Trinity College Dublin (Irish: Coláiste na Tríonóide, Baile Átha Cliath), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. Founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 through a royal charter, it is one of the extant seven "ancient universities" of Great Britain and Ireland. Trinity contributed to Irish literature during the Victorian and Georgian eras, and played a key role in the recognition of Dublin as a UNESCO City of Literature. Trinity was established to consolidate the rule of the Tudor monarchy in Ireland, with Provost Adam Loftus christening it after Trinity College, Cambridge. Built on the site of the former Priory of All Hallows demolished by King Henry VIII, it was the Protestant university of the Ascendancy ruling elite for over two centuries, and was therefore associated with social elitism for most of its history. Trinity has three faculties comprising 25 schools, and affiliated institutions include the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the Lir Academy, and the Irish School of Ecumenics. It is a member of LERU and the Coimbra Group. Trinity College Dublin is one of the two sister colleges of both Oriel College, Oxford, and St John's College, Cambridge, and through mutual incorporation, the three universities have retained an academic partnership since 1636. The college contains several landmarks such as the Campanile, the GMB, and The Rubrics, as well as the historic Old Library. Trinity's legal deposit library serves both Ireland and the United Kingdom, and has housed the Book of Kells since 1661, the Brian Boru harp since 1782, and a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic since 1916. A major destination in Ireland's tourism, the campus receives over two million visitors annually, and has been used as a location in movies and novels. Trinity also houses the world's oldest student society, The Hist, which was founded in 1770. Trinity's notable alumni include literary figures such as Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, Bram Stoker, Sheridan Le Fanu, Oliver Goldsmith, and William Congreve; philosophers George Berkeley and Edmund Burke; statesman Éamon de Valera; and the writers of the Game of Thrones TV series. Trinity researchers also invented the binaural stethoscope, steam turbine, hypodermic needle, seismology, and linear algebra; pioneered radiotherapy; performed the first artificial nuclear reaction and transmutation; and coined the term electron. Alumni and faculty include 56 Fellows of the Royal Society, eight Nobel laureates, six Copley Medalists, five Victoria Cross recipients, five heads of state, and 14 Chief Justices of the Supreme Court. (from Wikipedia)