So this here is Provost Salmon and Dave. Provost Salmon is the stone guy who looks like he didn't eat enough of the complimentary granola and yogurt, and Dave was our adorable tour guide, who had a delivery akin to that of Jacob the Bar Mitzvah boy. Dave was wearing academic robes, which looked like cheap samurai cosplay, and informed us that he had just finished his third year as an English and Film major, a fact which caused Lizzie and I to exchange meaningful glances.
Trinity College was established by Queen Elizabeth to fortify Tudor rule in Ireland, meaning it had Protestant leanings in a very Catholic country. The Catholic church actively discouraged it's members from attending the college until 1970. Provost Salmon up there allowed women in as of 1904, but he had to be forced into it, and died soon after this decision. Any time a woman gets educated, a stodgy sexist has a heart attack. It's like the angel/bell connection on It's a Wonderful Life.
So Trinity college is broken into various squares, with the oldest buildings still standing being from the 18th century. Dave told us about a famous Dean (Edward Ford) who shot at some students who were tossing rocks at his window, so the students went to their dorms, got their own guns (did we get back to America?) shot at the dean (as a PRANK! HA HA HA) and killed him. Oops. It was 1740, and while the students were expelled, they were not convicted of the crime, since the Dean shot first, and it couldn't be determined from which gun the killing shot came, as three students were involved in the shooting. (Plus the judge was pals with the students' dads.)
Other (less murdery) folks who went to Trinity include Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, and Jonathan Swift. Maybe Dave will join these ranks someday, except probably not, because he was baffled by Waiting for Godot. To quote the author, "Why people have to complicate a thing so simple I can't make out."
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