The Atlas of Irish Mathematics: Mayo (Apr 2018)
This month we complete the first year of our bi-monthly surveys of the careers of some mathematically trained people associated with various counties of Ireland. Following Donegal, Wexford, Armagh, Limerick, and Westmeath, this month we focus on Mayo people.
As usual, those listed generally started with a degree in mathematics, maths physics, statistics or a related field, and of course some had careers that drifted far from what was studied in university.
The information below is extracted from the Annals of Irish Mathematics & Mathematicians, which now documents over 5000 people. Corrections, as always, are welcome. Thanks to Paul Greaney (NUIG), Olivia Bree (SPD), Tom Laffey (UCD), Des MacHale (UCC) and others for valuable input. Last updated 7 Feb 2023.
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1. Paul Deighan (life span at least 1768-1811) was a teacher in Ballina, Mayo. His books included the two-volume A Complete Treatise on Arithmetic, Rational and Practical (1804), and he was active in solving mathematical problems posed in Grant's Almanack. |
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2. George Crampton was born in Mayo, and educated at TCD (BA 1835, MA 1858), being in the first cohort of pure maths degrees awarded there. His career was spent in law, both in Dublin and in England. |
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3. John Fraser (1868-1950) was born 7 November in Crosspatrick, Ballysakeery, Ballina, Mayo, and was educated at TCD (BA 1895, MA, FTCD, SFTCD 1936). He taught at TCD from 1903 to 1949, serving as junior dean 1909-1915. |
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4. William Atkinson (1827?- ?) was born in Mayo and was educated at TCD (BA 1851+). No more is known.
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5. Charles Smith (1864-1930) was born in Ballinrobe, Mayo, and was educated at TCD (Schol 1885, BA 1889, MA 189x). His career was spent as a clergyman in Donegal and Tyrone. He married TCD maths grad Dorothea Carleton Harden. Their son Frank Smith (1912-1987) also did maths (at TCD, 1934). |
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6. John Keys Fraser (1868-1950) was born 7 November in Crosspatrick, Ballysakeery, Ballina, Mayo. He was educated at TCD (BA 1895, MA 189x, SFTCD 1936). His career was spent on the staff there (1903-1950), also serving as Junior Dean (1909-1915). 1901 Census / 1911 Census / Grave |
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7. Robert Hallidy (1875-1933) was born7 December in Belmullet, Mayo, and was educated at Queen's College Galway (BA 1898, BE 1901). He worked primarily as a railway engineer, in Donegal, England, Gold Coast, South Africa, India and the USA. |
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8. Frederick Faloone (1877-1921) was born 21 December in Westport, Mayo. He was educated at both TCD (BA 1901) & RUI (BA 1902). He opened his own day school in Roscrea in 1905, tutored in Clane (1913), and later taught at the High School (Dublin), dying relatively young. 1901 Census / 1911 Census / Roscrea / Death |
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9. William Martin (1881-1957) was born 5 January in Crossboyne, Mayo, and grew up there and in Murroe, east of Limerick city. He was educated at Blackrock College (BA 1902). His career was spent in banking on London (-1904-1942). |
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10. Physicist and priest John Donaghey (Donaghy) (1878-1949) was born 3 December in Kilmovee, Mayo (near the Roscommon border). He was educated at RUI (BA 1904) and at Bonn (MA 1905), earning his PhD at Munich on "The Spectrum of Nitrogen at Low Temperatures" with Röntgen (1908). For 16 years he taught at St Eunan's College (Raphoe), Maynooth and Munich, before moving to the USA where he spent another 25 years at Marquette University (Wisconsin) and Incarnate Word College (Texas). 1901 Census / 1911 Census / Marquette / Grave |
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11. Bob Walker (1880-1962) was born 15 April in Ballaghamuck, Crossmolina, Mayo, and was educated at Blackrock (RUI BA 1905). He taught for many years at Rockwell, then at Kevin St, and also worked in insurance. His legacy includes extensive research on Irish place names. |
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12. Arthur West (1892-1916) was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, and grew up in Mayo, Westmeath and Dublin. He was educated at TCD (BA 1915), where he was president of the Philosophical Society. Soon after graduating in the same class as physicist John (Jackie) Poole, he died in action in France.
