Some facts about Queen's College Cork
- The Colleges Ireland Act of 1845 was given royal assent on 31 July 1845 and provided funding not exceeding £100,000 to found one or more colleges with the Board of Public Works to carry out the practical work of identifying sites, engaging architects, builders etc.
- Queen’s College Cork formally came into existence on 30 December 1845 by a charter of incorporation (known as the Victorian charter, the original is in University Archives) along with its sister colleges in Belfast and Galway – all members of the Queen’s University of Ireland
- The quadrangle building was designed by Sir Thomas Deane and Benjamin Woodward and completed in 1849. Deane had designed a number of public buildings in Ireland prior to QCC including the Kildare Street Club; Museum Building, Trinity College Dublin; Imperial Hotel, Cork.
- QCC opened its doors on 30 October 1849 when Matriculation and Scholarship Examinations were held (President’s Report 1849-1850). These exams determined who would be registered as students
- 115 students enrolled in QCC when it opened to students in 1849
- The first lectures were held on 7 November 1849 (President’s Report 1849-1850)
- In 1849 there were 3 Faculties (Arts, Law and Medicine) and 2 Schools (Engineering and Agriculture). Science and Literature were Divisions in Arts.
- George Boole (1815-64) was the first Professor Mathematics at QCC
- John B. Blyth (1814-71), first Professor of Chemistry, was first staff member of colour
- The Queen’s University of Ireland was dissolved in 1882, succeeded by the Royal University in Ireland (RUI). Its first chancellor, Sir Robert Kane, was QCC’s first President (1845-73). The RUI was a degree-awarding body (exam candidates did not have to attend any university college in order to sit exams). QCC and the two other Queen's colleges at Belfast and Galway kept their original names
- Women first registered at QCC in the academic year 1886-87. The first of the five women who registered that year was Barbara Charlotte Denroche. The first female graduate was Jane Roche BA 1887 (she studied the first two years of Arts privately). The first woman who attended all years of her degree at QCC and graduated was Barbara Charlotte Denroche, BA 1889. The first female Medical graduate was Dora Allman MB BCh BAO in May 1898 (the Dr Dora Allman Room in The Hub was named in 2020). The first female Engineering graduate was Iris A. Cummins BE 1915 (the former Civil Engineering Building was renamed the Iris Ashley Cummins Building in 2022).
- The College Council was the principal committee of QCC, from 1849–1908. There were 6 members (plus the President). Once the National University of Ireland (NUI) was established in 1908, the Governing Body of UCC had 26 and later 29 members (plus the President). The first female member of the UCC Governing Body was Dr Lucy E. Smith (UCC's second female Medical graduate) (the Dr Lucy E. Smith Room in The Hub was named in 2020)
- The medical building (original designs by Sir Thomas Deane) was begun in 1850 named ‘The Clarendon Building’; it was completed in 1875. It is now The Hub
- QCC was granted a Coat of Arms by the Ulster King of Arms in 1889
- Bertram C. A. Windle was appointed President of QCC in 1904 – he was very much involved in the development of NUI and also the expansion of the College both physically and academically. During the period of his presidency several new departments were founded including Archaeology and Music, the Mardyke Sports Grounds were leased; the first student catering was begun; the first female professor Prof. Mary Ryan in 1910; etc.
- In 1908 under the Irish Universities Act, two new Irish universities – the National University of Ireland and the Queen’s University of Belfast – were established. A new charter for Cork was issued on 2 December 1908 (the original is in UCC University Archives) changing the name of Queen’s College Cork to University College Cork (UCC). The first NUI degrees at UCC were awarded in May 1910, with the new mace being used at the second conferring in November of that year