John Philip Holland and Liscannor, Co. Clare

The town of Liscannor, Co. Clare is the birthplace of John Philip Holland, the Irishman who invented the modern submarine. More on JPH in this previous post.

On a recent visit to Liscannor it was possible to view at least three plaques in the town in honour of the famous scientist and engineer:

One near the church:

One on the main street:

and one marking his birthplace on Holland Street (formerly Castle Street):

There's also a JPH display at the spectacular Cliffs of Moher visitor centre featuring a model of one of his creations:

As if that wasn't enough, the town will unveil a further memorial (pictured below, under construction) on August 31st to mark 100 years since his John Philip Holland's death.

Possibly the most densely commemorated scientist in Ireland, and deservedly so!

Irish deep sea research on National Geographic Channel

Image: VENTuRE Expedition

Irish research will take centre stage this weekend when UCC and NUIG research that has led to discoveries in the mid-Atlantic Ridge, which will feature in a National Geographic programme to be broadcast this Sunday, 28 October.

National Geographic has produced a five part series, The Alien Deep, which takes viewers into underwater worlds where no human has gone before.

The series takes viewers into an underwater world 3,000m deep, where, on the slopes of the Mid-Ocean ridges that divide the earth’s tectonic plates, chimney-like formations spew black plumes of superheated water, packed with chemicals, minerals and dissolved gases allowing life to thrive against the odds.

The scientific team leader was Dr Andy Wheeler, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at University College Cork who worked with scientists from the National University of Ireland Galway, Geological Survey of Ireland, the University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre in the UK. “It's great to see Ireland's expertise recognised on TV”, says Dr Wheeler.  “Discovering a new volcanic landscape three kilometres below was a thrill.”

The scientists were on board the Irish National Research Vessel, Celtic Explorer and used the Remotely Operated Vehicle Holland 1 - named for the Irish submarine pioneer John Philip Holland- for their explorations of the deep and was supported by the Marine Institute under the 2011 Ship-Time Programme of the National Development Plan. 

The team named the previously uncharted field of hydrothermal vents along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the first to be explored north of the Azores, the Moytirra Vent Field.  Moytirra is the name of a battlefield in Irish mythology, and appropriately means ‘Plain of the Pillars’. Patrick Collins from the Ryan Institute, NUI Galway led Ireland’s marine biological team on the survey.

The programme featuring Irish scientists will be broadcast this Sunday 28th October at 6pm on the National Geographic channel on Sky (channel 526) and also UPC (channel 215). The programme presenter is explorer Dr Robert Ballard who discovered the wreckage of the Titanic in 1985.

John P. Holland Commemoration: In Pictures

Here are some images of the John P. Holland commemoration at the National Maritime College of Ireland on Saturday.


The event, organised by the North Monastery Bicentennial Committee and the NMCI, was a very enjoyable and informative occasion which was a fitting tribute to an Irishman who deserves to be recognised as the 'Father of the modern submarine'.

As we learned from a number of speakers, including Bruce Balistrieri of the Patterson Museum and Dr. Donal Blake of the Christian Brothers, had Holland not been engrossed in his submarine work, it is probable that he would have rivalled the Wright brothers to be the first to accomplish manned flight.

The event was attended by the Mayors of Cork and Clare County as well as the Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork City. The Minister for the Marine, Mr. Simon Coveney TD also spoke and unveiled a commemorative plaque which will adorn the walls of the newly re-dedicated John P. Holland Library at the College.

The Band of the No.1 Southern Brigade, Collins Barracks were in attendance and added a wonderful sense of occasion. The event was also attended by the a representative of the Japanese embassy in Dublin who reminded us that Holland designed the first submarines for the Japanese Navy.

Holland received the Fourth Class Order of Merit Rising Sun Ribbon from the Japanese for his distinguished service to that nation. He remains one of a very few Irish people to receive such an honour.

"underhand, unfair and damned un-English" - Irishman's sub to receive award

HMS Holland One

The Royal Navy's first submarine, designed by an Irish man, is to be honoured as one of 'Britain's' greatest engineering feats.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is to present the Holland One its Heritage Award.

The craft was designed by John Philip Holland an Irishman and former Christian Brother who emigrated to America in the early 1870's. His early designs for the first modern submarine were prepared while teaching in Irish schools. More about Holland in this earlier post.

The award means that this Irish invention will join the ranks of the Thames Barrier and the famous Bletchley Park code-breaking machine as one of the major 'British' engineering successes.

The Holland One was launched in 1901 (the Americans had launched the USS Holland in 1897) despite the then head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson describing the craft as "underhand, unfair and damned un-English".
Spokesperson for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers told the London Evening Standard: "Ironically, Holland had originally received the financial backing needed to develop his submarines from the Irish Fenian Society, who wanted to use the vessels to carry out hit-and-run terrorist attacks on the Royal Navy.

