Trinity will be closed from today at 5pm until Sunday at 10am due to snowy conditions.
The College will close access to the public from 5pm today but will remain open for the College community through Front Gate.
In a press statement, Director of Public Affairs and Communications Tom Molloy said that the closure was due to “heavy snow”.
Molloy said that the Estates and Facilities staff “will work to maintain essential services for residents”.
The library, all catering outlets, the Sports Centre, the Science Gallery, and the Book of Kells exhibition will all remain closed for the remainder of the week. All talks, lectures and events in the College between today and Sunday have also been cancelled.
All health science students’ clinical placements have been cancelled until Monday and those students are “are advised to stay at home”. However, those working in an internship capacity should contact their hospital or present for duty as normal.
This follows this afternoon’s announcement from the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, that all schools, third-level institutions, colleges and centres of further education located in red areas in Munster and Leinster have been instructed to close by the Department of Education and Skills.
In a press statement, the department said that the decision was taken due to the disruption to transport and the safety risks that have arisen because of the adverse weather conditions.
Closures have not been announced for Connaught and Ulster, with the department saying that institutions may choose to close depending on the conditions in their area. The government is continuing to monitor the situation there.
Trinity was the only university in the city this morning that chose to remain open. University College Dublin (UCD) and Dublin City University (DCU) announced closures this morning, while Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) closed this afternoon.
In an email this morning, staff and students were told that they should come to Trinity as normal if it was safe for them to do so. The library later tweeted that it would close at 5pm today due to the weather.
Trinity was due to release a statement at 5pm this evening on whether it would open tomorrow or not.
This is not the first time this academic year that the College closed due to harsh weather conditions. In October, the College battened down the hatches to fend against storm Ophelia.
The National Emergency Co-ordination group has said that the storm is expected to worsen on Thursday and Friday.
Met Éireann issued a Red Weather Warning for Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Louth and Wicklow this morning at 5am and this will remain in place until Thursday at 12pm.
