Irish Mathematics Education Part 1: pre 1980 graduates (Sep 2024)
This month, we begin an attempt to document the over 150 known people who have at some stage worked in "mathematics education" in the Irish context. This includes those doing so anywhere in Ireland, as well any Irish person doing so overseas. In this first instalment, we focus on the roughly 40 people whose primary degree was attained by 1979.
This particular chronological approach has limitations. For instance, many people below only became active in the field on maths education in Ireland more recently, having earlier had careers outside that field.
By mathematics education we do not mean those who simply taught maths in schools or lectured on it at the third level. Maths education certainly encompasses the philosophy, curriculum, teaching & learning, assessment, resources, and affective issue which surround mathematics instruction.
Many postgraduate theses have been done on topics in maths ed, and until relatively recently the supervisors for such research projects often had little advanced maths background themselves. (They tended to be based in psychology or general education departments.) Some of these theses were isolated forays into the mathematical education arena, the author's careers may have focussed on more general learning issues.
Historically, teacher training colleges were the first places where teaching was taught: among the Dublin institutions of relevance here are St Patrick's College in Drumcondra (now part of DCU), Marlborough St and Marino in Dublin, Froebel, CICE in Rathmines, TCD, and in time UCD too. More recently, those have all developed collges of education, as have St Mary's and Stranmillis University College in Belfast, Mary Immaculate College in Limerick and Thurles, DCU, and other institutions with specialisations in the field.
Most of the period we cover is post-partition, for which different and quite separate educational systems have existed in Northern IreIand and in the Republic. Nevertheless, below we have interwoven people from both sides of the border in our chronological presentation. We are fully aware that our Northern coverage here is spotty, and welcome additional information.
The focus here is on accounting for the people of note in the period covered. Much more could be said about education in the maths context in Ireland and how it has evolved over the decades, but that is far beyond our limited expertise.
For one overview of maths education in Ireland, see the paper "Mathematics Education in Ireland" by OReilly, Dooley, Oldham & Shiel in the Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education, ICME-13 (2017).
In March 2023, we listed all known school inspectors from the last two centuries who had maths expertise. There is, of course, some overlap in the two lists.
Comments, additions and corrections are, as always, welcome. As are more photographs.
Thanks to Olivia Bree (SPD), Elizabeth Oldham (TCD), Maurice OReilly (SPD/DCU), Tony O'Farrell (Maynooth), and Gerry Beggan (UCG/NUIG) for valuable input. Last updated 15 Oct 2023.
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001. Mary Boole (née Everest, 1832-1916) was born 11 March in Wickwar, Gloucestershire, England. She grew up mostly in Poissy, near Paris, and later in England. Her private education included plenty of mathematics. In time, she married George Boole, who had tutored her and was already settled in Cork as first professor of maths at Queen's College. She helped him assemble some of his landmark books, and their daughter Alice also contributed to mathematics. Following her husband's death in 1864, she moved to London where she taught and developed innovative ideas about the use of physical manipulations in strengthening "the unconscious understanding of materials learned in a classroom setting'' (e.g., curve stitching). Her numerous publications include the books: Logic Taught By Love (1890), Lectures on the Logic of Arithmetic (1903), and Philosophy and Fun of Algebra (1909). Coxeter said of her that her "books reveal her as one of the pioneers of modern pedagogy". |
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002. Applied mathematician and education expert Edward Culverwell (1855-1931) was born 15 March in Belfast, Antrim. He was educated at TCD (BA 1877, MA 1882), where he later became the first professor of education. He published the books Elementary Mechanics (Longmans, Green and Co., 1890) and Montessori Principles and Practice (Bell, 1913). Nature / Bio / Paper / LMS (last page) / 1901 Census / 1911 Census |
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003. Arthur Tucker (1880-1962) was born 10 April in Farmboro, Somerset, England, and was educated at UCD (BA 1905, HDip 1912, MA 1913, BSc 1918). His master's dissertation was on "The History of Mathematics in Its Relation to Educational Methods". He taught at first in various military schools in England and India, and at the Royal Hibernian Military School in Dublin (1911-1918). After a few year as a school inspector in Jamaica (1919-1921), and a spell as an army educational officer in England (1921-1923), he moved to NZ, where he continued teaching. |