"Holland's great technological innovation was marrying the internal combustion engine with the electric motor and electric battery, all in one hydro-dynamic machine. This would set the standard for submarines across the world for decades to come.

"After Holland One's secret launch a year later, the boat had 12 years of experimental service before being decommissioned in 1913."

The Holland One is now preserved at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire after being discovered and salvaged by Navy minesweepers at the bottom of the English Channel in 1981. It had rested there since it sank upon hitting a storm on its way to be scrapped.

John Philip Holland will be commemorated at a special event at the National Maritime College of Ireland (NCMI) this Saturday (7th May). More details of the event here. The event is now oversubscribed, but it will be streamed live on the NCMI website from (approx) 2pm.

The Irish Submarine Pioneer: John Philip Holland

Holland at the hatch of the USS Holland

John Philip Holland was a Christian Brother and taught at the North Monastery in Cork where he is reputed to have started developing the early prototypes of his invention.

Holland is believed to have been born in Liscannor, Co. Clare in 1841. He was educated at the Christian Brothers secondary school in Ennistymon and subsequently Sexton Street School in Limerick City. In Limerick he was greatly influenced by the scientist and mechanical engineer Br. Bernard O'Brien who was accomplished in building telescopes with intricate clockwork mechanisms.

He joined the Christian Brothers in 1858 and began teaching alongside Br. James Dominic Burke at the North Monastery. Br. James Burke was a noted science teacher and is considered the father of vocational and scientific education in Ireland.

Never an exceptional teacher of the classics, he apparently found it almost 'intolerably boring' to teach reading , writing and arithmetic, but he was known to be an excellent teacher of drawing, science and music. Without taking full vows in the order, he taught at schools in Armagh (1860-61), Port Laoise (1861), Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (1862-65), Drogheda (1865-69)and Dundalk (1869-1872).

While in Enniscorthy, Holland developed an interest in flying and began to design flying machines.In Drogheda he constructed a mechanical duck which could walk around the garden and swim, dive and resurface when put in water.

Seemingly, through a combination of ill-health, lack of teaching ability and his brother and mother emigrating to the United States, Holland declined to take his perpetual vows in the Order and emigrated to America.

Fenian Ran at Paterson Museum, NJ

Fenian Ram c. 1920's

In New Jersey, Holland resumed teaching for a time and became involved with the Irish Fenian Brotherhood who financed the building of his first three submarines. In 1878, Holland dove to 12 feet in his first submarine - Holland I. The hull of this vessel was recovered from the bottom of the Upper Passaid River in 1927 and is currently on display in the Paterson Museum, Paterson, New Jersey.

The Holland II (The Fenian Ram) was launched in 1881  and was a three-man boat.The vessel carried Holland and others to depths in excess of 45 feet and successfully fired projectiles. Following a dispute, the Fenian Brotherhood stole the Fenian Ram in 1883, but shortly realised that nobody but Holland knew how to work it. The Fenian Ram was eventually brought to the Paterson Museum where it is still on display.

The Holland VI was eventually to become the first submarine in the US Navy. Purchased by the US Government on 11 April 1900, the USS Holland was commissioned on 12 October 1900 and served for 10 years. By 1905, Holland withdrew from the company he had helped found to design and build his vessels (Electric Boat Company), but not before the submarines were being used by American, British, Japanese, Dutch and Russian Naval forces.

John Philip Holland, 1912

Holland died of pneumonia on 12 August 1914 aged 74 in Newark, New Jersey and is buried at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Totowa, New Jersey.

Regarded as the father of the modern submarine, Holland is remembered as the North Monastery, Cork celebrates 200 years in existence. The NMCI has dedicated its library at Ringaskiddy in Holland's memory. The library has a unique collection of John P. Holland papers in its collection.

Much more information on Holland and his submarines can be found here.

USS Holland launch 1897

USS Holland in dry dock, 1899

USS Holland. Note the Holland nameplate below the flagstaff 

Nameplate from the USS Holland at the Smithsonian Museum. The rest of the vessel was sold for scrap in 1913

The above USS Holland images are from the US Naval Historical Center.

North Mon 200 & Cork Scientists

This evening marks the launch of a publication to mark the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the North Monastery CBS in Cork City.

The book, entitled North Mon 200 is available to purchase in all good bookshops and online at : http://www.localbooks.ie/shop/product_info.php?products_id=6903

The school is the alma mater of a long list of distinguished past-pupils including former Taoiseach Jack Lynch and former Cork Lord Mayors Terence McSwiney and Tomas MacCutain.The 'North Mon' also has an impressive scientific track record and teachers who have worked there include Br. James Burke, the renowned educationalist and science teacher and John Philip Holland who developed one of the first ever submarines.

