An Irishman's Diary on Jan Łukasiewicz, Polish professor of logic

Jan Łukasiewicz came to Ireland in March 1946 at the invitation of the then Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera. Łukasiewicz was a talented mathematician and philosopher who, like so many of his compatriots, had experienced great hardship during the Second World War.

I have just written an Irishman's Diary in the Irish Times newspaper about his life in Poland and his time in Ireland. Read it here.

Colour photograph of Jan Łukasiewicz. Image source.

Łukasiewicz was the man who introduced mathematical logic into Poland. For more information on Łukasiewicz and the impact he had on his field, I recommend that you read the entry on him in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It retraces his life in Poland and shows the part he played in the areas of logic, philosophy and mathematics. Read it here.

Plaque outside home where Łukasiewicz lived on Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin, Ireland.

Headstone in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland. Thanks Brian.

Martyn Turner cartoon exhibition in University College Cork, Ireland.

'The Times We Live In: Martyn Turner's Satire'

I was delighted to see this exhibition of cartoons by Martyn Turner in University College Cork (UCC) recently. The exhibition was previously on display in the Epic Emigration Museum in Dublin. It shows drafts of cartoons by Turner, whose work has appeared in the Irish Times newspaper for the last 45 years.

You can get so much into a cartoon and say things more concisely than you ever could in an article. The real beauty of political (or editorial cartoons as they are sometimes called), is that you are not as restricted as you might be when using text to get your message across to your audience. 'You can draw implicitly what you cannot say explicitly', as someone once said.

Seeing these drafts is great because you can see where he made changes as the work progressed. You can see things rubbed out and redrawn or names or words changed. Below are some of Turner's cartoons that were on display in UCC. I have selected a small number of them, but as you can see, he covers a wide range of subjects from the environment and housing to politics, international relations and everything in between.

When thinking of contemporary political cartoonists, I like the work of Patrick Chappatte, whose cartoons appear in a number of magazines and newspapers including, Der Spiegel and Le Temps. Below is one of Chappatte's award-winning cartoons from the New York Times.

Cartoon by Patrick Chappatte. Source: New York Times.

I also like the French review Revue XXI, which is like a newspaper, except instead of giving you the news and telling you stories with text and images, it uses cartoons. Cartoonists present us with stories from around the world.

Reveu XXI is reminiscent of grand reportage articles that appeared and still appear in French newspapers, where a grand reporter journalist will travel to a country where a news story is developing and send back a colourful article full of the flavour and taste of what they find on the street.

In any one edition of the review, you could find wildly different styles of cartoon and stories from all over the planet. It's well worth checking it out, if you haven't already.

Image from a story in Revue XXI by Jeff Pourquié. Source: Revue XXI.

'Writing the Troubles' Blog - my post.

Photograph taken from the 'Writing the Troubles' blog.

The Northern Ireland 'Troubles' (1968-1998) claimed over 3,500 lives and left many more maimed or scarred for life. It grabbed headlines in Britain, Ireland and around the world because of the shear scale of the killings, bombings and attacks and the length of the conflict.

I have just written a blog post on the Writing the Troubles blog about foreign reporting of the Troubles. Read it here.

An Irishman's Diary on the Léon XIII

In October 1907, the village of Quilty in Co. Clare, Ireland was the scene of a dramatic maritime rescue. The three-masted Nantes registered ship, Léon XIII, was bringing grain from Portland, Oregon to Limerick, when tragedy struck. A violet storm caused the ship's rudder to break, for the ship to be blown off course and to run aground and breakup.

The twenty-two French crew on board were rescued by a combination of a British Navy ship and currachs. Local fishermen from Quilty braved the elements and rowed their open currachs into the storm to rescue the sailors who had taken refuge in the rigging of the ship. I have just written an Irishman's Diary in the Irish Times newspaper about the rescue and the story of the Léon XIII. Read it here.

The legacy of the rescue and the Léon XIII is visible in Quilty to this day. See below photographs of items on display in the local church Stella Maris (Star of the Sea), which was built with money raised after the rescue.

Lifebuoy from Léon XIII.

Bell from Léon XIII

In 2011, 100 years after the church was completed, 17 new stained glass windows were installed. Below, you can see some of the new windows, which tell the story of the rescue of the sailors of the Léon XIII by the local fishermen.

The Irish Revolution - TV show

'The Irish Revolution' has just been broadcast on Ireland's state broadcaster, RTE. This three part tv series is based on the award-winning book, The Atlas of the Irish Revolution, which was published by Cork University Press.

Cover of the Atlas of the Irish Revolution from Cork University Press.

As a contributor to the Atlas, I was invited to attend a reception and a preview screening of programme no 2 in the Cork Opera House. I was very impressed by the programme, which was really put together well.

It presents all the facts about this turbulent time in Irish and world history and it does so with insights from some of the best-informed historians of today with archival footage and stunning photography of the Irish landscape. Check it out for yourself on the RTE Player.

The view I had during the preview screening in Cork Opera House.

An Irishman's Diary on Basil Zaharoff

Sir Basil Zaharoff (1849-1936) rose from extremely humble origins to become one of the world's wealthiest men. I have just written an Irishman's Diary in the Irish Times newspaper about his life and times. Read it here.

Photograph of Basil Zaharoff. Image source: Gallica

After making his fortune from arms dealing, Zaharoff bought the Chateau de Balincourt outside Paris and lived there. In an effort to remain anonymous and guard his privacy, he reportedly bought up all the postcards he could that featured an image of the house. Find out more about this enigmatic character who spent his lifetime covering up his past here.

Image was important to Zaharoff. He wanted to be associated with philanthropy and not with arms and munitions, where he actually made his money. To this end, he made donations to prestigious universities in the UK, France and elsewhere. In the Sorbonne University in Paris, the 'Earl Haig Chair of English Literature' was established in 1918. Meanwhile, across the Channel in Oxford University, the 'Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature' was set up. It is not clear what happened to the position in the Sorbonne, but it doesn't seem to exist anymore. The current holder of the position in Oxford is Catriona Seth. Read more about the history of these academic positions here.

Another aspect of Zaharoff's donation was the annual Zaharoff Lecture, which takes place in Oxford University. At these lectures, prominent French writers are invited to speak about their work. The 2018 lecture was given by the award-winning author, Pierre Michon.

Book review - The Building Site in Eighteenth-Century Ireland

During the eighteenth-century, the Protestant Ascendancy were stamping their mark on the physical landscape of Ireland. This was seen in the large private houses and estates that were built all around the country and in the planned estate towns such as Abbeyleix.

I have just written a book review of The Building Site in Eighteenth-century Ireland by Arthur Gibney in the peer-reviewed academic journal Irish Studies Review. Follow this link for the article.

Front cover of The Building Site in Eighteenth-Century Ireland.

The book's author, Arthur Gibney (1933-2006), was one of the leading architects of his generation. When he graduated in 1958, he went to work with Michael Scott, who had designed Busáras, the new central bus station in Dublin. Two years later, Gibney went into partnership with Sam Stephenson. Together, they were responsible for many new buildings, including the controversial ESB headquarters on Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Street, along with other office blocks around the capital. When he split from Stephenson, Gibney established his own practice where he designed new buildings but also restored historic buildings. Through these renovation and conservation projects, he gained an invaluable insight into old building techniques.

As Gibney states in the book, the eighteenth-century buildings of Ireland can be book-ended between the construction of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham (completed 1684), designed by William Robinson, and the Four Courts (completed 1802), designed by Thomas Cooley and James Gandon. Below are photographs of these two fine buildings.

Courtyard of Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

Dublin Four Courts. Image source: Wikimedia Commons