Boole's home to be rebuilt as part of year of celebrations

As part of a year of celebrations to mark 200 years since the birth of George Boole, his derelict former home in Cork City looks set to be refurbished and restored.

The building at number five Grenville Place has been derelict since a structural collapse in 2010. Despite repeated calls for the building to be saved, it has languished forlornly since the initial collapse.

Now, as part of University College Cork's Year of George Boole in 2015, the building could be rebuilt and saved for future generations. 

George Boole was the first Professor of Mathematics at Cork and is regarded as the 'Father of Boolean Algebra' whose research laid the groundwork for modern computing. University College Cork is keen to reaffirm the association between the university and Boole and is planning a series of commemorations including a statue of Boole, various exhibitions and an international conference. More information on the Year of George Boole website.

Although a future use for the refurbished building has not been decided, UCC is believed to be working with Cork City Council and others on plans for the Boole's former home.

Such a large scale and high profile year of events is to be warmly welcomed. The fact that a centrepiece of this year might secure a piece of Ireland's scientific and architectural heritage, should bring to an end this sorry saga.

You can see what the building might look like in this presentation (powerpoint) from YOGB.

David Puttnam on Educating for the Digital Society

Film director, Labour Peer and noted educationalist David Puttnam spoke at University College Cork this week in a talk entitled Educating for the Digital Society: How Ireland can raise its game and how its universities can help?

In a broad ranging and entertaining talk and discussion, Lord Puttnam struck an optimistic note but did not shy away from stating the problems plainly. Puttnam made a decision some fourteen years ago to leave the world of cinema where he had worked for 30 "happy and, I hope, very productive" years in engage with a very different world of public policy. In that time, he says, he has had "no regrets".

If he had "one disappointment", the BAFTA-winning director and West Cork resident said "it's the growing absence of what is probably best described as wisdom" in the society around him.

"Developing that kind of wisdom in the current social, political and media environment is far from easy. 24/7 news cycles, economic and employment figures that are scrutinised every quarter, or in Ireland's case, every fortnight. A world so interconnected that a slip of the tongue in one hemisphere can literally reek havoc in another".




Speaking at the invitation of Ionad Bairre, the Teaching and Learning Centre at UCC, Puttnam said his work in education has been very rewarding because "it has offered me the opportunity to engage with people who, every single day of their working lives are attempting to mould the building blocks, the quality of which will determine our ability to secure our own future - the next generation of teachers."

Using a military metaphor, he described teachers as the only infantry in a war between "our largely failed present and the possibility of an altogether more imaginative, and I hope more innovative future."

"One of the problems with our current system, especially in the UK," according to Puttnam, "is that the 'Chalk and Talk' model has been carried through to a point where it is now very, very close to its sell-by-date".

Resistance or reluctance to fully embrace digital innovation in the classroom, he said,  means that an "increasing disparity has opened up between life in the lecture hall or classroom and the daily experience of technology beyond the college gates".

"Surely few of us would dream of going to a doctor who was less than conversant with the very latest developments in whatever ailment we believed ourselves to be suffering and yet we found it incredibly difficult to persuade policymakers that if we are to win back the trust of you who are already students,then we need to engage far more effectively with your world, the students world. We need to view technology, and the way in which they relate to it, through their eyes."

In a message to the next generation of educators, Puttnam stressed the importance of the authenticity of teachers:

"It is vital for teachers to remember that, no matter how gifted or charismatic they may be, they will never successfully influence or teach anyone who doesn't believe them to be utterly authentic. Authentic in the sense that they hold on to and exemplify the values that they teach. Of all the things I've learned in dealing with the teaching profession in the last 15 years,  that is probably the most singly important."

Importantly, he said, if we always do, what we've always done, we can expect the same results:

"Merely digitising old practices is, in effect, simple seeking to get the same or similar results only faster. If all you do with technology is use it to support existing methodologies and practice, then why and on what possible basis would you expect to get new or better results?"

"Digitising what is and developing a digital pedagogy" are two totally different ways of looking at the problem, according to Puttnam.

