The university that sparked the troubles

Magee College was built in 1865 in an elegant Victorian Gothic style. Derry was then a rapidly developing industrial center and although the College’s principal function at the time was to educate the Presbyterian ministry, it was from the outset open to all denominations. The Magee Campus gained its name from Martha Magee, the widow of a Presbyterian minister, who, in 1845, bequeathed £20,000 to the Presbyterian Church of Ireland to fund a college for theology and the Arts. It opened in 1865 primarily as a theological college but taught many other subjects. In 1880 it became part of the Royal University of Ireland and later became associated with Trinity College Dublin. In 1953, Magee College broke its links with Dublin and became Magee University College. It was hoped that this university would become Northern Ireland’s second university after Queen’s University Belfast, but in the 1960s, the Stormont Parliament made a controversial decision to favor a new university in Coleraine. This decision was one of the pivotal points that developed into the history of The Troubles. From 1969 to 1984 the college halved in size while development focused on the Coleraine campus. Magee has however since grown from just 273 students in 1984 to well over 4,000 today.