ABSTRACT
The establishment of the Whately Chair of Political Economy at Trinity College Dublin in 1832 represented the first step in the formal institutionalisation of political economy in Ireland. This chapter examines the history of the Whately Chair at Trinity College, in its wider societal context, from its foundation in 1832 to the turn of the century. Whately’s offer of the establishment of a chair of political economy was initially ‘received with a caution that verged on suspicion’. Whately’s concern with the initial appointments appeared to centre on the need to keep paity political considerations from intruding on the competition for the Professorship, and indeed from the content of lectures to be given by the successful candidates. When C.F. Bastable succeeded to the Whately Chair in 1882, he broke with precedent by negotiating a life tenure and occupied the position for the next fifty years until 1932.
