Apples and Atoms by Eilís O’Connell RHA Celebrating Ernest T.S. Walton 1903-95, Nobel Laureate
In 1932, Ernest Walton and John Cockcroft split the nucleus of a Li (lithium) atom, often termed ‘splitting the atom’. The experiment was carried out in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, England. Albert Einstein declared that their experiment was the first demonstration of his famous E=mc2 equation.
Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the experiment, Trinity College Dublin invited six artists to submit a design responding to a brief to commemorate Ernest Walton’s research achievements as well as over 30 years of dedication to science education. Eilís O’Connell’s design was selected by an interdisciplinary panel including representatives from the Walton family, the School of Physics, the College Art Collections, the students, and external visual arts professionals.
Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (6 October 1903 – 25 June 1995) was an Irish physicist and Nobel laureate. He is best known for his work with John Cockcroft to construct one of the earliest types of particle accelerator, the Cockcroft–Walton generator. In experiments performed at Cambridge University in the early 1930s using the generator, Walton and Cockcroft became the first team to use a particle beam to transform one element to another. According to their Nobel Prize citation: “Thus, for the first time, a nuclear transmutation was produced by means entirely under human control.”
I DO NOT KNOW THE THE NAME OF THE ARTWORK BUT I DO KNOW THAT THE LIBRARY IS TO BE DENAMED
Note: According to a friend that was with me when I visited the Trinity Campus “dename” is not a Scrabble valid word.
I first photographed this sculpture near the Berkeley Library back in February 2018 and I could not find any information about it or the artist. It now 2023 and I still have no information but I do have some information relating to the library.
[26 April 2023] Trinity College Dublin to dename the Berkeley Library.
The name has been judged inconsistent with the University’s core values. Trinity is to dename the Berkeley Library while adopting a retain-and-explain approach to a stained-glass window commemorating George Berkeley.
Opened in 1967, Trinity’s largest library was named in 1978 after George Berkeley, the world-renowned philosopher, and former Librarian at Trinity. Berkeley published some of his most important philosophical works while at Trinity in the 1700s. He bought slaves – named Philip, Anthony, Edward, and Agnes Berkeley – to work on his Rhode Island estate in 1730-31 and sought to advance ideology in support of slavery.
When I was at school we had an American teacher/priest who was not a George Berkeley fan claiming that the man in question had constantly complained about the laziness of “our native Irish” and suggested that this laziness might be cured by a combination of eugenics and forced labour.
If you want to be confused then I suggest that you read about George Berkeley … there is plenty of information online.
There is a complicated story relating to this sculpture by Henry Moore. The story begins when Henry Moore provided on loan one of his masterpieces, The King and Queen, to Trinity and placed it on the Library Forecourt where it remained for several years after the end of a specific exhibition. However, Moore was not at all not happy with the location because he felt that there was a conflict with the forecourt lanterns and because there was not enough sunlight on the north facing forecourt. Eventually Trinity obtained another work by Henry Moore, for which a location in Library Square was agreed and where it has remained.
Much time and effort was devoted to finding a suitable a replacement for the King and Queen and eventually a sculpture Pomodoro was permanently installed on the forecourt.
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.
His forms are usually abstractions of the human figure, typically depicting mother-and-child or reclining figures. Moore’s works are usually suggestive of the female body, apart from a phase in the 1950s when he sculpted family groups. His forms are generally pierced or contain hollow spaces. Many interpreters liken the undulating form of his reclining figures to the landscape and hills of his Yorkshire birthplace.
Moore became well known through his carved marble and larger-scale abstract cast bronze sculptures, and was instrumental in introducing a particular form of modernism to the United Kingdom. His ability in later life to fulfil large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy. Despite this, he lived frugally; most of the money he earned went towards endowing the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts.
Widely considered one of Europe’s elite institutions, Trinity is Ireland’s most prestigious university, in part due to its long and distinguished history.
Academically, it is divided into three faculties comprising 23 schools, offering degree and diploma courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The admission procedure is based exclusively on academic merit, with the college being particularly acclaimed in law, literature and humanities.
It also carries out extensive research in nanotechnology, information technology, immunology, mathematics, engineering, psychology, politics and English.
Trinity College was originally established outside Dublin’s city walls in the buildings of the outlawed Catholic Augustinian Priory of All Hallows. It was set up in part to consolidate the rule of the Tudor monarchy in Ireland, and as a result was the university of the Protestant Ascendancy for much of its history.
While Catholics were admitted from the college’s foundation, for a period graduation required the taking of an oath that was objectionable to them. In 1793 this requirement was removed, but certain restrictions on membership of the college remained, as professorships, fellowships and scholarships were reserved for Protestants.
An 1873 Act of Parliament lifted these remaining restrictions. While Catholics were not formally banned from attending Trinity from that time, Ireland’s Catholic hierarchy discouraged it. Women were first admitted to the college as full members in 1904.
The Library of Trinity College is a legal deposit library for Ireland and Great Britain, containing around 7 million printed volumes and significant quantities of manuscripts, including the Book of Kells, which arrived at the college in 1661 for safekeeping after the Cromwellian raids on religious institutions. The collection housed in the Long Room includes a rare copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a 15th-century wooden harp, which is the model for the current emblem of Ireland. The library receives more than 500,000 visitors per year, making it the most important in Ireland.
This garden is new garden is located in a newly developed square just outside the Botany Department.
HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn visited the Trinity College Campus 06 September 2014 and my two friends from Thailand were more than excited.
Thailand’s biodiversity can be considered a world heritage possession. Fifty years ago, in 1963, the ‘Flora of Thailand’ project was initiated under Thai-Danish collaboration. The aim was to produce a complete account of all the native vascular plants of Thailand. In 1985, Trinity joined this project. Since then the plant systematics research group in Trinity’s herbarium has made major contributions to the project with the discovery and publication of very many species new to science.
One of these new shrubs has recently been named Buxus sirindhorniana, in honour of Her Royal Highness. The naming of this shrub is particularly appropriate because Her Royal Highness has a life-long interest in the natural world and in the conservation and study of biodiversity. And she is a long-term advocate of sustainable development.
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