Irish Mathematical Meteorologists: July 2026

01. Geophysicist and meteorologist Leo Pollak (1888-1964) was born 23 Sep in Prague, Czechoslovakia, and was educated at the univ there (PhD 1910).  His thesis on "The Duration and Intensity of Sunshine on the Douneuberge near Mileschau" was done under Rudolf Spitaler.  His career had three phases: at the Geophysical Inst Prague (1911-1939), at the Irish Met Office (Oct 1939-1947), and at DIAS (1947-1963).  In 1950, he was co-author of the second edition of Victor Conrad's book, Methods in Climatology.  He was a pioneer in data processing and sounded early alarms about global warming.

Wikipedia / IEEE / 

02. Mariano Doporto (1902-1964) was born 18 Jan in Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain, and was educated in physics at the Centra Univ Madrid (1923).  He first worked at the met office in Madrid (1924-1927) and then as director of the Igeldo Met Obs in San Sebastian (1927-1937?).  He came to Dublin in Nov 1939 to join the fledgling Irish Met office, and served as its director from 1948 until his death in 1964 

Wikipedia / Tiruel / Bio / Passport / 1943 / 1945 / 1960 

03. Ignatius Lambert (1903-1976-??) was born in Wigan to an Irish mother, and was educated at first at Liverpool (BA 1924).  Moving to Dublin to study Irish, he got a Celtic Studies BA from UCD in 1930.  Liverpool MSc 1935?  PhD later?  Career Dun Laoghaire VEE 1930- / Irish Met service Mar 1940-1955-???. the first 4 years at Valentia.  DSc 1976   very active in piping circles.

In 1931, he applied for a position in the Irish dept at UCC.

1955 / 1976 

04. Austen Nagle (1903-1984) was born 1 Nov in Birmingham, and was educated at Imperial College (MSc).  He worked in the British met office 1927-1938.  He was the founding director of the Irish Met Service (Dec 1936-1948).  He spent the rest of his career at the US Weather Bureau in Washington (1948-1973).

05. Sean/Shane Tierney (1910-1987) was born 20 Jan in Derry city, and was educated at UCD (BA & BSc 1929).  He taught at St Columb's in Derry for a while, before having a long career in the Met service (Jan 1939-1977), running CAFO on its founding in 1961, and rising to the rank of assistant director in 1964.  He was then very active in international marine meteorology.  He In 1982, he became the first president of the Irish Met Society.

1911 Census / IMS / 1949 / 2001

06. Barney McNamee, (1911-1968) was born 10 Mar in Forkhill, Armagh, halfway between Crossmaglen and Newry. He was educated at UCD (BSc 1934, MSc 1935?).  He spent 3 decades at the Met office (Mar 19409-1968), including spells on Valentia (in a tent), Shannon and Dublin airport.

Obit1 / Obit2

07. John Harding (1911-1983) was born 22 December in Belfast, and was educated in physics at TCD (BA 1934, MSc 1936).  He spent over 35 years in the British meteorology service (1936-1973), including a spell (1937-1939) "on loan" at Foynes. 

Obit

08. Agnes Chambers (later Nash, 1912-2001) was born 28 Jul in Downpatrick, Down, and was educated at QUB (BA 1933).  She worked for the British met service (1944-??), before marrying in 1950.

09. Sean McWilliams (1912?-1984) was born in Athy ?, Kiidare, and was educated at Maynooth (BSc 1935).  He then taught for a few years.  Following training at Foynes, the rest of his career (1939-1977??) was spent in the Met service.  From 1944 on, he was at Valentia observatory, which in time he directed.

2001

10. Vincent Guerrini (1912-2000?) was born 12 Aug in Dublin, and was educated at UCD (BSc 1933, MSc in physics by thesis under JJ Nolan 1934).  NUI TS 1934. He did additional postgrad work in Germany?.  May 1938 sailed Bremen to Ireland, listed as student.  He worked as a radiation physicist at the North Staffs Royal Infirmary 1938-1939?   Irish Met service Jul 1940-1958? , Shannon, 1951 flew to NY/ Chili -1959-1961-?? Bolivia 1962-1965 paraguay

  married 1940 (as an engineer) Wife Peg was born 1909 in Meath

 son Brian born 1948 in Limerick.  sons Vincent and Owen too

1953

11. Fred Dixon (1913-1988) was born 27 Mar in Oundle, near Peterborough, England, and was educated at Cambridge (BA 1934).  In 1936, he joined the British Met Service, and in Mar 1939 moved to the fledgling Irish service at Foynes.  In 1940 he was posted to Dublin, and in 1956 to Rosslare.  Back in Dublin, he subsequently headed up Dublin airport forecasting (1963–1964), CAFO (1964–1975) and the climatological division (1975–1977).

