The Catholic University of Ireland was founded in 1851 in response to the establishment of the non-denominational Queen’s University of Ireland in 1850. The Catholic University of Ireland was formally established on 18 May 1854 with five faculties of law, letters, medicine, philosophy, and theology, and John Henry Newman as the Rector. The university failed to attract sufficient funding and students before 1880. It came to an end in 1909 with the creation of the National University of Ireland.