The name of College of the Irish is because there was a College of St. Patrick, or the Irish, founded in the year of 1592, at the request of King Philip II, to house students from that country who came to Salamanca for the English persecution of the Catholics of Ireland. In 1838, when the Irish returned to their school after the War of Independence they found it destroyed (the French destroyed many university and religious buildings to make fortifications) for which they were given this building, which they occupied until 1936.