DIB / Photos / 1975 Video / Stamps / 2001

12. Austin Bourke (1913-1995) was born 4 May in Dungarvan, Waterford, and was educated at first at UCC (BSc 1933, MSc 1934).  He lectured there for 5 years before joining the brand new Irish Met Service, where he worked for 4 decades (Jan 1939-1978), rising to the position of director.  Along the way, he did a PhD in UCC in 1965 on "The Potato, Blight, Weather, and the Irish Famine", reflecting his expertise in agrometeorology and plant biometeorology.  NUI awarded him an honorary DSc in 1973.

Bio1 / Bio2 & Chess / 1953A / 1953B / 2001 

13. Con Gillman (1914-1990) was born 9 Jun in Curraduff, west of Newmarket, Cork, and was educated at UCC (BSc 1935, MSc physics 1937).  After a brief period teaching maths, at St Brendan's in Killarney, his career was spent in the Met service (Mar 1940-1982).  He started at Foynes and Rineanna (later Shannon), then moved to Dublin in 1962, while sometimes commuting to work in Rosslare!  The final 3 years were spent at Baldonnel.

Weather / Book Collector / Obit / Grave

14. Hugh (Barney) Doherty (1915?-1993--) was born in Derry and was educated at QUB (BA 1936).  His whole career was spent at the Met office (May 1940-1980).   He started in Foynes.  Dublin airport

Jabberwocky / 1977 / 

 parents Frank H and Kathleen

birth? death?

dead link http://edepositireland.ie/handle/2262/70481

15. Gearóid (Gerry) Granville (1915-2000) was born 2 Feb in Ballyferriter, Kerry, and was educated at UCG (BA 1937).  He worked for the Irish Met Service for 4 decades (Mar 1940-1980), rising to assistant director in 1978.  He served in various airports, and headed up long-range forecasting in Dublin starting in 1963.  He took a leave in the 1950s to work with Jerome Namias at the US Weather Bureau in Washington, DC.

16. W Arthur Morgan was born in Wales    MSc  died relatively young 

2001

17. Paul R Brown (1916-1960s??) was born in Hendon.   MSc  His time with the Met service was short: Jan 1941 to Nov 1944.

died relatively young 

2001

18. Leslie Leech (1916-2001) was born 16 Jul in Dublin, and grew up there, briefly in Toronto, and then in Belfast.  He was educated at QUB (BSc physics 1938).  His entire career was spent in the Irish Met service (Jan 1939-1982), where in time he became head of forecasting at Dublin airport, and finally head of climatology.  

1985 / 2001

19. Kilian Rohan (1916-1999) was born 31 Jul in Ballina, Tipperary, across the Shannon from Killaloe, Clare. He was educated at UCD (BA 1938, MA 1939), then spent 4 decades (Mar 1940-1981) in the Met Office, where he rose to the rank of director (1978-1981) and authored 2 books.  He was head man at Shannon 1948-1970.

Death / Bio / IT / Books / 1952 / 1957 

20. John Willie O'Byrne (1919?- )

1957 

21. Jim McMonagle (1919-2011) was born 1 Aug in Altaghaderry, Killea, Donegal, right across the border from Derry, where he went to school.  He was educated at UCD (BA 1940, MA 1941, BSc 1942).  Most of his career (Feb 1945-1980?) was spent in the Irish Met office.  Dub airport

Papers / Death 

22. Declan Larkin (1920-2014) was born in Dublin and was educated in UCD (BSc, MSc).  He served briefly in the Met service (1945-1947?), before spending 4 decades at UCG (1947-1986).

Career / RIP 

23. Donal Linehan (1923-2006) was born 16 Nov in Cork city and was educated a5C (BE in civil eng 1944, BSc 1945).  His entire career was spent in the Met office (1946-1988).  He specialised in aviation forecasting, mostly at Shannon, but also setting up the Cork airport forecasting office in the second half of the 1960.  In 1975, he moved to the main office in O'Connell St in Dublin, playing a major roll in the design of the Met office's Glasnevin HQ.  He served as director (1981-1988).