Finally, Lord Puttnam outlined 6 crucial lessons for educators and society in general:

1. Getting education right should be the number one priority.
2. No education system can be better than the teachers it employs
3. Ongoing teacher training is essential. "It is absurd", Puttnam noted "that you can graduate in a subject aged 24 and still be relevant at 44 or 64 [without ongoing training]"
4. Educating women is essential. Educated women are the fulcrum around which you can build educated families.
5. Government must spend a minimum of 7% GDP on education. All other spending should be designed to make this happen.
6. Teachers and pupils work best in surroundings they are comfortable and respect. The physical infrastructure of some primary and secondary schools should be a cause of national shame.

'Drink deeply of the nectared cup of science': Woodroffe and the Cork Anatomists

Co-inciding with the annual meeting of the UCC Medical Faculty and Alumni Association, the Jennings Gallery at University College Cork Medical School will host an exhibition entitled "An Anatomical School in Cork - John Woodroffe and the Cork Anatomists".

It will be a celebration of the Bicentenary of the first Anatomy School in Cork, founded by John Woodroffe, Surgeon of the South Charitable Infirmary, in 1811, together with an exploration of the contribution of Cork anatomists to the development of anatomical illustration in the 19th century. The exhibition will run from September 15th to October 3rd 2011.

Woodroffe founded the school in Margaret Street Cork and the exhibition will examine his life as a teacher of anatomy, a passionate devotee of epic art and a successful and committed surgeon.

Woodrooffe's former school at 18 Parnell Place, Cork. Seen here on the right of the image. After years in a derelict state, the top floors of the facade were rebuilt and the remainder became part of an (as yet) unopened hotel development. (Image: Septemer 2008, archiseek.com)

By 1828, the school was transferred to Warren's (now Parnell) Place, Cork to a building which (the facade at least) is still standing. At Warren's Place Woodroffe taught Anatomy and Physiology. Henry Baldwin Evanson, Charles Yelverton Haines and Edward Richard Townsend taught Materia Medica, Medicine and Surgery respectively. In keeping with the central nature of plants to medicine, Thomas Taylor was employed to teach Botany.

Michael Hanna, Chair of the Gallery Committee notes that "Woodroffe's contemporaries called it the first 'permanent' school of anatomy in Cork. It gave rise to others and to an unbroken link with the founding faculty of medicine in Queens College Cork".

In the Quarterly Journal of Foreign and British Medicine and Surgery (and of the Sciences connected with them) from 1822, the journal notes the growth of Woodroffe's school in Cork:
"We understand that of late regular courses of lectures have been delivered at Cork by Dr. Woodroffe, on Anatomy, Surgery, Midwifery and the Theory and Practice of Medicine.
Dr. Woodroffe, who sems a clever, enterprising man, and, as we are informed, an excellent lecturer, also gives popular courses on Physiology, and the Anatomy of Painting. We wonder why Dr. W. has the whole monopoly of lecturing."

Always keen to bring science to a more public audience, as an introduction to the study of science, the following qoute of Woodroffe's takes some beating:

"... and why may not I presume to hope, that there are among you some, who, by pursuing a similar plan, in a science which presents to your view such ample materials for investigation, may yet fathom the deep recesses of the mind, detect the subtile agent which directs the phenomena of thought and intellect, or make such discoveries in the obscure and unexplored regions of Physiology, as may transmit your names with honour to posterity, and consecrate this humble spring where you first inbibed the pure elements of science. With such incitements your labours must not, cannot, relax; while youth and energy are yours, ere care shall make its fatal inroads in your hearts, or worldly pursuits prevent your better feelings, let me implore you to devote yourselves religiously to the important task of study; drink deeply of the nectared cup of science; her lucid beams will guide you through your perilous course, and gild with eternal sunshine your future prospects; in after years you will enjoy the proud superiority of a good education, and rest assured that your intellectual acquirements, like the Eagle's plumage, will not only adorn, but support you in your flight." (Cork  Merchantile Chronicle 15 Nov, 1815)

Remarkable Trees

National TreeWeek came to an end in Ireland last weekend and to celebrate, some pictures of trees from the main campus of University College Cork:

The first is a very special tree - the largest of its types in Ireland. This Chinese Privet (Ligustrum lucidum) is 9 metres high and 3.19 m in girth and is classified by the Tree Council of Ireland as an "exceptional specimen tree".

