List of Professorships at the University of Dublin

This is a list of professorships, other notable positions, and public lectures at the University of Dublin.

The Chairs in French (1776), German (1776), Irish (1840), English Literature (1867) and the precursor (1776) of the current Chair of Spanish (1926) are the oldest in the world in their respective subjects, as some others may be, or thereabouts - the Chair of Civil Engineering (1842) is the third oldest engineering professorship in the world (very soon after Paris and London).

Only professorships more than 50 years old are listed, as are some other notable historical positions (e.g. Donegall Lecturer in Mathematics (1668), now mostly an honorary, usually one-year, title for a distinguished visiting mathematician). Some old Chairs transferred to other institutions (e.g. the four King's Professors of Medicine to The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, which also previously appointed the Professors) or were discontinued with changing circumstances, especially those beyond the ordinary (e.g. Chair of English Feudal Law).

Discontinued / evolved into or merged with other positions / No longer separately listed in College Calendar:

The next four are the 'King's Professors of Medicine' (transferred to the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland)

Chairs that existed for brief periods, or especially for one holder only

The Donnellan lectures were founded by the Board on 22 February 1794, to carry out the intentions of Miss Anne Donnellan, of the parish of St George, Hanover Square, Middlesex, spinster, who bequeathed £1,243 to the College ‘for the encouragement of religion, learning, and good manners; the particular mode of application being left to the Provost and Senior Fellows’. The subject is presented in not less than two lectures.

In 1984 the late Mrs Ruth Duthie made a gift of £1,000 to the College, which she augmented in 1989 by a further £1,000, to fund a lecture to be delivered once every two years, the lecturer to be chosen by the Professor of Microbiology and the Head of the Unit of Clinical Microbiology.

In 1976 the Earl of Donoughmore, together with members of the Hely-Hutchinson family, endowed a visiting lectureship in memory of John Hely-Hutchinson who established the Chairs of Modern Languages and Literature in 1776 (during his term as Provost). The lectures are given every second year by a scholar or writer of the highest distinction in the modern languages and literature field.

After the death of John Joly, F.T.C.D., SC.D., F.R.S., Professor of Geology and Mineralogy 1897-1933, a number of his friends subscribed a sum of money to found a series of lectures in his memory.

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