Madam, - Congratulations to Prof William Reville, to Barry's Tea , and to all involved in preparing the poster 'Super Irish Scientists', which was distributed with your newspaper on January 22nd. Ireland has a distinguished history of contributions to the development of scientific knowledge, and it is good to see these highlighted in this imaginative way.
If any of your readers would like to have more details of those featured (all but two of them), and many others as well, the recent two-volume publication by the Royal Dublin Society, It's Part of What We Are, by Dr Charles Mollan, gives entertaining and in-depth biographies.
Further information is available at the website
www.rds.ie/science/publications. - Yours, etc,
Prof OWEN LEWIS,
Chairman,
RDS Committee of Science and Technology,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.
Madam, - I am surprised that UCC's William Reville omitted from
his poster of Irish "super" scientists two of the greatest Cork
scientists of all (one Cork born and bred, the other a blow-in).
Edward Hincks (1792-1866), whose original contributions to the
decipherment of Akkadian and Old Persian cuneiform as well as
Egyptian hieroglyphics left very few stones unturned for succeeding
generations, was born there; and George Berkeley (1685-1753),
Bishop of Cloyne and after whom the famous Californian university
is named, was not only one of the world's pre-eminent philosophers
but developed a theory of optics that holds fast to this day.
Berkeley's famous dictum "
Esse est percipi" (to be is to be perceived) rings hollow
in Prof Reville's selection. - Yours, etc,
ROGER DERHAM,
Blakes Hill,
Galway.
Madam, - I noted that your poster of Irish scientists neglected to mention the submarine designer John Philip Holland, from Liscannor, Co Clare. Fortunately, Irish audiences will be able to celebrate Holland's life when the play Submarine Man - The little known life of John P Hollandpremieres at the Drogheda Arts Festival in May.
If your readers have any information on Holland, I would love to
hear from them. - Yours, etc,
PAUL HAYES,
General Manager,
Upstate Theatre Project,
Barlow House,
Narrow West Street,
Drogheda,
Co Louth.