Cardinal Ludovisi died in 1632; he was of a princely family with a large patrimony, and he made provision in his will for the college; it was to have an income of one thousand crowns a year; a house was to be purchased for it; and he left a vineyard as Castel Gandolfo where the students might pass their villeggiatura.

The Jesuits found eight students before them; one of these, Philip Cleary, after a brilliant academic course, left for the mission in Ireland in 1640, and suffered death for his faith ten years later.

[3] In 1650 Scarampo of the Oratory, on return from his embassy to the Kilkenny Confederation, brought with him two students to the Irish College; one was Peter Walsh, who became an Oratorian; the other was Oliver Plunkett, who was kept in Rome as professor at the Pontificio Collegio Urbano "De Propaganda Fide" until his appointment to the see of Armagh in 1670.

In the earliest part of the eighteenth century, one of the former students, Hugh MacMahon, Archbishop of Armagh, asserted the precedence of that see to Dublin in a work of great learning, "Jus Primatiale Armacanum".

It was thought, moreover, that too large a proportion of the able students found a vocation in the Society of Jesus, in spite of the purpose of the college, which trained them for the mission in Ireland.

Blake, the last student to leave the college at its dissolution in 1798, returned a quarter of a century later to arrange for its revival, which was effected by a brief of Pope Leo XII, dated 18 February 1826.

He was appointed first rector of the restored college, and among the students who sought early admission was Francis Mahoney of Cork, known to the literary world as Father Prout.

[4] Two years later Dr. Cullen purchased a fine country villa as a summer home, amid the olive groves which cover the slopes of the Sabine hills near Tivoli.

Among the distinguished students who passed through the college during Cullen's rectorate were C. P. Meehan, Edmund O'Reilly, Bishop Croke, Cardinal Moran, and Archbishop Dunne of Brisbane.

[5] Kirby marshalled the college's resources both in Rome and back in Ireland, helped in part by the election of his former classmate and friend as Pope Leo XIII.

He was succeeded by Michael O'Riordan, a priest of the diocese of Limerick whose correspondence and good offices between the Irish bishops and the Vatican are particularly revealing for the period from the Easter Rising on.

[10] In the winter of 1926/7 he travelled to the United States for fundraising missions in order to meet the costs of the 'new' College, the current building with tis impressive façade and grounds which had opened that same year.

[12] In 2011, under orders from Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, led a "root and branch review" of all structures and processes at the college.

He was assisted in the visitation report by the then-Archbishop of Baltimore Edwin O’Brien, and Francis Kelly of the North American College in Rome.

Important contemporary visitors to the college include Pope John Paul II and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

An investment from the sale of the Irish College in Salamanca, Spain, which closed in 1952, was ultimately lost in the financial crises and continued funding from benefactors has been limited.

The facilitating of students from the US now provides an important income for the college as does the offering of accommodation to visiting clergy and pilgrims especially during the summer months.

No statement was made about the other contingent of seminarians, from North America, the hosting of other clerical students, including from Orthodox churches, or the post-graduate aspect of the college's work.

[citation needed] The college complex includes a bed-and-breakfast accommodation facility, a Casa per Ferie, Villa Irlanda, for pilgrims to Rome.