comedian
  • Rebecca O'Mara, actress
  • Matthew Pilkington, satirist and art historian
  • Laura Pyper, actress
  • Norman Rodway, actor
  • James Edward Rogers, architect and artist
  • Andrew Scott, actor
  • Chris Singleton, singer-songwriter and producer
  • Max Stafford-Clark, theatre director
  • Rhys Thomas, film and television director
  • Stanley Townsend, actor
  • Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, actor
  • D. B. Weiss, novelist and co-creator of Game of Thrones
  • Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, composer, father of the Duke of Wellington
  • Dominic West, British actor
  • Ian Whitcomb, singer and entertainer
  • James White, historical novelist
  • Paul Mescal, actor

Broadcasting and journalism

  • Bruce Arnold, journalist and author
  • Sharon Ní Bheoláin, news presenter
  • James David Bourchier, Balkans correspondent for The Times and advisor to Tzar Ferdinand of Bulgaria
  • John Bowman, journalist and broadcaster
  • Rory Carroll, US West Coast correspondent, The Guardian
  • Tony Connelly, Europe Editor, RTÉ
  • Crosaire (J. D. Crozier), B.A. Dubl 1940, compiled the cryptic crossword for The Irish Times for fifty-nine years
  • Ray D'Arcy, television and radio presenter
  • Joe Duffy, radio presenter
  • Maia Dunphy, broadcaster
  • Ken Early, soccer journalist
  • Robert Fisk, journalist
  • Douglas Gageby, editor of the Irish Times
  • Veronica Guerin, crime reporter
  • Charles Graham Halpine, journalist
  • Vincent Hanna, Northern Irish television journalist
  • Brian Inglis, journalist, historian and television presenter
  • Mary Jordan, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
  • Aine Lawlor, radio and television presenter
  • Quentin Letts, British columnist and theatre critic
  • Martyn Lewis, British newsreader and journalist
  • Mark Little, journalist
  • Alex Massie, freelance journalist
  • David McWilliams, writer and broadcaster on economic and social issues
  • Denis Murray OBE former BBC Ireland Correspondent.
  • Edmund O'Donovan, war correspondent
  • Rupert Pennant-Rea, former editor of The Economist
  • Gerry Ryan, radio presenter
  • Cliff Taylor, editor, Sunday Business Post
  • Nick Webb, Business Editor, Sunday Independent

Business

  • Conrad Burke, physicist and entrepreneur
  • Paul Coulson
  • Olivia Grosvenor, Duchess of Westminster, senior account manager
  • Lord Haskins of Skidby, chairman of Northern Foods
  • Alan Joyce, chief executive of Qantas
  • Laura Magahy, company director and former director of Sláintecare
  • Dermot Mannion, former chief executive of Aer Lingus
  • Michael O'Leary, chief executive of Ryanair
  • Willie Walsh, chief executive of British Airways

Economics

  • Sean Barrett, economist and member of Seanad Éireann
  • Peter Bellew, chief executive of Malaysia Airlines
  • Phelim Boyle (born 1941), academic and economist; pioneer of the use of Monte Carlo methods in derivatives pricing
  • Lujo Brentano (1884–1931), German economist and social reformer
  • George Alexander Duncan (1902–2006), professor of political economy
  • Francis Ysidro Edgeworth (1845–1926), philosopher and political economist
  • Morgan Kelly, professor of economics, University College Dublin
  • Philip R. Lane (born 1969), academic and economist
  • Kevin O'Rourke, Professor of Economic History, Oxford

Education

  • Robert Blackburn, International Secretary of the United World Colleges; Deputy Director General of the International Baccalaureate
  • Increase Mather, seventh president of Harvard University
  • McFadden Alexander Newell, first principal of Maryland State Normal School (Towson University)
  • Ferdinand von Prondzynski, president of Dublin City University
  • Louise Richardson, former executive dean of Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; political scientist at Harvard University; Principal of the University of St Andrews; first female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford as of 1 Jan 2016

