| 2005 |
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YEAR BOOK |
History of Science
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Nothing new under the sun (unfortunately)
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In an article in The Sunday Business Post on 14 August 2005, the Emeritus President of the University of Limerick, Dr Edward Walsh, wrote:
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Our indigenous enterprise is weak and lacking in research, innovation and marketing capabilities�. What should be done? A lot. But two areas are of prime importance: reasserting Ireland's pro-enterprise disposition and transforming the Irish educational system to meet the demands of the evolving knowledge society.
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When I read this, I was researching the life and achievements of a singular Irishman, Sir Robert Kane (1809�1890), and it struck me that Kane could just as well have written this some 160 years ago. For Kane, at the time in the employ of the Royal Dublin Society, and who is best known as the author of the 1844 book The Industrial Resources of Ireland , was also a passionate advocate of the 'reasserting [of] Ireland's pro-enterprise disposition', and, just as passionately, Kane stressed the importance of scientific and technical education in achieving this.
In his evidence to a Commission on the Science and Art Department in Ireland in 1869 (in the days when 'Art' referred to the 'useful', i.e. mechanical, arts) Kane objected to the overwhelming presence of the classics in the then school system, and to the low status given to science. A few schools had obtained the services of 'some person of rather inferior or of no position' who would visit and 'exhibit little experiments'. He commented that this:
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teaches the elements of science as if it were made up of little trifling fireworks and bits of experiments and explosions and so forth, divesting it of its gravity and of the seriousness by which its real importance ought to be marked from the very commencement. The boy afterwards goes out into the world with the idea that the whole universe rolls upon Latin and Greek, and that such things as the steam engine and the electric telegraph are mere toy play; but he finds that in practice it is quite the reverse, that the great chemical and physical and geological occupations of mankind are what really rule.
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He was also a strong advocate of modern languages, pointing out that a knowledge of French and German were particularly necessary for scientists.
While Kane was by no means anti what we now call the humanities (he was translating Ivanhoe into Spanish at his death � and I, for one, regret that our students are no longer taught Latin), he appreciated that we needed people who were trained also in science and engineering in order to advance our economy. The same message applies to-day.
Can our legislators take note, so that the then equivalent of Kane and Walsh in the year 2160 will not need to make the same comment?
If you want to know more about Kane and many other Irish scientists, then read the history chapter in the book Science and Ireland � Value for Society, reviewed on page 12 of this Year Book. Contact: Charles Mollan: E-mail: [email protected]