Bio / Obit 

24. Bill Wann (1925-2011) was born 2 Jan in Dublin and was educated at TCD (Scholar 1945, BA 1946, MSc in CS 1964). His entire career was spent in the Met office (1947-1990), rising to the rank of assistant director in 1980.  His career included periods at both Dublin (1949-1961) and Shannon (early 1960s) airports.  In 1965, back in Dublin, he pioneered the application of computers to weather forecasting in Ireland, and continued to play a leadership role there as that focus expanded considerably in the decades to come.  For six months in 1988-1989 he was acting director.

Splanc Obit (Declan Murphy) / IT / RIP 

25. Thaddeus (Ted) Kelly (1926-1991) was born 26 Dec in Ballintoy, Antrim, and grew up near Coleraine, in Derry.  He was educated at UCD (BA 1947, MA 1949) and was in the Met office in Shannon 1961.

Grave

26. Tim Cronin (1927-2006) was born in Cork and was educated at UCC (BSc 1950, MSc 1951).  He was  joined the Met office in 1952, working in both Shannon and Dublin airports.  He  lectured for 30 years in Bradford Univ (1962-1992), and published the books Mathematical Topics for Engineering and Science Students (1971) and Elementary Calculus (1976).

Obit

28. George Kelly (1927-2009) was born 22 or 23 Jul in Dublin, and joined the Met service young, serving in Valentia, Foynes, Midleton, and Shannon (1945-1959).  Along the way he earned a BA from UCC (1952).  He followed that up later with an MA (1961) by thesis ("A Survey of Some Numerical Weather Prediction Methods") and a PhD (1967), both under Paddy Quinlan.  His doctorate was on "The Lambda-method for Linear Boundary Value Problems".  He then joined the maths physics staff at UCC (1967-1991), in due course becoming dept head.

30. Cormac O'Connor (1928-1998) was born 12 Feb in Limerick and grew up there and in Clare.  He was educated at UCD (BSc 1949).  His career was spent in forecasting in the Met office (1950-1988), mostly at Shannon and Cork airports.  In retirement, he wrote the "Weather Watch" column for the Irish Examiner 1997.  He was also a painter.

1959 / 1964 / 1970 / 1986 / Obit

31. Frank O'Carroll (aka Proinnsías Ó Ċearḃail, 1928-2000) was born 24 Mar in Dublin, and was educated at first at UCD (BSc 1949, MSc when?).  He started his career in the Met office ( -1955-1957- ), then lectured at Kevin St (1960-1961), and later worked as head of stats in An Foras Talúntais (-1962-1964-).  The rest of his career was spent at BP Research in London ( -1966-1984-).  He did a PhD on "Price Determination and Economic Mechanisms in the European Oil Industry" under RJ Deam in 1974 at Queen Mary College.  

1955 / 1957 / 1962 / 1964 / 1967 / 1977 / 1984 / Irish fonts / Grave

32. Paddy Lyons (1929-2024) was born in Schull, Cork, and was educated at UCC (BSc 1949?) .  Met office ??-1993?  he rose to become the head at Shannon, and finally head of aviation.

RIP 

33. Charlie Daly (1929-2000) was born 11 Jan in Dublin, and grew up in Drogheda and Dundalk, Louth.  He was educated at UCD (1950 BSc).  His entire career was spent in the met service (1951-1993), starting at Dublin & Shannon airports.  He moved to CAFO in Dublin when it opened in 1961, and was soon a familiar sight giving TV weather forecasts.  In 1971, he returned to aviation forecasting at Dublin airport, leading that office 1982 -1987.  His final 6 years were spent back in CAFO.

Death / Obit

34. Sean Connolly (1932-2008) was born in Bruff, Limerick, and was educated at UCG (BSc1952?, MSc 1953).  His entire career was spent in the Met office (1953-1997), mainly in aviation forecasting at Shannon, rising to become head of Aviation Services.   

35. Tom Keane (1934-2016) was born 6 Dec in Kilnamona, Clare and spent his entire career in the Met service (1954-1999), first serving in  Dublin airport (1954-1956), Valentia (1956-1959) and Shannon (1959-1960).  After earning a degree at UCG (BSc 1963), he worked at Rosslare (1963-1964), back at Shannon (1964-1971), and in CAFO (1972-1979).  He then became head of the agricultural division, and finally in 1995, head of research and applications.  His 4 books include Establishment of the Meteorological Service in Ireland – The Foynes Years, 1936-1945 (from 20120.

