Albert Agricultural College

Albert College is the oldest building on the campus of Dublin City University and contains the offices of the university president, the DCU Educational Trust, and other executive offices of the university; the building dates from 1851. The Albert College Building also houses the 1838 Club, a restaurant for staff and postgraduate research students. The adjoining Albert College Extension contained laboratories for the school of engineering and was opened in 1985. The college is located in Glasnevin, Dublin, Ireland.

In 1838, John Pitt Kennedy, the first inspector-general of the nascent Irish National School system, acquired land for the Crown for the specific purpose of building a central model farm and training establishment for National School teachers. The teachers were to be taught how to give instruction to children not only in reading, writing and arithmetic but also in practical and innovative methods of agriculture. Albert College started life as Glasnevin Model Farm in 1838, becoming the Albert National Agricultural Training Institution in 1853 after a visit by Prince Albert. The foundation of the college was an important event in the history of agricultural education in Ireland, which trained primary school teachers to the standards required by the Board of National Education in Ireland for the teaching of agriculture, additionally it also trained those whose aim was to pursue a career in agriculture. The board established twenty model agricultural schools and provided many national schools with small holdings or gardens. Because of religious opposition and laissez-faire economic policies, the board was forced to discontinue support for the schools holdings in 1863 and in 1874 disposed of most of the model farms. Albert College survived, probably because it was not exclusively concerned with the board's educational policies—it also carried out research work in new crop varieties, farming methods and breeding livestock.

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