The species is the largest growing of its genus, reaching up to 25 m in height.

The next is an impressive specimen of weeping willow (Salix babylonica). The species is native to China and gets its species name, apparently, from a misunderstanding by Linnaeus, who catalouged it, and thought it was a tree mentioned in the Bible: "By the rivers of Babylon... hung our harps upon the willows".

The last image is a pair of magnificant Giant Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) located at the entrance to the Boole Library. The species is the only living species in the genus and can live for up to 1800 years or more. The species contains the tallest trees on earth, reaching up to 115 metres in height.

You can see an interactive map of some of the important tree specimens on the UCC campus here.

Letting Boole's memory collapse doesn't add up

No.5 Grenville Place, Cork (via Kman999, Flickr)

George Boole was the first Professor of Mathematics at Queen's College, Cork (now University College Cork) and is generally considered as the 'father' of computer science, although he wouldn't have known that at the time.

He died in Cork in 1864 at the young age of 49, of pneumonia after being drenched; walking from his then home in Ballintemple to the University to give a lecture in wet clothes. I have often used this story in my own lectures by jokingly telling students that it is a lesson for us all: if it's raining, don't go to college and stay in bed! Unfortunately, some students take the joke literally; although that's another story.

From 1849 to 1855, Boole lived in a house in Grenville Place in the city while working at the college (for a more complete biography of Boole, see here). This house has been derelict for at least as long as I can remember and probably much longer.

This morning, emergency services attended to the building with reports of a ceiling having collapsed. It is hardly surprising given the derelict nature of some of the properties in the locality.

(via greeblemonkey, flickr)

The fact that a building associated with one of our most famous and successful scientists is in such a state and faces an uncertain future, is distressing from both a scientific and a historical viewpoint. Across the nation and across the world, buildings of historical importance have been protected to ensure that they survive to the next generation.


The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes number 5, Grenville Place as "Terraced double-pile two-bay four-storey former house over basement, built c. 1770, with full-height projecting bow to west elevation...This house is part of a fine eighteenth-century terrace with the six adjoining houses to the west and south-east, and this terrace forms part of a significant group with the terrace of four houses to the east. These terraces are notable pieces in the urban landscape which were built in the eighteenth century close to the fashionable former mansion house. The building is enhanced by the retention of interesting features and materials, such as the timber sliding sash windows, limestone paving, slate roof and interior fittings. The house is also associated with George Boole, the first Professor of Mathematics at Queen's College, Cork, who lived here in the mid nineteenth century."

The building at Grenville Place is a protected building on Cork City Council's list of Protected Structures (Ref PS129) and a plaque describing the connection with Boole is clearly visible on the front of the building. However, putting it on a list and erecting a plaque is not much good if roof and walls are falling down around it.

Meanwhile, at the same time as Cork is neglecting it's Boolean heritage, Boole's birthplace of Lincoln in the UK is preparing for Boolefest. This celebration of all things Boole takes place between the 29th October and 6th of Novemeber 2010 and will include exhibitions, performances and public lectures at the University of Lincoln.

Number 5 during the floods of last November (with thanks to Mon Boys Forum) 

Reaping what you sow: Irish education spending

University College Cork: climbed 23 places to 184th

The latest QS World University Rankings are out and they make for mixed reading for the country's third-level institutions. While TCD and UCD both dropped down the rankings, UCC and NUIG have improved their ranking since last year.

Trinity College Dublin is still Ireland's highest ranked university in 52nd place worldwide, but this is down from 43rd last year. University College Dublin remains second highest in Ireland at 114th place, but this is again down from 89th place in 2009.

On the plus side, NUI Galway increased its ranking from 243rd place, up to 232nd. At University College Cork (still ranked third in Ireland), the worldwide ranking was improved from 207nd place in 2009, up to 184th place this year.

The rise of UCC is one of the high points of the ranking system. Annual rises since 2006 have seen the university rise from 386th position to 184th.

The results come as the latest OECD (Organisation for Economic Development) reports confirm that the government spends just €12,631 for every third-level student. This figure is below that in 30 other developed countries studied.

When measured against GDP, Ireland's total spend on education is just 4.7%, which places it in 25th place out of 28 OECD countries. This is significantly less than the OECD average of 5.7% and below the EU19 average of 5.3% of GDP.

