Post by Séamus on Sept 24, 2019 12:18:54 GMT
As the world focuses on what's arguably the greatest performance coming out of Sweden since Greta Garbo or Ingrid Bergman,it might be worth bringing up the 150th anniversary of the death of a quieter scientifically-minded young lady- Offlay-born Mary Ward. Strangely,one headline to an article marking the anniversary read 'Feminist Icon Who Became Famous as the First Person to be killed in Car Accident'. It was actually a vehicle still evolving from the steam-engine,so the definition is a bit broad. Her feminism is also hard to define in 2019- she gave birth to eight children and only wrote up her research notes late at night when the eight were tucked up in bed. The article states that 'Irish universities accepted few female students' which asumedly means this wouldn't have been impossible for someone who talked her way into being the only lady to enter Royal Observatory in Greenwich in 1862. Ward is of interest also as having connection with iconic parts of Irish history- Leviathan Telescope,when the world's largest,Birr Castle,as well as,for better or worse, being related to the AngloIrish gentry (the Earl of Rosse owned the steam-car whose wheel she was entangled under). Her study on plants,insects and stars are probably superceded today but it's always a reminder of the shoulders that others stand on.
I recently read an account of naturalists,Irishmen and cars coming to a gentler fusion a century later when the team of BBC's Zooquest visited remote Arnhem Land in Australia around 1960,specifically a town named Borroloola populated by four men who seemed to hardly talk,even to each other. Irish-born Jack Mulholland was living in what had been a hotel (he had had three customers during the ten years that he had run it as such). When asked whether his 1928 Pontiac still worked he took offence,immediately lifting it on a jack,the starter handle being long gone,grabbed and turned the front wheels until there was a loud roar and,engine being put in neutral,down came the jack again.
I'm not sure that there was anywhere to drive to,but one wonders how men of science can attribute characters like that to blind evolution
I recently read an account of naturalists,Irishmen and cars coming to a gentler fusion a century later when the team of BBC's Zooquest visited remote Arnhem Land in Australia around 1960,specifically a town named Borroloola populated by four men who seemed to hardly talk,even to each other. Irish-born Jack Mulholland was living in what had been a hotel (he had had three customers during the ten years that he had run it as such). When asked whether his 1928 Pontiac still worked he took offence,immediately lifting it on a jack,the starter handle being long gone,grabbed and turned the front wheels until there was a loud roar and,engine being put in neutral,down came the jack again.
I'm not sure that there was anywhere to drive to,but one wonders how men of science can attribute characters like that to blind evolution