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004. Tadhg Daly (1887-1946) was born 11 March in Midleton, Cork, and was educated at Blackrock College (NUI BA 1909?) and UCC (MA by thesis 1914). His dissertation was on "The Training of a Teacher". HDip too? His career was spent as a teacher, both at Monasterevin and later at the Dominican College (Newbridge, Kildare, 1921-1946). |
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005. Patrick J. Dowling (1888-1972) was born 18 March in Kilmurry, Slieverue, Kilkenny. He was educated at first at UCD (BSc Chem 1909?, HDip 1913, MA 1914), his thesis being on "Use of Memory and Imagination in Mathematics and Science". He taught in Waterford and Kilkenny, and later earned a PhD in education from the University of London (1929), where he then lectured on the subject. 1901 Census / 1911 Census / Bio / Book |
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006. Denis Hayes (1887-1950) was born 25 Jun in Monard, Cork, and was educated at RCScI and privately, getting an NUI physics & chemistry BSc (1910), and then a UCD MA (1913), with a thesis on "Correlation of Teaching of Science and Mathematics". He taught at Clongowes before marrying and moving to England. There he pursued a career as a research chemist. 1901 Census / 1911 Census or 1911 Census / Death |
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007. Arthur Nicholson (1924-2004) was born 12 December in Londonderry, and was educated at QUB (BSc 1949) and at Manchester (PhD 1952). His thesis on "Some Results on Transcendency" was done under Kurt Mahler. After teaching at his old school Coleraine Inst (1952-1953), he taught in Nigeria (1953-1957), before returning to QUB (DipEd 1958). He then served as head of maths at Methodist College (1858-1965). He lectured in the school of education back at QUB, where he was a PGCE tutor (1965-1990). While there, he supervised several theses in maths education. his thesis quote in https://carma.edu.au/resources/mahler/docs/202.pdf |
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008. Jack Wrigley (1928-2013?) was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, and was educated at first at Manchester (BSc 1950?, MEd 1951?). He lectured in the school of education at QUB (1951-1958), where he did his 1956 PhD on "The Factorial Nature of Ability in Elementary Mathematics" under ??. The rest of his career was spent at Univ London (1958-1962), Southampton (1962-1967) and Reading (1967-1988). He co-authored the book Values and Evaluation in Education (1980). |
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009. Coulter McDowell (1932-1993) was born 30 Jan in Belfast, Antrim, and was educated at first at QUB (BSc 1953). He then did an MS (1954) at Columbia Univ in New York, where Alex Dalgarno was on sabbatical. Around this time he co-authored "A Mathematics Curriculum for the Sixth Form in a Northern Ireland Grammar School". Returning to Belfast, his 1957 PhD on "Quantal Calculations on Heavy Particle Collisions" done under Alex Dalgarno & David Bates. His distinguished career in atomic collision physics was mostly spent at Royal Holloway (where an annual lecture honours him) and at Durham. He supervised numerous doctorates and had 10 books to his name. |
| 010. Mary Aloysius Glennon was probably born in Kildare, and was educated at first at UCG (BSc 1954, HDip 1956). She later did an MA at Maynooth on "The Reform of Mathematical Education" under Séamus Ó Súilleabháin (1975). Her career presumably involved teaching somewhere. | |
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011. Val Rice (1935-2006) was born 8 March in Abbeydorney, north of Tralee, Kerry, and was educated at first at UCG (BA 1955) and at Maynooth (BD). He worked in the dept of finance, then continued his studies at UCC (HDip 1959, BSc 1961). Next, he earned degrees from Harvard: an EdM on "Jacques Maritainand his Christian philosophy" (1962) and an EdD on "A Critical Exposition of the Educational Philosophy of Jacques Maritain" (1965). After a year on the education staff back at UCC, he became professor of education at TCD (1966-2005, FTCD 1970, SFTCD 1997). Under his leadership, the two-year full-time course MEd was introduced there, with the second year devoted to writing a dissertation. |
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012. William Hawthorne was born in NI and was educated at QUB (BSc??, PhD 1970), his thesis on "An Investigation of Homographic Programming Techniques for Teaching Elementary Mathematics" being done under Arthur Nicholson. He lectured at Stranmillis at least 1964-1973, and later in Africa. He co-authored many school books, including New Nation Mathematics for West Cameroon (1968). |
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013. Gerry Beggan was born in Limerick city, and was first educated at SPD, following which he taught in primary school in Enniscorthy, Wexford. He eventually earned maths degrees (BSc 1964, MSc 1965) from UCD. He then worked as a school inspector for the department of education, and authored the book series Thinking Through Mathematics (1970-1972). The rest of his career was spent at UCG's education department (1971-2000). His 1982 NUI PhD on "Some Determinants of Curriculum in Irish Secondary Schools in the Twentieth Century" was formally done under Eustás Ó Héideáin & J. Mitchell of UCG. He also earned a UCG MA in history in 1984. |
