John Tyndall Celebration as part of Heritage Week 2024
This celebration of the life of John Tyndall marks the 150th anniversary of John Tyndall’s Belfast Address in 1874. Monday August 19th will be the 150th anniversary of John Tyndall’s infamous Belfast address and Carlow County Council and Carlow Tourism are celebrating with a full day of events to coincide with Heritage Week 2024.
Carlow Tourism is delighted to invite participants to a special guided walk along the picturesque River Barrow on August 19th, celebrating the life and legacy of the renowned Victorian scientist John Tyndall. This walk will be departing from the Garden of Remembrance in the centre of the village at 2 p.m., this unique event offers a chance to retrace Tyndall’s daily journey from his home in Leighlinbridge to Ballinabrannagh School, where he was inspired and mentored by his exceptional teacher, John Conwill. This guided walk offers insights into Tyndall’s formative years and the beautiful surroundings that played a crucial role in shaping his future contributions to science and the world of mountaineering. Discover the charming landscapes and stories of Tyndall’s youth on this immersive experience, ideal for history enthusiasts and nature lovers alike.
The Tyndall Way Walk from Leighlinbridge to Milford by the River Barrow will take place from 2pm – 5pm on the day. To book a place register at the following link: John Tyndall Walk – Carlow Tourism
John Tyndall was born in Leighlinbridge by the banks of the River Barrow over 200 years ago. Tyndall was a 19th century scientist, inventor, educator and mountaineer and the legacy of his career is very much in evidence to this day. As one of Ireland’s great scientists he discovered among many things the science of climate change, why the sky is blue, he developed a sterilisation method called Tyndallisation and published among the first books in English on mountaineering. Even a Peak in the Alps and a crater on the planet Mars is named in his honour.
The day begins with three free John Tyndall inspired children’s science workshops hosted in the Leighlin Parish Centre by the Tyndall National Institute, Cork City. They will host three one-hour Children’s Blue Sky Science Workshop (11am – 12pm, 12:30pm – 1:30pm and 2pm – 3pm) in the Leighlin Parish Centre where children (aged 7 – 12) will discover, like John Tyndall, why the sky is blue, the science behind this as well as rainbows and how we see colours.
To book a free place contact Fiona at library@carlowcoco.ie or 059 9129705. Do hurry as numbers for these unique workshops are limited. Join in and have fun discovering science.
The Tyndall National Institute is a research flagship of University College Cork (UCC), with a multidisciplinary community of over 600 researchers, engineers and support staff. They honoured Carlow’s John Tyndall by naming their facility after him. They are a leading European deep-tech research centre in integrated Information and Communications Technology (ICT) hardware and systems. Essentially, they carry on 21st century research inspired by John Tyndall’s 19th century experiments.
As well as the Free Children’s Blue Sky Science Workshop’s with the Tyndall National Institute, Cork, in the Leighlin Parish Centre enjoy a series of other free events throughout the day and evening.
An all-day Citizen Investigation with the Tyndall National Institute will also be taking place. Set up your own simple investigation to record the greenhouse effect, call into the Leighlin Parish Centre to collect your thermometers and report back. A Conversation Café with the Tyndall National Institute, Cork, in the Leighlin Parish Centre where you can hear about the modern uses of John Tyndall’s 19th century experiments will take place in the Leighlin Parish Centre from 5pm to 6pm and all are welcome.
At 7pm, John Tyndall: A Celebration has been organised in the Lord Bagenal Hotel including John’s Tyndall’s 1874 Belfast Address: a lecture by Dr Diarmaid Finnegan; The Belfast Address Imagined by Carlow Little Theatre Society; and for the first time in County Carlow, a recital of Prof. Gráinne Mulvey, Leighlinbridge, Tyndall inspired Piano compositions. Dr Finnegan will outline how the aim of Tyndall’s address was to tell the story of the triumph of science over all other ways of understanding or explaining nature. In Tyndall’s view, science involved a steadfast refusal to appeal to supernatural or non-material forces and systematically investigated through observation and experiment the material causes of all phenomena. Science alone had led to a better and more accurate knowledge of reality. Carlow Little Theatre will then reimagine the address through a dramatic performance.
The evening will conclude with a performance of Tyndall inspired music compositions by Leighlinbridge’s own Gráinne Mulvey, Professor of Composition at Technological University Dublin Conservatory of Music and Drama. This will be the first time Professor Mulvey’s Tyndall inspired music compositions will be performed in Leighlinbridge let alone in County Carlow. Professor Mulvey has been fascinated by Tyndall for many years with her compositions paying homage to John’s life and work by linking his scientific experiments to her music. To perform the pieces on a grand piano is one of Ireland’s leading based pianists, Dr David Bremner. David completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor Mulvey. Over the years Professor Mulvey has been the recipient of many awards, commissions and honours. RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra has commissioned many pieces compose bye her, in 2016 she composed for the Chamber Choir Ireland to commemorate the centenary of the Easter Rising 1916. Since 2010 she is a member of Aosdána, which honours artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts in Ireland. She is presently working on the production of a CD of her John Tyndall inspired compositions.
All events are free of charge.
Some notes on Tyndall:
From 1853 to 1887 John was the Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London. In 1861 he published his important paper on the absorption of heat by gases the founding paper of climate science. He was the first person to detect and explain the physical basis of the ‘Greenhouse Effect’.
In the 1860s John discovered why the sky is blue. The scattering of light from colloids in the atmosphere is known as the Tyndall Effect.
In 1861 he published ‘Mountaineering in 1861’. This book was based on his exploits in the Alps when he led the first recorded team to climb the 4,506 meters to the top of the Weisshorn.
John died on September 4th, 1893, after his wife, Louisa, accidently poisoned him by mistaking a bottle of sleeping draught for an indigestion remedy.
For further information contact John Shortall, Carlow County Council Library Service at 059 912 9705 or by email to library@carlowcoco.ie