Pioneering Irish men and women who made scientific breakthroughs

Ireland has an international reputation for creativity in the arts. We are famous for literature, music and dance and the fine arts generally. Yet a similar level of creativity is at play in our involvement in science. We have a strong reputation for our scientific, technological and mathematical accomplishments and it is growing all the time.

This is nothing new for the Irish, given our long history of achievement in science. Yet many people seem unaware of our participation in research and discovery.

"There was a time when the people of Birr didn't know that the biggest telescope in the world was built right beside them," says Dr Charles Mollan who has written several major works on the history of Irish science.

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Kathleen Lonsdale: first woman to be admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society

There are pressing reasons people need to know about Irish involvement in science both in past years and the present. Science and technology have become central to the development of our economy and there is great capacity and ability here to participate in these developments, he says. “People should realise we have a big reputation in this area.”

At some stages of Ireland’s development our involvement in research was obscured for political and cultural reasons. And the new government of Ireland had little money to invest in such endeavours.

“A lot of our young scientists have had to go abroad to pursue their interest in science,” he says.

People generally are more informed now than in the past, but it is still the case that no university has a department dedicated to the history of science, he adds.

He has no difficulty identifying a selection of great Irish scientists, with the real challenge deciding who not to include.

Robert Boyle (1627-91), the "father of chemistry" would arguably be a part of any top list of Irish science. Born in Lismore, Co Waterford, he was central to the development of the experimental method used today to make discoveries. He is famous for "Boyle's Law", still taught in science classes, and the properties of the vacuum.

Nicholas Callan (1799-1864) might also be included. Born near Ardee, Co Louth, he was a professor at St Patrick's College, Maynooth. He invented the induction coil, a way to handle electricity, developed powerful electromagnets and new types of batteries, and patented a way to protect iron from rust.

Dublin-born William Rowan Hamilton (1805-65) was ranked among the greatest of living scientists by his peers in the US. He was Ireland's Royal Astronomer and made important contributions to both physics and mathematics. He invented a new kind of algebra, quaternions, that are used today in space craft guidance systems and in computer graphics.

Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-71) from Newbridge, Co Wicklow, was an X-ray crystallographer who first showed that benzene formed a hexagonal flat ring. She edited the first basic texts in the discipline and became the first woman to be admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society in that institution's initial 285 years.

Ernest Walton (1903-95) could be included as Ireland's first Nobel Prize winner in the sciences for splitting the atom. Now we have a second Nobel Laureate in science, William Campbell, (1930-) who shared the prize in medicine last month for discovering a cure for human parasitic diseases.

We could include Henry Horatio Dixon who explained how sap rises in plants or Charles Parsons who invented the modern steam turbine engine. John Philip Holland built the first modern submarine and Mary Ward was a pioneer author in microscopy and astronomy.

The term electron was introduced by George Johnstone Stoney, and George Boole invented Boolean algebra, the method used in all modern computer systems. John Tyndall was the Irish scientist who was able to explain why the sky is blue rather than a dark void.

And it was William Parsons, the third Earl of Rosse who built that famous telescope in Birr and used it to discover the spiral shape of some galaxies.

Dr Mollan's seminal work on the history of Irish science, It's Part of What We Are, is a two-volume set that paints personal pictures of more than 100 great Irish scientists. It is available in hardback from publishers the RDS for €60 and a free pdf copy is available on request from the RDS Library.

Mary Mulvihill's books, Ingenious Ireland and Ingenious Dublin, provide a wealth of information about Ireland's scientific history. She has also published two books on women in science, Lab Coats and Lace and Stars, Shells and Bluebells.