Subject: [HM] De Valera and Irish mathematics
From: Eduardo Ortiz (e.ortiz@ic.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Feb 07 2000 - 04:33:28 EST
> Re: Eamon de Valera and Mathematics in Ireland
Dear Prof. Harper,
In my view, de Valera played an important role in the development of
contemporary mathematics and theoretical physics in Ireland. This was,
mainly, through the creation of the Institute for Advanced Studies, an
extraordinary research center, modelled on Princeton's institute. Research,
and not teaching, was the main duty of the Institute's members. Their
contribution to teaching was understood to be through the advanced training
of research scientists, usually postdoctoral fellows. One of its sections
was Theoretical Physics. Schroedinger was its first director. Visiting
fellows included Eddington, Born, Dirac, Lichnerowicz, Coxter, Heitler,
Synge, Lanczos and many others leading scientists. Some visitors, in
particular, Synge and Lanczos, later became permanent Senior Professors.
Heitler was Schroedinger's assistant. A substantial amount of original
research has emerged from the work of the Institute.
When Schroedinger exiled himself in Rome, to keep a distance with the
Nazis, he created a problem to the Pontificial Academy of Sciences, where
he moved. This was resolved by his displacement to Dublin. De Valera, then
already an eminent figure in the field of international organizations, was
instrumental in this process.
There is a strong mathematics and physics heritage in Ireland, besides
Hamilton towering figure. Nevertheless, it was a bold decision to create
there a research institute on the exact sciences in 1940. By then, the war
was affecting deeply the already strained Irish economy. Theoretical
physics was not yet a saleable commodity, as it was for some decades after
1945. Therefore, it was not easy to explain the benefits the Irish may
receive from such institute, and there was already the problem of
duplication of facilities at Catholic and Protestant universities.
One of the arguments used at all levels to get Schroedinger to Dublin, was
that modern physics was really Hamilton's physics. The building given to
the Institute's School of Theoretical Physics, in Merrion Square (facing
Oscar Wilde's family house) was called Teach Hamilton (Hamilton House.)
But, although Hamilton's traditions played a role at a certain level of the
discussions, I am sure there was far more than that in the efforts of the
Irish government to create a world first class science institute in Dublin.
Clearly prestige was a reason. But, the idea of promoting the future of
Ireland through a dramatic rise of educational standards seems to me to
have been clear to many Irish politicians by the late 1930s. If this was
the case, the Ireland of today suggests they were not lacking in imagination.
The Irish government repeatedly appealed to invitations of foreign
scientists-in-distress to move to the Institute. As other emerging
countries at the time, Ireland wisely used to its own benefit the impact of
Nazism (and later of MacCarthyism) on world class scientists. It also made
some efforts to resettle in Ireland distinguished Irish mathematicians,
such as John Synge, who became an Institute director. It is important to
remember that perhaps the majority of those absorbed, were not Catholics.
Although de Valera's government seems to have done something positive for
higher mathematics, a more thorough study of this may be required. Ireland,
as other emerging countries in Europe and outside it, could not keep its
own scientists, who sadly continued to emigrate until recent times. It
would also be interesting to evaluate the impact of these efforts on
mathematics in Ireland at other, less advanced levels. Particularly, on the
development of elementary mathematics teaching, on the promotion of science
at secondary schools, and on the scholarships policy generally.
Last year I read, at Harvard University, some interesting correspondence
between de Valera and Georges D. Birkhoff concerning the development of the
exact sciences in Ireland. It was exchanged a few years after the creation
of the Institute. There is there a discussion on Hamilton's work, and on
the future of astronomy in Ireland. The Institute, it must be said,
acquired also a section on Cosmic Physics. This is an area where the
Jesuits did a considerable amount of work from the last decades of the
nineteenth century until, at least, the Second World War. The exchanges
between Birkhoff and de Valera were related to the Royal Irish Academy
celebrations of the centenary of quaternions, in 1943. Birkhoff had
received the Pont. Acad. of Science prize, and was a foreign member of the
Royal Irish Academy; he was not a Catholic.
I never saw de Valera at Trinity College's Mathematics Seminar, and I think
it would have been a bit too relaxed for him to appear informally at
Trinity College at the time. But he did so most Wednesdays, attending the
Institute's own Seminar, in Merrion Square. This was a neutral place where
mathematicians and theoretical physicists from the Institute, Trinity, the
Catholic UCD (University College Dublin), and some other institutions in
the Dublin area, mixed in a friendly, open, atmosphere.
Clearly, de Valera wished to show his backing of the Institute's work,
which was essential for its survival in these years. He may have also
wished to reaffirm his support of the idea of having in Ireland
high-culture open spaces, away from the tensions that existed then at other
levels of society. In the early sixties (he was then the President of
Ireland and the country's best known patrician figure) he used to walk from
his office, through Dublin's city center accompanied only by his personal
assistant. (He said he needed him because of his poor sight.)
I cannot judge on de Valera's politics, but at a personal, human, level, I
have fond memories of him. At that level he showed to have a warm
character, and to be genuinely concerned with the progress of mathematics
in Ireland. At the Institute he was equally friendly and informal with
professors and young postdoctoral fellows, like me, as with the
participants to the Institute's Seminar; the latter belong to a variety of
denominations.
On one occasion he met Prof. Lanczos, with whom I was, at Grafton Street;
they had a chat and the promise of a cup of tea at the Institute, or at one
of the Grafton Street stores, to continue the discussion. I have never seen
(and probably will never see) such informality in a leading politician of
any other country.
Finally, I feel one should write "de Valera," as it is a Spanish name. I
understand Eamon's father was a Spaniard working in America; his mother was
Irish.
(You may find a few more details in my paper: "Lanczos and the Institute
for Advanced Studies in the Sixties," Comp. and Math. with Applic., I,
1975; and in a paper on Lanczos's I wrote for the Complete Works, just
published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which I have not seen in
print yet. The excellent book on Schroedinger, by Moore, Cambridge, 1989,
is a must; it is a most valuable source of information on theoretical
physics in Ireland around the 1940s.)
Best,
Eduardo
-------------------------
Prof. Eduardo L. Ortiz
Mathematics Department
Imperial College
London SW7 2BZ, England
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