Science, mathematics, engineering and medicine

  • Beulah Bewley, public health physician
  • Denis Parsons Burkitt, surgeon and researcher into childhood cancer (cf. Burkitt's lymphoma)
  • William C. Campbell, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2015
  • Georgia Chenevix-Trench, cancer researcher
  • Aeneas Coffey, engineer, inventor of the Coffey still
  • Steven Collins, co-founder of Havok
  • Dimitri Leonidas Contostavlos, physician, forensic pathologist
  • Andrew Hope Davidson, physician and Master of the Rotunda Hospital
  • George Francis FitzGerald, professor of physics
  • Gordon Foster (1920–2010), fellow emeritus at the college; Professor of Statistics and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and statistics; author of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) system (a global standard), and the book Information Technology in Developing Countries
  • Aoife Gowen, researcher and professor
  • Oliver St John Gogarty, physician and ear surgeon
  • Alexander Henry Haliday, entomologist
  • Hugh Hamilton, professor of natural philosophy
  • William Rowan Hamilton, mathematician
  • William Henry Harvey, botanist
  • William Charles Hood, physician
  • Caroline Hussey, microbiologist
  • Werner Israel, physicist
  • John Joly, physicist and geologist
  • Sir John MacNeill, civil engineer
  • Robert Mallet, engineer and scientist
  • Una Martin, Clinical Pharmacologist
  • Richard Maunsell, Chief Mechanical Engineer, South Eastern and Chatham Railway, and Southern Railway
  • Henry Benedict Medlicott, geologist
  • William Molyneux, natural philosopher
  • Suzanne O'Sullivan, neurologist, prizewinning writer
  • Charles Algernon Parsons, engineer, inventor of the modern steam turbine
  • Thomas Preston, scientist
  • Ouida Ramón-Moliner, anaesthetist
  • Michael Roberts, mathematician
  • William Johnson Sollas, geologist and anthropologist
  • William Stokes, physician and professor
  • George Johnstone Stoney, physicist who proposed the term 'electron' for the fundamental unit of electricity
  • Jane Stout, ecologist and entomologist
  • John Lighton Synge, mathematician and scientist
  • Charles Hawkes Todd, physician, professor, and president of the Royal College of Surgeons
  • Robert Bentley Todd, physician, Kings College professor, and identified with Todd's palsy
  • Edward Hutchinson Synge, Irish physicist and nanoscience pioneer
  • Ernest Walton, Nobel Prize winner
  • Benjamin Worsley, 17th-century physician, surveyor and alchemist
  • Peter Wyse Jackson, botanist
  • Valerie O'Leary, scientist and researcher
  • Orla Kearney, Embodied carbon & sustainability consultant
  • Abraham Colles, Surgeon and anatomist, described Colles fracture
  • Robert William Smith, described Smith's fracture

Humanities

  • James Auchmuty, historian, wartime MI6 propagandist and inaugural vice-chancellor of the University of Newcastle, Australia
  • Jonathan Bardon, historian
  • George Berkeley, philosopher (cf. subjective idealism)
  • Turtle Bunbury, historian and author
  • J. B. Bury, Irish historian and classicist
  • Anna Chahoud, Latin philologist
  • Edward Courtney, scholar of Latin literature
  • John Cruickshank, scholar of French literature, language, and culture
  • Edward Dowden, Shakespearean scholar
  • Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, academic specializing in vampire fiction, horror film, and gothic studies
  • Roy Foster, Carroll Professor of Irish History, Hertford College, Oxford
  • Ian Graham (BSc 1951), Mayanist archaeologist
  • Edward Hincks, Orientalist
  • Linda Hogan, fellow and Professor of Ecumenics
  • Declan Kiberd, Professor of Anglo-Irish Literature, University College Dublin
  • R. J. B. Knight, naval historian
  • Richard Layte, Professor of Sociology
  • William Edward Hartpole Lecky, historian
  • John V. Luce, classicist
  • F. S. L. Lyons, historian and Provost of Trinity College Dublin
  • John Pentland Mahaffy, classicist
  • R. B. McDowell, historian
  • Robert McKim, philosopher of religion
  • Christine E. Morris, Andrew A. David Professor in Greek Archaeology and History
  • Jane Ohlmeyer, historian
  • Franc Sadleir, Regius Professor Greek and later Provost of Trinity College Dublin; advocate for Catholic emancipation
  • Brendan Simms, historian and fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge
  • William Bedell Stanford, senator and Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity College Dublin
  • Alastair Sweeny, Canadian historian, publisher
  • Rory Sweetman, New Zealand historian
  • James Henthorn Todd, Regis Professor, co-founder of Irish Archaeological Society, president of Royal Irish Academy
  • Nikolai Tolstoy, historian
  • Taha Yasseri, Professor and Inaugural Chair of Technology and Society (2003), Computational Social Scientist