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014. Elizabeth Oldham was born to Irish parents in Nottingham, England, and was educated initially at TCD (Scholar 1963, BA 1965, MA 1968) and then at the Univ of London (MSc 1967+). She returned to TCD (HDip 1970, MEd 1974), her master's thesis on "Integrated Science Curriculum Innovation Project, Some Aspects of the Evaluation" being done with Bryan Powell. Having taught at Alexandra College (1969-1971), she has spent the rest of her career based at TCD, where she supervised numerous master's theses. Her interests includes maths curriculum and the philosophies of maths education and their implications for teaching and learning, as well as computer science education, teacher education and the use if IT in teaching and learning. In 2024, she became an Honorary FTCD. TCD / ResearchGate / LinkedIn |
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015. Maths education expert and crossword setter Brian Greer was born on 25 October in Strabane, Tyrone. He was educated at Cambridge (Selwyn, BA 1966) and QUB (MA 1969, PhD 1973), his Belfast degrees being in educational psychology. His doctorate on "Thinking in Sets: a Study of Rule-learning in Children" was done under Billy Brown. He taught for 3 decades at QUB, where he supervised many postgraduates in maths ed, and late taught at San Diego State and Portland Universities. The numerous books to his name include Making Sense of Data and Statistics in Psychology (Palgrave, 2002) and Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education (Routledge, 2009). He is also a veteran crossword puzzle creator, whom some know as “Brendan of the Guardian”. His puzzles have also appeared under the names Virgilius and Jed. |
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16. Liam Trundle (1943-2021) was born in Dublin, and was educated at first in electrical engineering (1967?) via the City and Guilds of London. He earned an MSc (TCD 1970) with a thesis on "Examination Scheduling in Conversational Mode". He lectured maths at Kevin St, and then became an accountant. |
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17. Sean Close was educated UCD (BA 1968?) and at the University of Connecticutt (PhD 1971). His career was spent at SPD and at ERC.
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18. Niall Foley was born in Dublin and was educated at Maynooth (Bsc 1968). His career started teaching at St Joseph's Garbally, where he served as vice president. From 1972 on he was engaged in parish work in Ballinasloe. Many years later he did an MSc with Maeve Martin on "The Rhetoric and Reality of Transition from Primary to Post-primary Schooling" (Maynooth 1997). |
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019. Chemist Leo Frost was born in Cork and was educated at UCC (BSc 1969?, PhD 1973), his thesis being on "Mechanistic Studies on the Role of Catalysis in the Hydrolysis of Carbamates". For 3 decades he lectured at CICE (1980?-2011), rising to the rank of head. His students including many trainee maths teachers. |
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020. Mathematics education expert John O'Donoghue was born 24 February in Nenagh, Tipperary. He was educated at St John Fisher College in Rochester (BA 1969) and at Rensselaer Polytechic (MA physics 1971), both in New York, and later at Loughborough (PhD 1978) in the English midlands. His thesis on "Educating and Training Mathematics Teachers for Secondary Schools in Ireland: a New Perspective on Teacher Education" was done under Avi Bajpai. Most of his career was spent at Thomond College and then at UL, where he supervised over 30 theses at master's and PhD level. His books include Real-World Problems for Secondary School Mathematics Students: Case Studies (2011). He was founding co-director of the National Centre for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and Learning (NCE-MSTL, now now EPI-STEM). His expertise include secondary level maths teacher education, adult maths education/numeracy, service maths teaching, and math support. |
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021. Statistician Eamonn Murphy was born in Limerick city and was first educated at St Pat's, Drumcondra (BA 1969?), whereupon he taught primary school in Limerick for 18 years. He did an MSc (1982?) at NIHE Limerick, and a PhD (1987) at UCD on "An Empirical Study of Information Technology as an Aid to the Teaching of Mathematics in the Primary School". He then lectured at Univ Limerick until 2013, where he supervised 15 PhD students. |
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022. Robert Crone was educated at UU Coleraine (DPhil 1986), his thesis on "A Case Study of a Research and Development Programme Undertaken by One Northern Ireland Co-educational Secondary (Intermediate) School 1981-1985" being done under XY. He had earlier co-authored the book Continuities In Education: The Northern Ireland Schools Curriculum Project (1979). His career included teaching at Laurelhill High School (Lisburn) and working for the Association for Comprehensive Education.