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13. Cyril Walsh (1897-1986) was born 9 October in Ballina, Mayo, and was educated at TCD (Scholar 1918, BA 1920, MA 192x). His career was spent at TCD's library (1929-1963). In the late 1970s, he authored some A Levels maths books. 1901 Census / 1911 Census / 1963 / Books
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14. Winifred Morrin (later Mother Isabel, 1900-1968) was born 22 March in Seevness, west of Ballysadare, Sligo, and was educated at UCG (BA 1920). She taught maths at St Louis School (1920-1927, 1930-1946) in Kiltimagh, south of Swinford, Mayo, becoming a nun along the way. She then helped to set up the St Louis Mission in Nigeria, serving as Superior for nine years in Kano and first Principal of St Louis Secondary School there for 7 years. She then spent 7 years in Kumasi, Ghana. |
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15. Thomas McHugh (1900-??) was born 2 August in Caltragh, west of Claremorris, Mayo. He was educated at UCD (BSc 1923, MSc 1931 for a thesis on "A Pair of Circular Cubics Generated by Two Rigid Quadrangles"). Information on his subsequent career would be very welcome. |
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16. John Gilroy (1908-1997) was born 27 May in Ballycastle, northwest of Ballina, Mayo, and was educated at Maynooth (BSc 1927). His career was spent teaching at St Muredach's College in Ballina (1939-1944), followed by parish work in Belmullet.
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17. Margaret Gillan (later McDonnell, 1906-1989) was born 12 June in Newport, Mayo. She was educated at UCG (BA 1928, MA 1934) and she taught at secondary schools for much of her career, both before and after a few years spent as assistant to Schrödinger at DIAS.
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18. Kevin Killeen (1908-1995) was born 26 April in Carrowmore, near Claremorris, Mayo, and grew up close by in Hollymount. He was educated at UCG (BComm 1927, BA 1928, MA 1929), winning the first NUI Travelling Studentship Prize there. After a few years on the staff at QUB (1929-1933), and a year as a school inspector (1934-1935), his career was spent in vocational education, first in Wicklow and Wexford, and then for over 30 years in Waterford (1941-1973). |
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19. Astronomer Fred O'Connor (1908-1987) was born 7 April on Achill Sound, Mayo. He grew up there and in Athlone, and was educated at TCD (BA 1930, MA 1938). He worked as assistant at Dunsink and later lectured for over a quarter of a century at TCD. 1911 Census / Obit 1 / Obit 2 |
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20. Alice Molloy (later McKeogh, 1910-??) was born 2 January in Culleens, Killala Road, Kilmoremoy near Ballina, Mayo. She was educated at UCG (1932). Information on her career is welcomed. She married in 1938. |
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21. Alan Birmingham (1911-1991) was born Jan in Ballinrobe, Mayo, and was educated at UCD (BSc 1934). His career was spent as a chaplain, in Hong Kong, editor. 1901 / Obit
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22. Henry Joseph McAllister was born 21 May in Ballaghaderreenm, north of Castlerea, Mayo, and was educated at UCD (BSc 1941). Nothing else known.
