Come Here To Me!

In 1955 and 1956, rival student societies from Queens University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin launched ‘raids’ on each others campuses, attempting to steal items of significance from each other.

There was shock in Trinity College in May 1955 when prized possessions of the Phil (Philosophical) and Hist (Historical) societies were removed from the college grounds by Belfast students. The college newspaper, Trinity News, ran the below image of three northern students fleeing with an elephants tusk, which belonged to the Phil Society. In addition to the tusk, the students also stole a print of Theobald Wolfe Tone from the Hist Society, of which he had been an active member of during his time as a student there. Tone had even served as auditor of the society in 1785.

Trinity News (12 May 1955)

The newspaper noted that:

The whole raid was conducted efficiently and rapidly, and the insurgents were across the border before the customs could be warned. However, the Garda, unnecessarily summoned by the shaken college authorities, with the assistance of the R.U.C., quickly recovered the valuables, which have not yet arrived back in Dublin.

One of the raiding party was quoted as stating “our only regret is that Trinity refused to take up the challenge to recapture the prizes, and called in the police. Can it be that the southern university has lost the spirit of adventure?”

The answer to that question was no. A year on from the Dublin raid, the paper ran a front page article that noted “Vengeance Is Ours!” The paper reported that four Trinity students, representing the major societies, had raided the Union Society Building of Queens University without detection. “With cold and efficient ease”, they removed four trophy cups from a display cabinet, before returning to Dublin with their loot. “The booty was on display at the ball last night”, the paper bragged, ending the piece by stating the items would be returned to a visiting Queens team. The rivalry between Irish universities and colleges is nothing new then.

Trinity News (7 June 1956)

This story was only possible thanks to the excellent resource that is the Trinity News Archive.