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023. Margaret Otterburn (nee Artt) was educated at QUB (BA 1970, MA 1975), her thesis being on Mathematics for the Certificate of Secondary Education (C.S.E.) with special reference to Northern Ireland. She taught at Irvington and was later ordained and engaged in the ministry in England and USA. |
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024. Liz Sproule was initially educated in physics at QUB (BSc 1971, PhD 1976), her thesis being on "Studies of a Continuously Working Dye Laser". In due course, she retrained in psychology at QUB (BSc, PhD 2000), her new doctorate being on "The Development of Concepts of Linear and Quadratic Equations" done under Brian Greer. Much of her career has been spent at QUB. |
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025. David Flannery (1952-2023) was born in Sligo, and grew up in Galway and Dublin. He was educated at first at UCC (BSc 1972, MSc 1973, HDip). He lectured at CIT (1975-2012), becoming head of maths and developing the engineering programme. He worked in group theory, and later earned his PhD from TCD (2006) on "Enhancing the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in the Senior Cycle" under John Evans. He published the books In Code: A Mathematical Journey (2000, co-authored with his daughter Sarah), and The Square Root of 2: A Dialogue Concerning a Number and a Sequence (2006). |
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026. Olivia Bree (née Fagan) was born 3 July in Mullingar, Westmeath. She was educated at UCG (BA 1973. MA 1974) where she was awarded an NUI Travelling Studentship Prize. Her career was spent at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, where she also served as registrar. Over the years, she has been very active in the IMTA. |
| 027. Gerald McMahon was educated at Maynooth (BA, HDip, MA 1976), his thesis on "Designing a Criterion-referenced Test in Mathematics for Second Class, Primary Level" being done under Séamus Ó Súilleabháin. No career information is known. | |
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028. Hugh Morrison was born in Derry city, and was educated in theoretical physics at QUB (BSc 1974, PhD 1977). His thesis on "Impact-parameter Calculations: Application to Proton-hydrogen and He p2 s - Hydrogen Collisions" was done under Uno Öpik. He taught at the Belfast Royal Academy (1978-1990), and then lectured on PGCE training at QUB (1990-2013). He co-authored the school book Additional Mathematics (1994). He has supervised 11 PhD students in education, some of them in maths ed. Research Gate / Edu 1 / Edu 2 |
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029. Neil Hallinan was born 21 March in Aughavoulimane, Tipperary, and was educated at first at UCD (BA in maths & econ 1975) and Maynooth (HDip 1976). For 36 years he taught at St Mary's Holy Faith Convent, Glasnevin. Along the way he earned an MA from UWE Bristol (1997). He's been involved with the IMTA since the early 1980s, and for 10 years served as editor of the IMTA Newsletter, recently co-ordinating their Archives. IMTA 1 / IMTA 2 / Web |
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030. Eugene Wall was born in Dublin and was educated at first in psychology at UCD (BA 1975, MA 1976). He has been at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick since 1980. In 2001 got his PhD on "A Study of the Mathematical Content Knowledge of Primary Teacher Education Students" at UCD under Desmond Swan. He has served as the president of MIC since 2018.