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23. Brendan Caulfield (aka Breandán Mac Conamhna) was born in Belderrig, Mayo, and was educated at first at UCG (BSc 1956, MSc 1957). Dip in stats. LLD. His career was spent lecturing at Lanchester Polytech in Coventry (1970s) and as the head of RTC Sligo (1979-2001). Mathematicians Colm-cille Caulfield and Oisín Mac Conamhna are his sons. |
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24. Dermot Moloney was born in Mayo and gew up in Tuam, Galway. He was educated at Maynooth (BSc 1958). He had a long career teaching at St Jarleth's in Tuam (1962-1994), followed by parish work in Crossboyne, Mayo (1994-2013). |
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25. Martin Muldoon (1939-2019) was born 28 Feb in Westport, Mayo, and was educated at UCG (BSc 1959, MSc 1960), and the Univ of Alberta (PhD 1966). His thesis on "Singular Integrals Whose Kernals Involve Certain Sturm-Liouville Functions" was done under Lee Lorch. His career was spent at York in Toronto. He was a classical analyst who studied monotonicity questions associated with special functions, ordinary differential equations, functional equations and approximation theory. |
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26. Seán McDonagh was born in Westport, Mayo, and grew up in Galway. He was educated first at UCG (1959 & 1960), where he earned an NUI Travelling Studentship Prize. His "1965 PhD "On Some Problems in the Theory of Numbers" was done mostly at Royal Holloway (awarded by TCD) under Heini Halberstam. After some years on the staff at UCG, he was appointed principal (later director) at the Regional College (later the Institute of Technology) in Dundalk, where he worked for 30 years. Then he was Director of the National Skills Initiative Unit (2000-2014) and Director of the Task Force the Supply of Technicians (since 1997). |
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27. Tom McDonough was born in Castlebar, Mayo, and was educated at UCG (1963 & 1964), where he earned an NUI Travelling Studentship. His 1972 DPhil on "Some Problems in the Theory of Groups" was earned at Oxford under Graham Higman. Most of his career has been spent at Aberystwyth, and he co-edited the Proceedings of the 1973 British Combinatorial Conference. |
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28. Sean Mulhern (1942-1977) was born in Ballyhaunis, Mayo, and was educated at UCG (1963 & 1964), where like his classmate Tom McDonough above he was awarded an NUI Travelling Studentship. His PhD on elasticity and fiber-reinforced material was done at Nottingham (1968) under Tony Spencer. His sadly short career was spent at UCG.
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29. Alan Dickinson (1944-2010) was born in Dublin and grew up there and in Mayo and Tyrone. He was educated at QUB (BSc 1964, PhD 1967), his thesis on "Low Energy Quantal Studies of Elastic Scattering of Heavy Particles Particles" being done under David Bates. His career was spent at the Univ of Wisconsin at Madison (1967-1968), QUB (1968-1970?, Stirling (1970?-1976) and Newcastle (1976-2008). |
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30. Tom Laffey was born 5 December in Cross, Mayo, and was educated at UCG (BSc 1964, MSc 1965), where he won an NUI Travelling Studentship Prize, and the University of Sussex (DPhil 1968). His thesis on "Structure Theorems for Linear Groups" was done under Walter Ledermann. For over 40 years he lectured at UCD, pursuing research in group theory and linear algebra, becoming department head and supervising 5 PhDs. He also played a major role in the successful establishment of the Irish Mathematical Olympiad. |
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31. Des MacHale was born on 28 January in Castlebar, Mayo. He was educated at UCG (1967 & 1968), then completing his 1972 PhD on "Finite Groups with Automorphisms Inverting Many Elements" at Keele under Hans Liebeck. His entire career has been spent at UCC, researching in groups and rings, and supervising numerous theses. He is an expert on George Boole, having written the definitive biography of him, and had published dozens of books on brainteasers and humour. |
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32. Ted Hyland was born at Straide near Foxford, Mayo, and was educated at UCG (1969?). His career was spent lecturing in physics at Dundalk IT (1970?-2009). |
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33. George O'Malley was born in Mayo and was educated at UCH (BSc 1977). Nothing further is known.
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34. Padhraic Smyth was born in Kilmovee, Mayo, and was first educated at UCG (BE 1984). His 1988 Caltech Phd on "The Application of Information Theory to Problems in Decision Tree Design and Rule-Based Expert Systems" was done under Rodney Goodman. After 8 years at JPL he has been at UC Irvine, where he studies the theory and application of probabilistic and statistical approaches to data mining. He has had over a dozen PhD students in machine learning. |
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35. Theologian Mike Conway was born in Doohoma west of Bangor Errris in Mayo. He was educated at Maynooth (BSc 1985, MSc 1988), his master's thesis on "Extending Differentiable Functions" being done under Tony O'Farrell. He also has degrees in theology, from Maynooth, Pontifical Gregorian Univ (Rome) and Feiburg, culminating in a DTheo (1999). His career has been largely spent at Maynooth where he is currently prof of faith and culture. |
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36. Musician and composer Patrick Cassidy was born in Claremorris, Mayo, and grew up mostly in Cork city. In time, he was educated at NIHE Limerick (BSc 1985). He worked as a statistician before turning to music composition full time. His major works include The Children of Lir and Famine Remembrance. |
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37. Theoretical physicist Éanna Flanagan was born in Castlebar, Mayo, and was educated at UCD (1987 & 1988) before completing his Caltech PhD in 1993 under Kip Thorne on "Topics In General Relativity: the Hoop Conjecture, and Theoretical Aspects of Gravitational Wave Detection". Most of his career has been spent at Cornell. |
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38. Dominic Naughton was born in Swinford, Mayo, and was educated at UCG (BSc 1992, MSc 1993) and at Auburn Univ in Alabama (PhD 1999). His thesis on "Simple Modules for the Hamiltonian Algebra" was done under Randall Holmes. His career started at St Cloud State Univ, and since 2003 he has been at Purdue Univ.
