History
HistoryThe town of Maynooth traces its historical significance back to the 12th century when the Fitzgerald family established a stronghold at the confluence of the Lyreen and Abhann Slad streams. The ruins of the Geraldine castle make an imposing backdrop to the university's south campus entrance. In the early 16th century a third-level college flourished briefly in what is now the Church of Ireland parish church, though it did not survive the upheavals of the Reformation. In 1795 an Act of the Irish parliament established a national seminary at Maynooth, a move sanctioned by the British Crown in an effort to dilute the influence of French Revoloutionary thinking on trainee priests educated heretofore on the continent. The new St Patrick's College quickly established itself as a major seminary and, to celebrate its centenary, Pontifical University status was granted in 1896. In 1910 St Patrick's College become a recognised college of the newly-formed National University of Ireland. Since the mid-1960s lay students have also been educated at Maynooth and in 1997 the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, came into being as a separate entity. Some 5,500 students now study on the campus at Maynooth.