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031. James Quinn was originally educated at UCG (BSc 1976, MSc 1977), following which he taught at NIHE Limerick (1977-1979), worked in OR in the dept of finance (1979-1983), and lectured in Kevin St (1983-1988), also doing an MSc in EI at UCD (1988). He then did his PhD on "The Effects of Alternative Hypothesis Generation and Testing Strategies on Learning from an Instructional Simulation" at the Univ of Iowa (1992). He lectured there before settling at Oakland Univ in Michigan, where his focus is on instructional design and applied ethics. MA in Ethics Leeds |
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032. Maurice OReilly was born 3 October in Dublin, and grew up in Enniskerry, Wicklow. He was educated at TCD (BA 1977, PhD 1983). His thesis "On Uniformly Convergent Finite Difference Methods for Non-Linear Singular Perturbation Problems" was done under John Miller. He lectured at Dundalk IT (1981-1998), with a break in Dar es Salaam (1991-1994), and at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra (later part of DCU, 1998-2021), where he also served as head. Over the years his interests have turned from numerical analysis to mathematics education. |
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033. Michael Gillespie from Derry was educated at QUB (BEd, BSc (econ), DipEd, DASE, MEd 1978), his thesis being on "The Transition from Primary to Secondary School Mathematics". His career was spent teaching, in Strabane, London, and Belfast. |
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034. Patrick Hamill was educated at QUB (MA 1979), his thesis being on "Reading Problems Related to Mathematics". Nothing further is known. |
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035. Gerry Shiel was born in, and was educated at first in maths and education at St Pat's Drumcondra (BEd 1978). He then did an MEd (1981) at Western Illinois Univ, and a PhD (1987) at the Univ of Texas at Austin. His thesis on "" was done under . He has worked as a primary teacher, special education teacher and university lecturer. The rest of his career was spent at the Educational Research Centre in Dublin (1993-2020), where he was involved in the development of standardised tests and in implementing national and international assessments of educational achievement at primary and post-primary levels, including the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). He has a keen interest in factors associated with |
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036. Education expert Tony Kelly (aka Anthony Elliott-Kelly) was born in Athlone, Westmeath. He was educated at first at Maynooth (BSc 1978) and Cambridge (MA 1979). He later did an MSc at Heriot-Watt (1988) under Robert Craik, and PhD on "The Management and Administration of Irish Post-Primary Schools" at Hull (1996). His career since 2001 has been spent at Southampton. He focusses on the theory of educational effectiveness and improvement as it relates to educational leadership, higher education, governance and policy analysis. His is co-creator on the Lab in a Lorry street physics initiative. His 7 books include Decision-making through Game Theory. (Cambridge, 2003). Wikipedia / Southampton / LinkedIn / ResearchGate / Conversation |
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037. Merrilyn Goos was born 9 July in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia, and was educated entirely at the Univ of Queensland (BSc 1977, MEdSt 1993, PhD 2000). Her initial career was in food technology (1978-1984), then she switched to education. Her doctoral thesis on "Metacognition in Context – A Study of Metacognitive Activity in a Classroom Community of Mathematical Inquiry" was done with Peter Galbraith & Peter Renshaw. She was on the staff at Queensland 1999-2017 where she supervised 18 PhDs and authored 2 books. She was then the head of education at the Univ of Limerick where she supervise another 5 PhDs. The rest of her career (2021-2023) was spend at Univ of Sunshine Coast back in Australia. Link / Link |
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038. Gerry Mulhern was born in Belfast, Antrim, and was educated at Liverpool (BSc psychology 1978) and QUB (PhD 1986). His thesis on "Chronometric Analysis on Mental Addition" was done under Brian Greer. His career was spent in the physchology depts at UU Coleraine (1985-1991) and QUB (1991-2012). |
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039. Anne Daly Walsh was born in ?? and was educated at first at UCG (BA 1979, HDip 1980) and TCD (HDip computers in ed, 1982). She taught at the secondary level in Dublin (1980-1997) before moving to IT Tallaght for 2 years. Since then she has lectured at WIT (now SETU). In 2005, she got an MA at Univ Limerick on "Information and Communication Technology in Education". |