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39. James McTigue was born in Claremorris, Mayo, and was first educated at Limerick (BE, 1994). After a decade and a half working in industry, he did his HDip (NUIG 2010) and then his PhD (2015) on "Completions of Partial Matrices" under Rachel Quinlan. He now works in software. |
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40. Tom Philbin was born in Mayo and was educated at TCD (BA 1999?) and at UCC (PhD 2004). His thesis on "" was done under Donal Hurley & Michel Vandyck. His career so far has been spent at Exeter. Exeter / LinkedIn / ResearchGate / dddd
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41. Aidan Naughton was born in Ballyhaunis, Mayo, and educated at UCG (BSc 2002) and then at UCC, where his 2006 PhD on "A priori Bounds on Derivatives of Solutions to Singularly Perturbed Convection-Diffusion Problems" was earned with Martin Stynes. His career so far has been spent at St Andrews, where he is now doing research in mathematical education.
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42. Astrophysicist John Regan was born in Castlebar, Mayo, and was educated at first at TCD (BA 2003, MSc 2004). His 2008 PhD on "Numerical Simulations of the Intergalactic Medium" was done at Cambridge under Martin Haehnelt. He has taught at the Universities of Zambia, Helsinki and Durham, and is now on the staff at DCU. His main research is on simulations of large scale structure formation in the early Universe. |
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43. David Henry was born in Castlebar, Mayo, and educated at TCD (BA 2004, PhD 2007), where his PhD on "Aspects of the Mathematical Theory of Water Waves" was done under Adrian Constantin. His career so far has been spent at UCC. |
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44. Donie O'Brien was born in Castlebar, Mayo, and educated first at UCD (2004). His 2008 PhD on " A Theoretical Study of Spin Filtering and its Application to Polarized Antiprotons" was done at TCD under Nigel Buttimore. His career has been in finance. |
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45. Liam Naughton was born 6 August in Castlebar, Mayo, and grew up nearby in Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon. He was educated entirely at NUIG (BSc 2005, MSc 2006, PhD 2010), his thesis on "Computing the Table of Marks of a Finite Group" being done under Götz Pfeiffer. Staying in Galway for a postdoc, he has been at Wolverhampton since 2015. His main interests are in computational group theory.
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46. Theoretical physicist and maths educator Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin was born in Carnacon, Mayo. She was educated at UCD (2005) and TCD, earning her 2014 PhD " Developing Mathematics Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge through Lesson Study: A Multiple Case Study at a Time of Curriculum Change" with Adrian Seery. Her career so far has been spent at UCD. |
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47. Isaac Burke was born in Castlebar, Mayo, and was educated at NUIG (BSc 2014, PhD 2017+++). His thesis on "Characterising Bases of Pure Difference Ideals" was done under Emil Sköldberg. He is currently at Maynooth. |
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48. Cian O'Brien was born in Sligo and grew up there and in Castlebar, Mayo. He was educated at NUIG (BSc 2016, PhD 2020). His thesis on "Edge Colourings and Latin-like Squares: Combinatorial Structures Arising from Alternating Sign Matrices" was done under Rachel Quinlan & Kevin Jennings. After postdocs at NUIG and Cardiff, he started at Mary Immaculate College in 2022. MIC / ddd / fff |
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49. Alan Benson was born in Claremorris, Mayo, and was educated at UCD (BAFS 2012, PhD 2017). His thesis on "Strategies for Intractable Bayesian Models" was done under Nial Friel. He now works as a quantitative analyst in Dublin. LinkedIn / ResearchGate / |
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