The Board of Trustees

The Library is a public self-governing charitable trust. Registered Charity No. CHY 5879.

Established under the terms of the will of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, which was granted probate in 1969, the collection is vested in the Trustees who own and operate the Library.

The Board of Trustees consists of a maximum of twelve members, one each of whom is appointed by the President and Taoiseach and three by the Minister for Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht. The Director of the National Library serves as a Trustee ex officio. All other Trustees are co-opted. The Trustees elect the Chair.

Since 1997 the Trustees of the Library are appointed or co-opted to serve five-year terms. Trustees do not receive any renumeration.

The Trustees of the Library are currently:

Sir Marc Cochrane (appointed 1988)
Mr Dermot Desmond (appointed 1991)
Dr Patricia Donlon (appointed 2011)
Mrs Joan Duff (appointed 1983)
Professor Sean Freyne (appointed 1986)
Ms Caroline Gray (appointed 2010)
Dr Thomas P. Hardiman (appointed 1991, elected Chairman 1998)
Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty (appointed 2010)
Mrs Madeleine O'Sullivan (appointed 2003, re-appointed 2008)
Ms Fiona A Ross (appointed 2010; ex officio)
Professor Roger Stalley (appointed 1993)

Although an independent body, the Library receives most of its income from the generous support of the Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht and must make up any shortfall through earnings and donations.

By agreement with government and with the consent of the High Court, the Library sold its premises in Shrewsbury Road, Dublin in 1999 and moved to take up a leasehold on the Clock Tower Building at Dublin Castle in that year.