Bio

37. Frankie Fitzgerald was educated at UCC (1954).

 retired as O/C Cork Airport 

38. John G Doyle was born in Dublin and was educated at Reading (BSc )

 Met service mid 1950s-2000ish 

/ RTE

39. Ray Bates (1940-2024) was born 24 Oct in Kilmore Quay, Wexford, and was educated at first at UCD (BSc 1962).  He joined the Met service in 1963, and a year later took leave to go to MIT, where he was awarded a PhD (1969).  His thesis on "Dynamics of Disturbances on the Intertropical Convergence Zone" was done under Jule Charney.  He returned to the Met office (1969-1987), in  time serving as forecaster, head of research, and assistant director.  Next, he worked at Goddard Space Flight Center, in Maryland (1987-1995), and finally at the Univ of Copenhagen (1995-2004).  He then had an adjunct position back at UCD.  He supervised 4 PhDs, including that of Peter Lynch below.

Met E / Bio / Papers / ResearchGate

40. Physicist Aodhagán Roddy (1941-2011) was born 15 February in Longford town, and grew up south of there in Ballymahon.  He was educated at UCG (BSc 1962, MSc in physics 1963), and at Edinburgh (PhD 1967).  His thesis on "The Formation of Condensation Nuclei in City Air, by Ultraviolet Radiation of Wavelength Greater Than 2900A" was done under G. R. Evans. Following a few years at Colodaro State, he returned to spend the rest of his career at Galway (1969-2006), where he supervised several PhD students.  He was a founding members of the Irish Meteorological Society in 1981, and served as its President for many years.

Bio / Death / Grave

41. Tony Hollingsworth (1943-2007) was born 6 Jul in Dublin, and came first in the country in his Leaving Cert (1960).  He joined the Met service (1960-1961 & 1965-1967), who allowed him time off to earn a BA from UCC (1964).  He got him PhD on "Modification of the Atmospheric Semi-Diurnal Lunar Tide by Oceanic and Solid Earth Tides" with Norm Phillips at MIT (1970).  The rest of his career was spent in Reading, first as a researcher at the university there (1971-1975), then at the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (1975-2007), becoming deputy director in 1995.  He was a pioneer in numerical weather prediction.

IT / Royal Met Soc / ECMWF / Tribute / WMO 

42. Brendan McWilliams (1944-2007) was born 7 Aug in Dublin and brought up in Waterville, Kerry (his father Sean worked at the Valentia Observatory).  He was educated at UCC (BA 1964) and soon joined the Met service, where he worked for over 30 years (1965-1998).  He started at Rosslare and Shannon, then in 1972 moved to CAFO in Dublin, and in 1978 became head of the Dublin airport office.  In the 1970s, we was a regular forecaster on television.  He got an MBA from UCD in 1987, and in 1990 became deputy director.  He finished his career with 6 years at EUMETSAT (Darmstadt). Some of his popular Irish Times "Weather Eye" columns--started in 1988--were published in two books after his death.

Wikiepedia / DIB / Obit / IT / Indo / Books

43. Aidan McDonald was born in Dublin, and was educated at UCD (BSc 1965), and Purdue Univ (PhD 1972), his thesis on "Nonlinear Realizations of SU(3) x SU(3) and the Symmetry Breaking Meson Lagrangian" being done with Peter Rosen.  He lectured in Oxford andd TCD before spending the rest of his career in research in the Met office (1977-2008?).

GoogleScholar / 1998 / 2001 / 2004 

44. Tony O'Farrell was born 28 May in Dublin, grew up there and in Templemore, Tipperary.  He was educated at first at UCD (BSc 1967), and then spent a year in the Met service at Rosslare and Shannon.  Following his UCD MSc (1969), and earning an NUI Travelling Scholarship, he went to Brown for his PhD (1973).   His thesis on "Capacities in Uniform Approximation" was done under Brian Cole.  After a postdoc at UCLA (1973-1975), he spent over 35 years as professor at Maynooth, supervising 5 PhD students, and also helping to set up the department of computer science.  His 6 books (and publishing house, Logic Press) reflect his diverse mathematical interests.  On 16 Oct 1990, he organised the first Hamilton Walk to Broom Bridge, in Dublin.

