Greatest Irishman: Michael Collins or Eamon de Valera?

Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was born at Lismore Castle, Co. Waterford. Boyle, sometimes called The Father of Chemistry, is a in the history of science. In 1661 he published The Sceptical Chemist. Alchemy, the pseudo-scientific predecessor of chemistry was questioned by Boyle, who taught that the proper object of chemistry was to determine the composition of substances. He coined the term ‘analysis’. In 1662 he formulated Boyle’s Law which states that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely related at constant temperature.

Francis Beaufort (1774-1857) was born in Navan, Co. Meath and became the British Navy’s greatest hydrographer and mapmaker. He is best known as the author of the table which classifies the velocity and force of winds at sea – The Beaufort Scale. He also developed a system of classifying the weather’s various states by letters of the alphabet.

George Boole (1815-1864), born in Lincoln, England, was the first Professor of Mathematics at Queen’s College, Cork (University College Cork today). Boole, sometimes called The Father of Computer Science, developed his system of Boolean Algebra while in Cork. This is used today in the design and operation of electronic computers and electronic hardware responsible for modern technology.

William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1864), born in Dublin, became Professor of Astronomy at TCD and Royal Astronomer of Ireland. At the age of 9 he knew 13 languages. Hamilton introduced the terms scalar and vector into mathematics and he invented the method of quanternions as a new algebraic approach to 3-D geometry, which turned out to be the seed of much modern algebra.

John Tyndall (1820-1893) was born in County Carlow, he became one of greatest scientists of 19th century. Professor of Natural Philosophy (Physics) at The Royal Institution, he did pioneering work on radiant heat, germ theory of disease, glacier motion, sound, and diffusion of light in the atmosphere. He was the first to explain how scattering of light in atmosphere causes blue colour in sky. He explained how the gases in the atmosphere trap heat and keep the earth warm. He invented the light pipe which later led to development of fibre optics.

William Thomson (1824-1907) (Lord Kelvin) first Baron Kelvin (1866). Born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy (Physics), Glasgow University. World renowned physicist. Introduced the absolute scale of temperature – the Kelvin scale. His work on conversion of energy led to Second Law of Thermodynamics. Closely involved in laying first successful transatlantic telegraph cable under sea between Ireland and Newfoundland in 1866.

George Francis Fitzgerald (1851-1901) was born in Dublin and became Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at TCD. He is best remembered for his proposal that a moving body contracts in the direction of its motion, but that this contraction cannot be measured because moving rulers shrink in the same proportion. This was a significant step towards Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity.

George Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911) was born in Dun Laoghaire and became Professor of Natural Philosophy at Queen’s College, Galways (NUI Galway today). His most notable scientific work was his conception and calculation of the magnitude of the ‘atom’ of electricity, for which he proposed the name ‘electron’.

J.D. Bernal (1901-1971) was born in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. Professor Physics, Birbeck College, University of London. Developed the technique of modern X-ray crystallography and led a group that used the technique to work out the 3-D structure of proteins, nucleic acids and viruses.

Ernest Walton (1903-1997), born in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, was a pioneer nuclear physicist and is Ireland’s only science Nobel Laureate. He built the first successful particle accelerator with John Cockroft at Cambridge with which they disintegrated lithium (‘split the atom’) in 1931. Walton became Professor of Natural and Experiemental Philosophy at TCD in 1947. He shared the 1951 Nobel Prize for physics with Cockroft.

Kathleen Lonsdale (1903-1971) was born in Newbridge, Co. Kildare and became Professor of Chemistry at University College, London. She did much important work in X-ray crystallography, including a demonstration that the benzene ring is flat. She was the first woman elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1945. She was a dedicated pacifist and suffered a short term in jail in 1943 for her convictions.

Denis Burkitt (1911-1993) was born in Eniskillen, graduated as a physician, and became world renowned pioneer in public medicine. Worked in public service for many years in Uganda. First described a cancer called Burkitt’s Lymphoma and showed that it is spread by mosquitoes who transmit the disease by spreading the Epstein-barr virus. Returned to London 1966 and led campaign advocating the importance of fibre in the diet.

John Bell (1928-1990) was born in Belfast. He joined CERN (the European Research Organisation) in Geneva in 1960. Here he developed a set of equations called Bell’s Inequalities that are of fundamental importance in quantum physics. Bell was a leading theoretical physicist of his generation.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943-) was born in Lurgan, Co. Armagh and is now Professor of Physics at The Open University. She discovered pulsars – rapidly rotating neutron stars – in 1967 when working as a research student at Cambridge. She continues to study pulsars today.


The two people in this pole are pointless men in an old time and will be forgotten. It's all happened before and will happen again.