What is most disturbing about the OECD data is that the results are based on data from 2007, before the huge raft of cutbacks ordered by the Government were implemented.

Concerning too is the news that, at primary-level, just 4% of pupils time is spent on science education. This compares to 29% spent on reading and writing (including Irish). The time spent on science in primary schools here is just half of that in other EU countries.

Combined with this bad news for science, just one-eight of pupils' time at primary-level is spent learning maths. This is the lowest of all countries measured. And we wonder why maths achievement at Leaving Certificate level is so low!

One wonders whether Irish universities can sustain such rankings given more cutbacks planned for next year.

Robert Gibbings (1889-1958)

Robert Gibbings

A recent post on coral reefs led me to pick up a book by one of Ireland's best naturalists, writers and artists. In his book Blue Angels and Whales, Robert Gibbings describes the slow development of a reef as follows:

"Though it may take seven thousand years for some of the slower-growing corals to build a reef a hundred and fifty feet in depth, or perhaps a quarter of that time for some of the quicker-growing species to achieve the same result, nevertheless the activity goes on unceasingly.

And it is not only the exuberant growth of the living polyp which, ramifying everywhere, builds up these great structures. It is the dead coral also. broken by the waves and reduced to powder by boring molluscs and worms, this serves as cement to bind the whole together; and, burying themselves in it, there are shell-fish who in turn contribute their shells to the general structure. Over it all is deposited a gentle rain of sediment from the seawater. One day, when the living rock has reached the surface, a floating coco-nut will be arrested in its travels and, taking root, will throw up its leaves. Then begins another cycle. The leaves of the tree will fall and rot, forming humus, and in this humus other seeds, borne by the sea and wind, will take root. They in their turn will die and form further soil, and so a new world will come into being on which all the romance and tragedy of human life will find a setting."

Robert Gibbings was born in Cork in 1889, the son of a Church of Ireland minister. His mother was the daughter of Robert Day, a noted Cork businessman and importantly, a collector of art and cultural objects from all over the world. Gibbings undoubtedly came under Day's influence in his formative years: Myrtle Hill, the Day family's home in Cork was full of strange objects, from Celtic gold torcs to spears from the South Sea Islands.

Gibbings enrolled in University College Cork to study medicine in 1907. In Lovely is the Lee he notes that his time at UCC was not always as successful as it might have been:

"It wasn't that there was any ill will between us (the professors at the college), it was just that they couldn't agree with my answers to their questions. The professor of zoology* lamented that I seemed more interested in the outside than the inside of a rabbit."

*Probably Prof. Marcus Hartog at the time.

Engraving from 'Beasts and Saints'

Gibbings left UCC inside three years, having persuaded his parents that art rather than medicine was his calling. He proceeded to study art in Cork before moving to London to the Slade School in 1911. 

By 1914 he was on the move again, this time enlisted with the 4th Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers. He survived a bullet in the neck at Gallipoli before being stationed back in Cork (at Bere Island) and Dublin. A posting to Salonika finished his military career and he was invalided out of the army in 1919.

Gibbings had a life-time interest in wood engravings and helped found the Society of Wood-Engravers. For the next few years, he took on a large number of small commissions, producing wood engravings and prints for advertising and the publishing industry.

Engraving from 'Blue Angels &Whales'

Around 1923, Gibbings became the owner of a small printing works, Golden Cockerel Press following the loan of one thousand pounds from a friend, Hubert Pike, a director of the Bentley Motor company. Gibbings and his new wife Moira set about reviving the fortunes of the struggling press with the aid of Eric Gill, another noted artist, sculptor and typeface designer.

By all accounts, life at the press was unconventional, to say the least, with "dancing and games in the nude" being a common pastime. Gibbings had a lifelong interest in naturism.

In 1926, another publisher sent Gibbings to Tahiti to work with an author and to illustrate his books. However, when the writer subsequently withdrew from the project, Gibbings added his own words to his illustrations and had the books published anyway. The Seventh Man and Iorana were the result.

In the early 1930's the press was sold and Gibbings divorced his first wife and so began a rather bleak time for the artist.

