Maura Scannell:MAURA SCANNELL, who died earlier this month at the age of 87, was one of Ireland's leading botanists with a unique understanding and appreciation of the importance of plants in Irish culture.
When she retired from her position as head of the National Herbarium in 1989, she had established the largest collection by any single botanist.
She published more than 200 scientific studies, and her nomination for the National Botanic Gardens Medal in 2008 was in recognition of her extraordinary contribution. In 1995, she was also made an honorary member of the Botanical Society of the British Isles.
Born in Cork, Scannell was one of seven children reared by Patrick and Margaret Scannell in Douglas.
She was a skilled horsewoman, and her brother Anthony was a well-known amateur jockey who rode in the Liverpool Grand National. One of her four sisters, Rita, died at the age of 12 in a train incident in Thurles, Co Tipperary.
On graduation from University College Cork, Scannell was appointed assistant keeper of the National Museum of Ireland’s natural history division, where she developed her interest in contemporary and historical botanical studies. Such was the extent of her interest that she was able to identify the various woods used in the National Museum’s collection of Irish harps, along with artefacts recovered from the Wood Quay excavations in Dublin. She had an unrivalled knowledge of charcoal, seeds, fibres and dye plants, according to a tribute to her by Matthew Jebb of the National Botanic Gardens.
She was an inspiration to many young people who developed an interest in her subject, according to Dr Declan Doogue, a well-known field botanist and many times president of the Dublin Naturalists’ Field Club. He remembers how he “rambled into her life in 1964” as a schoolboy when he found a rare plant, and discovered her “cornucopia” of plants in the National Museum’s botanical and ethnographical section.
Though she “set the bar high” with her attention to detail, Scannell was generous with her time and was a judge of the annual Young Scientist exhibition from the 1960s. She was also involved in Amnesty International, and she was passionate about issues such as women’s rights, domestic violence, the plight of the homeless and the impact of the second World War.
Scannell supervised the transfer of the National Herbarium from the National Museum to the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin, in 1970, ensuring major collections arrived intact.
She was also influential in building Glasnevin’s reputation as a centre for taxonomic knowledge, and one example of this cited by her colleagues was her “dogged determination” to identify the Renvyle Hydrilla.
Some leading British taxonomists had identified this plant as an Elodea, but she flowered the plant at Glasnevin, proving that it was actually Hydrilla verticillata.
She discovered microscopic fungi which were new to science in the garden grounds in 1976. She was also influential in ensuring the National Herbarium acquired a bound collection of specimens dating from the 1690s, which had been owned by Thomas Molyneaux, a founder of the Dublin Society.
After her retirement, she was a regular visitor to the herbarium and maintained her work as a field botanist and author. Among her many publications was the Flora of Connemara and the Burren, co-written with the late Prof David Webb of Trinity College Dublin.
Scannell had an “intimate and eclectic knowledge of Irish history, geography, ethnography, zoology, geology and botany”, according to Jebb.
When she received the National Botanic Gardens Medal, she described the importance of “little things” and emphasised that botanists should record their findings with scientific rigour.
Scannell had a lasting influence on her seven nieces and nephews, two of whom are artists and one of whom is a garden designer. She painted, sewed, crocheted, embroidered and sculpted, and always encouraged them to explore and develop their talents and creativity.
She is survived by her seven nieces and nephews: Oliver Stack, Mary Cullinane, Rita Stack, Gerard Stack, Maura Kempster, Peter Chester and Rita Scannell.
Mary JP (Maura) Scannell: born March 18th, 1924; died November 1st, 2011