Queen's University of Ireland

The Queen's University of Ireland was established formally by royal charter on 3 September 1850, as the degree-awarding university of the Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway that were established in 1845 "to afford a university education to members of all religious denominations" in Ireland. The university system itself was replaced by the Royal University of Ireland in 1880, which in turn was replaced by Queen's University Belfast, with the Cork and Galway colleges forming the National University of Ireland, along with University College Dublin. The three Queen's colleges are currently known as: University of Galway Queen's University Belfast University College Cork Establishment The Queen's Colleges (Ireland) Act 1845 (An Act to enable Her Majesty to endow new Colleges for the Advancement of Learning in Ireland) established the colleges with the intention that they would provide for Roman Catholic requests for university education, since Catholics did not generally attend Trinity College Dublin at that time (though there were no legal restrictions preventing them from doing so).