Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1997 - 2005 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
3 boxes : 14 folders, 7 books, 4 pamphlets, 5 postcards, 1 CD-ROM, 50 photographs, 1 photographic slide, 1900pp.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Mary Mulvihill (1959-2015) was an award-winning science journalist, broadcaster and author. Born in Dublin, Mary was awarded a degree in genetics in 1981 from Trinity College, where she was elected a Scholar in Natural Science in 1979. She obtained a master’s degree in statistics from Trinity College in 1982 and later completed a master’s in science communication from Dublin City University. A pioneer of science journalism in Ireland, she was also a passionate advocate of women in science and technology. Through her landmark publication, Ingenious Ireland (2002, 2019) she made a lasting contribution to our understanding of Ireland's scientific, ecological, and industrial heritage. Now in its second reprint, Ingenious Ireland earned Mary the Irish National Science and Technology Journalist of the Year 2002-03 award. She devised and presented several popular science series on RTE 1 and Lyric FM, and she was a longstanding contributor to the Irish Times, where she had a monthly column. As co-editor of Technology Ireland magazine, she also helped launch the careers of many young science journalists who followed her into the profession.
Mulvihill’s career in journalism followed four years as a research officer at the State agricultural research institute An Foras Talúntais, now Teagasc. She very soon found an unique way of writing and speaking that lent her work in print and in broadcast media a very particular style. Contemporary reviewers noted that she was assured and authoritative without being didactic or dogmatic. She had a learned curiosity of science that readers and listeners found inviting and engaging. Mary’s mission to highlight women’s role in science led to her joining in the formation of Women in Technology and Science (WITS) in 1990. Her particular interest in women’s historical contributions to science is reflected in her editing, on behalf of WITS, two collections of biographical essays on Irish women scientists and pioneers – Stars, Shells and Bluebells (1997) and Lab Coats and Lace (2009). In 2010 she started the science media company, ‘Ingenious Ireland’, to make more people aware of the country’s scientific heritage.
Part of this educational outreach was offering walking tours and audio guides to her native Dublin, as well as to national sites of ecological and archaeological interest. Mulvihill was also a member of the Irish Council for Bioethics, a council member of the Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland, and in 2014, she was named as one of Silicon Republic’s 100 Top Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). Mary Mulvihill died on 11th June 2015, following a short illness. In 2020, Dublin City University awarded her a posthumous honour for Outstanding Achievement in Societal Impact. She is survived by her husband Brian Dolan and her sisters Anne and Noirin Mulvihill.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Large file of material covering Dublin City and County. Includes: Annotated books by Elizabeth Healy, The River Gods (Dublin, 1998), Edward McParland, The Custom House, Dublin (Dublin,1991) and a pamphlet on Trinity College Dublin from the Irish Heritage Series (Dublin, 1979). A profile and history of the Poolbeg Generating Station and other information from the ESB (Electricity Supply Board).
Annotated biographical information on William Molyneux (1656-1698), a Dublin-born writer on science, politics and natural philosophy, information on the development of gasworks in Ringsend, a Press Release from 2001 publicising a commemoration of George Francis Fitzgerald (1851-1901), academic and physicist who served as Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, a letter from Anne-Marie Diffley (25 April 1997), to Mulvihill, enclosing information about the scientific heritage of Trinity College, most notably within the College’s Geology Museum and Weingreen Museum and annotated information about Chester Beatty (1875-1968) and the formation of his library in Dublin Castle.
A folder of information from Guinness/Diageo describing the technological changes of the brewery over several centuries,
annotated pamphlet and booklet from the School of Cosmic Physics, a faculty within the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, as well as a booklet and annotated pamphlets from the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal Irish Academy. An Annotated lecture by John Lucey entitled Encounters with Nature. This lecture was part of the Royal Irish Academy’s History of Science seminar on 27 Sept. 2013. Mulvihill’s notes accompany the print-outs.
Written notes and other information about William Rowan Hamilton, the Dublin-born mathematician, astronomer, and physicist who helped establish Dunsink Observatory. There is also accompanying material about that the Observatory itself, annotated research material about Fingal, including Malahide Castle and historical farming practices within the same area.
A letter from Nathalie Morgado, from the Musee Des Arts et Metiers in Paris (22 June 2000), to Muvihill, supplying information on Lucien Bull, a pioneer in chronophotography. Bull was born in Dublin but lived most of his life in France.
Information on the scientific development of Dublin Zoo, a letter from Roderick Kernan, Emeritus Professor of Physiology (25 Sept. 2003), to Mulvihill, sharing his insights on scientific developments in Ireland over the previous 50 years, correspondence and a completed questionnaire from the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (April 3 1997), to Mulvihill, annotated information and published material about the history of printing in Dublin as well as correspondence and historical information from Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown Heritage Centre.
A letter from Tom Wall, Telecom Eireann Museum (4 March 1999), to Mulvihill, enclosing photocopies of some the museum’s exhibits, CD-ROM from Marsh’s Library and monochrome photographs of the development of the Ringsend Gasworks site and of Dunsink Observatory.