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The Tudor Gothic quadrangle of the former Queen's College, Cork was built by Sir Thomas Deane

The Queen's University of Ireland was established formally by Royal Charter on September 3, 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.

Although the university system itself was replaced by the Royal University of Ireland in 1880, all three colleges have an unbroken history to the present day, and are now universities in their own right, known as

• Queen's University Belfast,
• University College, Cork, and
• National University of Ireland, Galway.

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 demands for university education, since the existing Trinity College, Dublin was regarded as Anglican.^[1] In order to appease Protestant demands, the colleges were not permitted to give instruction in theology. The result was that the colleges became derided as the "godless colleges" — Pope Pius IX even went as far as saying they were "detrimental to religion" in an official condemnation — and this non-acceptance was articulated in the creation of the Catholic University of Ireland to rival the colleges.

The quadrangle of the former Queen's College, Galway is dominated by a clock tower

The colleges were incorporated on December 30, 1845; and on October 30, 1849 they opened for students.^[1] A Board of Queen's Colleges was created to draw up regulations for the colleges, consisting of the President and Vice-President of each college.

Academic degrees were conferred by the chancellor and senate of the university with a status similar to those of other universities of the former United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.^[1]

The Queen's College at Belfast became predominantly Protestant, unlike the colleges at Cork and Galway.

The Queen's University was superseded by a new, inclusive, degree-awarding institution, the Royal University of Ireland in 1880.^[1] The Queen's University was formally dissolved on February 3, 1882. ^[1] Immediately on incorporation, the Royal University broke with the “godless” convention, by setting examinations for, and awarding degrees to students of colleges with a religious heritage, notably Magee Presbyterian College, and the Catholic University of Ireland (that included St. Patrick's College, Maynooth and University College, Dublin.)^{[2] [3]}

The Belfast college was separated from the other two in 1908, and became the Queen's University of Belfast (QUB).^[4] Queen's College, Cork is now known as University College, Cork (UCC) and Queen's College, Galway is now known as National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI, Galway).^[1] Since 1908 the latter two have been part of the federal National University of Ireland system.

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} UCC, 2006. "UCC History" Retrieved on September 1, 2006.
2. ^ History of Magee College at UU Library website. Retrieved on August 28, 2006.
3. ^ O'Donnell, Patrick, 1912. "Catholic University of Ireland". The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XV, from 1993 online edition. Retrieved on September 1, 2006.
4. ^ QUB, 2006. "History of Queen's". Retrieved on September 1, 2006.