Some years ago when young barrister Bernard Dunleavy was still at Trinity, he noticed that 1997 was not only the bicentenary of Edmund Burke's death but also the 250th anniversary of the founding of the College Historical Society by Burke. Two events, on Thursday and Friday, were the culmination of two years' work by Dunleavy, a previous auditor of the Hist.
On Thursday, the former president of France, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, delivered the keynote lecture in Trinity's Examination Hall. He also combined the trip with a 6 p.m. dinner engagement with Jean Kennedy Smith in the University Club. The meeting was chaired by Peter Sutherland, chairman of BP, and opened by the president of the society, Conor Cruise O'Brien.
Yesterday, the subject of Burke and the British inspired debate in the old House of Lords in the Bank of Ireland on College Green - the first time a political meeting has been held there since the Act of Union in 1800. It was particularly apt, as two of the speakers, Lord Patrick Mayhew and Lord Roy Hattersley, have so recently been elevated to the peerage. Indeed it was a poignant occasion all round for Lord Mayhew, who spoke on Burke and Conservatism, as he is a direct descendant of Burke and was given the name as a second name in memory of his famous ancestor. The poet Tom Paulin was the third speaker at the lecture, which was chaired by Melvyn Bragg.