By 1937 he was teaching at Reading University but still struggling to make ends meet. He had two daughters with a new wife, Elizabeth Empson however this marriage soon began to falter. Elizabeth's sister Patience was later to become his secretary and aide.

After this period, Gibbings seems to have made a concerted effort to concentrate on both his teaching and his writing.

Gibbings diving in Bermuda

Blue Angels and Whales was based upon his diving experience in both Bermuda and at the Red Sea.

At the Bermuda Marine Research Station he borrowed their primitive diving helmet (pictured) and hand operated air-pump and set about observing underwater life, a subject he had become fascinated with. The diving was not without its dangers as he notes:

"The pressure of the air within the helmet is kept up by the pump, operated from the launch overhead. Provided the man at the job does not go to sleep in the sun, there is sufficient pressure to prevent the water rising above chin level."

Using sheets of Xylonite, Gibbings was able to draw under water using an adapted pencil (sticks of graphite encased in rubber tubing).

Throughout Gibbings books, whether travel related or on natural history, he takes time to recount events in his journey which seemingly led him to meet a wonderful array of humorous and interesting local characters. For example, on a steamer from Marseilles to Port Said, Egypt he notes a meeting with

"a fanatical evangelist with a lovely wife. He has tried to convert me to his beliefs, I have tried to convert her to mine, so far, no score on either side."

Clownfish by Gibbings, from 'Blue Angels & Whales'

Gibbings was headed towards the Marine Research Station at Hurghada, run by the University of Egypt. The station had diving gear similar to Bermuda's and the artist made full use of it. Of the now famous Clownfish (of Finding Nemo fame) he writes:

"In among the crevices of the dead coral were giant anemones, among whose tentacles might be discovered a small fish marked with conspicuous white bars across its bronze body, which, either by long habit or by ‘gentleman's agreement' had gained immunity from the stinging cells of its host. Living as it does under cover of such a battery, it achieves a greater security from its enemies than it would have if dependent on its own resources. In order to repay the hospitality granted, it makes it its business to dart from cover and endeavour to lure or drive any passing stranger within reach of the tentacles. Should it be successful there is no lack of reward in the crumbs that fall from its host's table."

After his return to the UK, the author became further interested in rivers and built a boat (The Willow) in which he set about travelling down the Thames making notes on the passing wildlife. The outbreak of the second world war disrupted his Thames trip and he did some work designing camouflage for the Ministry of Defence - he had become intrigued by the use of colour as camouflage in nature, particularly in fish living on coral reefs.

When he resumed his boating he wrote another book, Sweet Thames Run Softly, supplemented by his wood engravings. More travel books were to follow, often based about rivers: Coming down the Wye, Coming down the Seine, Sweet Cork of Thee and Lovely is the Lee. All of the books are charming mixtures of humour, natural history, science, geography, social observation and old tales gleaned from talkative locals. 

These books were all hugely successful and meant Gibbings was financially successful for the first time in his life. With his new-found wealth, the set off on another tour of the Pacific where he wrote and illustrated Over the Reefs.

Gibbings' last book, Till I End my Song, contains many reminiscences of his long and productive life. He died of cancer in January 1958.

The attraction of Gibbings' books is their easy mixture of science and natural history alongside a wicked sense of humour and fun. Much like the rivers he loved, none of his books are in a hurry to get anywhere. As one reviewer notes, "they mostly tend to meander in and out of one anecdote after another while heading towards the main focus".

Many of Gibbings' books are readily available having been reprinted extensively. This author has in his possession a much-prized first edition of Sweet Cork of Thee, signed by the author.

In later life, Gibbings was a familiar sight and sound on BBC TV and Radio and David Attenborough cites him as one of the formative influences on his own carreer. A Pathe newsreel featuring Gibbings can be viewed below.

Robert Gibbings was unique: an artist, writer and scientist; one of Ireland's greatest artists and a man with an extraordinary thirst for life.

His biographer, Martin Andrews, sums up the man as follows:
"But above all it was in his observation of nature and his descriptions of the mood and atmosphere of the open air and the landscape, ranging from the evocation of a dramatic sunset to the detail of a dewdrop on a blade of grass, that his writing was at its best. His style was not that of the intellectual. It came from the spirit, a mixture of poetic evocation, intense observation, factual detail and, above all, a sense of enjoyment and love of life."