Burke was a Christian Brother who taught at the North Monastery in Cork City and was renowned for his work in developing practical scientific and technical education in Ireland during the late 19th century. Amongst his achievements includes bringing electric light to Cork in 1877, two years before Thomas Edison invented the electric bulb. He was a pioneer and advocate for practical, scientific education in Ireland and represented Ireland at the World's Fair in St Louis, Missouri in 1904.

Writing in The Glamour of Cork, Daniel Lawrence Kelleher (1919) describes an aging Burke as:

"This big, slow-footed, heavy, smiling, half-blind old man [who] has put into practice the most enlightened methods of education.
"Behold him in his class, a combination and anticipation of Montessori, Pearse and a hundred others, a curious wheedling old fellow, the father, uncle and guardian of his pupils, and no master at all in the narrow sense; or another time at the Trades Hall talking to workers back to childhood by his overflowing interest.
"A teacher out of a million, his lesson a preparation for life rather than for any examination test, his shining spirit a light always for any who saw the flame of it, alive".

Holland, a Christian Brother colleague of Burke at the North Monastery, is credited with developing the first submarine to be commissioned by the US Navy (USS Holland), and the first Royal Navy submarine- the Holland 1.

Many thanks to North Monastery Past Pupils Union for the use of images from their collection.



In Search of Greatness

There has been much debate in Irish scientific circles lately as to why no scientists had made it into RTE's much hyped list of the Greatest Irish People. I've made the point that instead of bemoaning the fact that the public have snubbed us scientists in favour of some worthy and some (arguably) less worthy individuals, Irish science should be asking itself why it has come to this?

Why don't the general public consider Irish scientists worthy of this title? Do they know enough about them? Do they really value their work?

On the back of this assault on our collective egos, Science.ie launched a poll to find the Greatest Irish Scientist. Robert Boyle (of Boyle's Law fame) was the most popular with almost two thirds of the vote (32.2%). William Rowan Hamilton (21.2%) and Ernest Walton (17.8%), a mathematician and nuclear physicist respectively, came in next.

The full top ten is as follows:

Science.ie poll results – top 10 Irish scientists:

1. Robert Boyle, who turned chemistry into a science
2. William Rowan Hamilton – the algebra he invented in 1843 helped to put a man on the Moon more than a century later
3. Ernest Walton, whose pioneering work began the atomic era
4. Kathleen Lonsdale, the X-ray crystallographer who revealed the structure of benzene and diamond
5. Dorothy Price, instrumental in the fight against tuberculosis, introducing the BCG vaccine to Ireland in the 1930s
6. John Tyndall, the first person to answer the question “Why is the sky blue?” successfully
7. Harry Ferguson, who revolutionised farming when he invented the modern tractor
8. Sir George Gabriel Stokes, for his important contributions to fluid dynamics, optics and mathematical physics, including Stokes’ theorem
9=. Fr Nicholas Callan, who invented the modern induction coil, still used in car ignitions
9=. Charles Parsons, inventor of the steam turbine
9=. William Thompson, who formulated the first and second Laws of Thermodynamics

No room it seems for George Boole, Br. James Burke or Br. John Philip Holland.

Boole was the first Professor of Mathematics at Queen's College Cork (now UCC), where the library is now named in his honour. He invented Boolean logic which formed the basis of modern computer logic and makes him, in hindsight, a founder of modern computer science.

Burke was a Christian Brother who taught at the North Monastery in Cork City and was renowned for his work in developing practical scientific and technical education in Ireland during the late 19th century. Amongst his achievements includes bringing electric light to Cork in 1877, two years before Thomas Edison invented the electric bulb. He was a pioneer and advocate for practical, scientific education in Ireland and represented Ireland at the World's Fair in St Louis, Missouri in 1904.

Writing in The Glamour of Cork, Daniel Lawrence Kelleher (1919) describes an aging Burke as:

"This big, slow-footed, heavy, smiling, half-blind old man [who] has put into practice the most enlightened methods of education.
"Behold him in his class, a combination and anticipation of Montessori, Pearse and a hundred others, a curious wheedling old fellow, the father, uncle and guardian of his pupils, and no master at all in the narrow sense; or another time at the Trades Hall talking to workers back to childhood by his overflowing interest.
"A teacher out of a million, his lesson a preparation for life rather than for any examination test, his shining spirit a light always for any who saw the flame of it, alive".

Holland, a Christian Brother colleague of Burke at the North Monastery, is credited with developing the first submarine to be commissioned by the US Navy (USS Holland), and the first Royal Navy submarine- the Holland 1. The first image in this post shows Holland standing at the hatch of a submarine.

Thanks to North Monastery Past Pupils Union for permission to use photos from their collection. Expect to hear much more about both Burke and Holland in 2011 when the North Monastery schools celebrate their bicentennial.