Law

  • Sir James Andrews, 1st Baronet, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
  • Deirdre Curtin, lawyer
  • Susan Denham, former Chief Justice of the Irish Supreme Court
  • Sir Valentine Fleming, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania
  • Henry Flavelle Forbes, C.I.E., President of the Court of Appeal, Iraq, 1920/21
  • Hari Singh Gaur, barrister, jurist and educationist in India
  • John George, Solicitor-General for Ireland
  • Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne, Attorney-General and Lord Chancellor of Ireland
  • Maureen Harding Clark, judge of the International Criminal Court and the High Court of Ireland
  • Gerard Hogan, judge of the Court of Appeal
  • Brian McCracken, retired Justice of the Irish Supreme Court; chair of the McCracken Tribunal
  • Catherine McGuinness, retired Justice of the Irish Supreme Court; former member of Seanad Éireann and President of the Law Reform Commission
  • Frank Murphy, United States Supreme Court Associate Justice (1940–49)
  • Patricia O'Brien, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel
  • Christopher Palles, judge, Solicitor-General for Ireland
  • Alan Shatter, politician
  • James Skinner, Chief Justice of Zambia and Malawi
  • William Frederick L. Stanley (1872–1939), lawyer and judge in Republic of Hawaii
  • William Stawell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria
  • Egbert Udo Udoma, justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court and Chief Justice of Uganda
  • Peter Whelan, professor of law

Literature

  • Sebastian Barry, novelist
  • Samuel Beckett, dramatist, Nobel laureate
  • Eavan Boland, poet
  • John Boyne, novelist
  • Nicholas Brady, poet and translator
  • Erskine Barton Childers, writer and journalist
  • Eoin Colfer, children's writer
  • Naoise Dolan, novelist
  • William Congreve, playwright and poet
  • Michael de Larrabeiti, author
  • J. P. Donleavy, Irish-American author
  • Richard Ellmann, literary critic and biographer
  • Anne Enright, novelist, winner of Man Booker Prize 2007
  • George Farquhar, dramatist
  • Oliver Goldsmith, writer and surgeon
  • John Haffenden, professor of literature
  • Claire Hennessy, writer and editor
  • Jennifer Johnston, Man Booker Prize–winning novelist
  • Brendan Kennelly, poet and author
  • William Larminie, poet
  • Sheridan Le Fanu, author
  • Michael Longley, poet
  • Patrick MacDonogh, poet
  • Rupert Mackeson, racing author
  • Thomas MacNevin, writer and journalist
  • Derek Mahon, poet
  • Bryan Malessa, novelist
  • Barry McCrea, novelist and lecturer
  • Mark C. McGarrity, crime fiction novelist (under pen name Bartholomew Gill)
  • Annemarie Ní Churreáin, poet
  • Melatu-Uche Okorie, short-story writer
  • Sally Rooney, novelist
  • Oliver St. John Gogarty, poet and surgeon
  • Jo Shapcott, poet
  • Thomas Southerne, dramatist
  • Bram Stoker, author, known for Dracula
  • Jonathan Swift, satirist, author of Gulliver's Travels
  • John Millington Synge, dramatist, poet; author of The Playboy of the Western World
  • Nahum Tate, lyricist and Poet Laureate
  • William Trevor, novelist particularly known for short stories
  • Trevor White, food critic and author of Kitchen Con
  • John Duncan Craig, poet
  • Oscar Wilde, poet, dramatist, wit; read Greats in Trinity 1871–1874;

Politics and government

  • J. E. W. Addison, British judge and Conservative politician
  • Ernest Alton, independent Unionist politician in the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and in Seanad Éireann
  • Hugh Annesley, 5th Earl Annesley, M.P. for Cavan, later an Irish representative peer in the House of Lords
  • Thekla Beere, civil servant and chairwoman of the ILO
  • John Beresford, statesman
  • Harman Blennerhassett, Irish-American supporter of the Burr conspiracy
  • Frederick Boland, diplomat and twenty-first Chancellor of the University
  • John Boyd, member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
  • Noël Browne, Irish Minister for Health and physician
  • Edmund Burke, philosopher, political theorist, statesman and MP for the British Whig Party
  • Hugh Cairns, 1st Earl Cairns, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and Chancellor of the University of Dublin
  • Sir Edward Carson, leader of the Irish Unionists
  • Hélène Conway-Mouret, French senator and former minister
  • Richard Curran, National Centre Party and later Fine Gael TD
  • Sir Colville Deverell, Governor of the Windward Islands and Mauritius
  • Robert Emmet, Irish nationalist
  • Henry Grattan, member of the Irish House of Commons
  • Cecil Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth, Liberal MP and brother of press barons, Lord Northcliffe and Lord Rothermere
  • Mary Harney, politician, former leader of the PDs and former Tánaiste
  • Mark Herdman, diplomat, Governor of the British Virgin Islands (1986–1991)
  • Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland
  • Princess Kako of Akishino, Japan
  • Brian Lenihan, politician, former Minister for Finance
  • George Macartney, British statesman (1st Earl Macartney)
  • Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, politician
  • Richard Graves MacDonnell, Governor of South Australia, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia and Governor of Hong Kong
  • Josepha Madigan, politician, former Minister Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
  • Mairead Maguire (Irish School of Ecumenics), a peace activist, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976
  • Mary McAleese, 8th President of Ireland
  • Mary Lou McDonald, politician and leader of Sinn Féin*
  • Leonard Greenham Star Molloy, surgeon and politician
  • David Norris, senator, gay rights activist and former presidential candidate
  • Conor Cruise O'Brien, politician, writer and academic
  • John O'Connell, member of parliament, leader of the Repeal Association
  • Liz O'Donnell, politician, former Minister for Overseas Development
  • Emily O'Reilly, former journalist, author, Irish Ombudsman, European Ombudsman
  • William Hoey Kearney Redmond, Nationalist politician; first World War fatality
  • Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland
  • Edward Stafford (politician) third Premier of New Zealand
  • Sir Malcolm Stevenson, Governor of Cyprus and of the Seychelles
  • James Stopford, 2nd Earl of Courtown, Tory politician
  • Leo Varadkar, politician, Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael
  • Theobald Wolfe Tone, father of Irish republicanism
  • Jaja Wachuku first Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister
  • Henry Westenra, 3rd Baron Rossmore, politician and piper
  • Thomas Wyse, politician and diplomat
  • Éamon de Valera, American-born Irish statesman and political leader. Attended from 1904 to 1905 as "Edward de Valera".