ROBERT GIBBINGS ARTIST

Further Reading:

Robert Gibbings, An Irish Artist Underwater by Cormac F. Lowth.

Listen to Martin Andrews, Reading University talk about Gibbings and how he re-discovered one of Gibbings' first pieces of sculpture here.

World First for UCC as Students raise Green Flag

University College Cork (UCC) today (February 19th 2010) became the first 3rd level educational institution in the world to be accredited with the prestigious international ‘Green Flag’ award. 

 

The award, presented by Minister John Gormley, on behalf of An Taisce, to UCC President Dr Michael Murphy, is a direct result of the Green-Campus programme, a student-led initiative undertaken by UCC students and staff over the last 3 years.

 

The Green-Campus programme, operated in Ireland by An Taisce, has seen the University save €300,000 in waste management costs, reduce waste to landfill by nearly 400 tonnes and improve recycling from 21% to 60%.  Furthermore, UCC has conserved almost enough water this year to fill the equivalent of the Lough of Cork.

"our first action was to put on overalls and dive into the skips"The first step was for the students to establish a Green-Campus Committee, in conjunction with the Buildings & Estates Department and academic staff. An environmental review followed.  “There were absolutely no recycling facilities for students walking on the campus”, recalls Maria Kirrane, a student representative on the committee. “In fact, our very first action was to put on overalls and literally dive into the skips to see exactly what types of waste were being disposed of!”

In addition to staff recycling systems that previously existed, new recycling facilities for students are now available in front of the lecture halls, and in the canteens, where the staff is trained in minimising waste.  Students in lecture theatres and laboratories are alerted to turn off lights and electrical equipment. College maintenance vehicles are now running on biodiesel. Carpooling has been introduced to facilitate lifts to and from campus. Enhanced Park & Ride and bike parking areas are designed to encourage more sustainable travel.  Each year the Students Union holds a Green Awareness Week on campus, where real actions are supplemented by academic talks on environmental sustainability.

 “It is quite a leap, transforming the Green-Schools programme, geared for the typical school of a few hundred students, to a complex campus of 130 acres, 16,000 students and almost 3,000 staff,” explained Dr Michael John O’Mahony of An Taisce. “In population terms UCC is bigger than your average Irish town, so bringing together all the necessary parties and practices to develop it into a sustainable Green-Campus was a real challenge.”

UCC President, Dr Michael Murphy said it is a source of great pride to the university, its staff and its students, that UCC has become the first third level institution in the world to be awarded the designation. “It is a wonderful achievement to have innovative thinkers among the staff and students in UCC all working towards the same objective. 

“It was these students, who had been part of the Green Flag programme at secondary school level, who believed from the outset that the concept could be transferred successfully to an institution of UCC’s size and that by raising awareness throughout the university, we could, together, make a real difference.”

Mark Poland, Director of Building and Estates, added: “This initiative has provided a great forum for environmentally-conscious members of staff and students to assist in how we tackle our environmental responsibilities as a university community.”

An Taisce, on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), granted the international accreditation after a rigorous assessment by an expert panel. UCC is now looking to build on the award. “We’d like to make it easier for students to cycle to college, possibly through a bike purchase scheme”, says Maria Kirrane. “Also, while UCC is a beautiful campus, many of the plants here are non-native.  We’re looking to address biodiversity on campus.”  In addition a programme to convert the college food waste into compost has commenced.

“There is a wide of range of environmental management programmes that a third level college could undertake. However, the Green Campus programme is unique because it is student-led and they are the key decision makers,” says Jan Eriksen, President of FEE. A number of other 3rd level institutions in Ireland will be applying for a Green-Flag shortly.

"it is critical that the chain not be broken"“This is about more than making a campus green”, continues Michael John.  “Over the past 14 years, hundreds of thousands of students in Ireland have been brought up with Green-Schools, sometimes starting at pre-school, through primary schools and then second level.  It is critical that the chain not be broken once they complete the Leaving Cert.  It needs to continue into 3rd level, and from there into their professional as well as their personal lives so that they become life-long educators and ambassadors of sustainable living.”

This story was originally published on the University College Cork website.