Over 100 people have gathered outside Trinity College Dublin in support of students camping outside the Book of Kells. 

Led by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, protestors gathered at the Spire from 12.30pm before marching to the front gate of Trinity at College Green. 

Protestors have praised the students staging an encampment on the college campus until Trinity cut ties with Israeli institutions. 

One protestor said Israeli universities have “stood alongside the Israeli military and its genocide of the Palestinian people” and Irish universities must condemn them. 

“If we really want to make universities around the world places of critical knowledge, we must stand and support the boycott of Israeli universities,” he said. 

Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign @ipsc48 lead demonstration in support of Trinity students’ encampment on campus pic.twitter.com/oqkhruQWQQ

— ellen (@ellenfkenny) May 4, 2024

Socialist Party member and former TD Ruth Coppinger quoted actor Harrison Ford who once said, “There is a new force of nature at hand starting all over the world – they are the young people”. 

“He said the best thing we can do is get out of their way and that sums up this encampment,” she said. 

“This is a wakeup call to [all] student unions – all of the student unions have to come out in a massive protest against this. 

“It’s not just Trinity that has the investments and academic links and has the support with Israel – it's a whole number of universities.” 

Protest outside Trinity College Dublin in support of students' encampment of the Book of Kells. Photo: Neasa Nic Cocráin.

Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President László Molnárfi, who is taking part in the encampment, came to College Green to thank protestors for their support. 

“This year we have seen the largest anti-war organising that we have seen across the world in decades,” he said. 

“The silence from our institutions, from the Government, from organisations and from academic institutions, despite the overwhelming [support], is absolutely disgraceful. 

“We have seen university students and staff united all across the world... in every single continent. 

“The reason we are doing this is because our academic institutions are deeply complicit in genocide, in settler colonialism, in apartheid.” 

Trinity closure

Trinity has restricted access to campus to students and staff with ID cards for the day. 

The Book of Kells was closed last night, and tourists have been refunded the money from tickets. 

Two tourists from Switzerland told Newstalk they tried to get tickets online, but the website said, “because of unforeseen circumstances, they are closed”. 

“It is seen all over the world, in the US there are quite a bit of demonstrations,” one man said. 

“We weren’t expecting this on a Saturday, on the last day we were here.” 

A tourist from the US said the protest in Trinity today is much more peaceful than those seen in American universities. 

“This is nothing,” she said. “This is very perfect 

“I have a friend that works at UCLA in the lab, and [protestors] trashed it - if you can go about trashing things like that you were raised too privileged.” 

Trinity has said it is “monitoring the situation closely”: “While Trinity supports students’ right to protest, protests must be conducted within the rules of the university.” 

The Department of Higher Education has said higher education institutions (HEIs) are “autonomous bodies” and “Issues in respect of student services, including student unions, are an internal matter for the relevant HEI”.