Religion

  • Arthur William Barton, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin
  • John Henry Bernard, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin
  • Robert Henry Charles, biblical scholar, theologian, and translator
  • Rt. Rev. Dr. John Curtis, bishop of Chekiang, China
  • John Nelson Darby, evangelist and Bible translator
  • Charles D'Arcy, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and Armagh
  • John Dowden, Bishop of Edinburgh and ecclesiastical historian
  • Richard William Enraght, Anglican priest and religious controversialist
  • William Fitzgerald, Church of Ireland bishop and author
  • David F. Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge since 1991
  • Alexander Charles Garrett, bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
  • John Graham, author
  • Francis Hales, Anglican Archdeacon of Launceton, Tasmania
  • William Connor Magee, Anglican Archbishop of York
  • Father John Main, OSB, Benedictine monk
  • Fr. Malachi Martin S.J., author
  • Charles Maturin, Church of Ireland clergyman and gothic author
  • Joseph Ferguson Peacocke, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin
  • Beresford Potter, Anglican Archdeacon of Cyprus
  • Robert Ram, author of The Soldiers Catechism issued to the New Model Army
  • William Reeves, bishop, antiquarian, and President of the Royal Irish Academy
  • Robert Warren Stewart, missionary to China, murdered in Kucheng Massacre
  • James Henthorn Todd, biblical scholar, educator, and Irish historian: Regius Professor of Hebrew
  • William Gowan Todd, author, cleric, and founder of St. Mary's Orphanage for Boys in London
  • James Ussher, Primate of All Ireland, noted for calculating the date of creation as the night preceding Sunday 23 October 4004 BC
  • Robert Wyse Jackson, Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe
  • Montasser AlDe'emeh, author and researcher

Sports

  • Edward Allman-Smith (1886–1969), British Army soldier and field hockey player; Olympic silver medalist, as member of the Ireland field-hockey team at the 1908 Summer Olympics
  • Daniel Collins, Irish rower
  • Henry Dunlop, founder of Lansdowne Football Club and builder of Lansdowne Road stadium
  • Michael Gibson, rugby footballer
  • Ed Joyce Irish cricketer
  • James Lindsay-Fynn, rower, world championship gold, Great Britain, LM4 - Munich 2007
  • Hugo MacNeill, Ireland and British and Irish Lions rugby player
  • William McCrum, inventor of penalty kick of football
  • Robin Roe (1928–2010), clergyman and rugby footballer
  • Dick Spring (born 1950), Gaelic footballer, hurler, rugby footballer, businessman and politician

Other

  • Sir Robert Anderson, intelligence officer, theologian and policeman
  • Edward Chichester, 4th Marquess of Donegall
  • Richard Lovell Edgeworth, inventor, father of Maria Edgeworth
  • Mary Elmes (1908–2002), Irish aid worker who was honoured as Righteous Among the Nations for saving the lives of more than 200 Jewish children during the Second World War
  • Michael Elmore-Meegan, expert on global health issues, author, humanitarian, founder of charities
  • Scilla Elworthy, human rights campaigner
  • Sally Fegan-Wyles, director of UNDG
  • Half Hung MacNaghten, 18th-century gentleman fraudster
  • Kevin McCormack, dancer with Riverdance; graduated from Trinity College with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy
  • Leonard McNally, playwright, attorney, British spy
  • Pamela Uba, medical scientist and first black person to win Miss Ireland title

See also

  • List of chancellors of the University of Dublin
  • List of professorships at the University of Dublin
  • List of provosts of Trinity College Dublin
  • List of scholars of Trinity College Dublin
  • Alumni Dublinenses

References