Wikipedia / Maynooth / GoogleScholar / Interview / Logic House / Hamilton Walk

41. Peter Lynch was born in Dublin and was educated at first at UCD (BSc, MSc).  He later did a PhD on "Planetary-scale Hydrodynamic Instability in the Atmosphere" under Ray Bates (TCD 1982).  A big part of his career was spent at the Met service (1971-2004), rising to the rank of deputy director.  He started as Rosslare, and moved into research in Dublin, which division he ended up heading, focussing on dynamical meteorology and numerical weather prediction.  Then, he became the first Met Éireann Professor of Meteorology at the School of Maths Sciences at UCD (2004-2011), as well as Director of the Meteorology & Climate Centre there.   He supervised 5 PhDs there, and published the book The Emergence of Numerical Weather Prediction: Richardson's Dream (2006).  In 2012, he inaugurated That’s Maths, a blog of expository and far-ranging articles on pure and applied mathematics.  Many of these also appeared in the Irish Times as a column using the same moniker.  Four books have resulted, starting with That’s Maths (subtitled “The Mathematical Magic in Everyday Life”, 2016). 

Earlier blog / UCD / Books / GoogleScholar /

00. Alan McIlveen  

00. Louis Hooper 

42. Aidan Nulty was born in Drogheda, Louth, and was educated at UCD (BSc 1972?).  His career was spent at the Met service (1978?-2010).  His 1981 PhD on ''" was done with XY.

43. Jim E. Hamilton was born in Dublin and was educated at first in physics at UCD (BSc 1974). His 1980 PhD on "Computer Simulation of the Geomagnetic Current Sheet" was done at Reading with James Eastwood (1974-1977).  His career (1977-2017) was mostly spent in research in the Met office, after 2 years of training at Rosslare, Shannon, and Dublin.  His work included development of the CHARTS plotting and graphics programs use by Met for 3 decades.  Jim also installed versions of it in many other countries from Argentina to Turkey.

IMS Bio / 1982 / 1997 

00.  Evelyn Murphy galway city/   UCG, Miami, 1979-2015?

CAFO,  first woman 1984, then Marine division,

00. John Gerry Scully loughrea,  UCG physics, (1978?-2009?).  Shannon, CAFO   TV and radio

44. Gerald Fleming was born 20 Nov in Wexford town and was educated in physics at UCD (BSc 1978, MSc by thesis 1980).  His entire career was spent in the Met service (1980-2017), becoming a well-known TV forecaster from 1985 on.

Wikipedia / Interview / Linkedin 

00. Michael Cleary was born in Tuam, UCG physics, (1978?-2010).  Shannon, CAFO   

TV, radio

45. Michael McAuliffe was born in Dublin, and was educated at UCD (BSc 1978, MSc 1979).  His entire career (1979-2010) was spent in forecasting at the Met office, and he was a familiar voice on radio.

LinkedIn/ IsoBars

50. Jean Byrne was born in Tarbert, Kerry, and her whole career was spent in the Met office (1980-2021). She started as a cadet, then was educated at TCD (BA, 1989).  She was a forecaster on TV for many years, starting in 1996.

47. Evelyn Cusack was born 3 Nov in Clonaslee, north Laois, and was educated in physics at UCD (BSc 1980, MSc).  Her entire careeer was spent in the Met service (1981-2023).  She was a regular weather forecaster on TV for 30 years (1988-2018), then became head of forecasting.

Wikipedia / Award 

48. Roland McDermott was born in Dublin and was educated at TCD (BA 1981).  He had a spell in the Met office (1983-1990?), giving forecasts on the radio.

49. Seamus Walsh was born in Dublin and was educated at TCD (BA 1981).  His entire career was spent in the Met service (1982-2020).  He worked in CAFO and rose to become head of climatology.  radio

LinkedIn / ResearchGate / 

51. Gerry Murphy was born in Magheracloone, near Carrickmacross, Monaghan, and was educated at UCD (BSc physics 1990).  He has been with the Met service since 1992, headed the Valentia office (1993-1999), then spent 2 years in agricultural meteorology in Dublin.  He has a 2001 MSc.  Since 2001, he has been at CAFO, and has become a familiar TV weather forecaster. 

Wikipedia / RTE / Carrickmacross 

52. Eoin Moran was born in Doneraile, near Mallow, Cork, and joined the Met service in 1995, and served in Valentia (1997-2007) before moving to Dublin. and was educated at the Univ of Galway (BSc, MSc). 

He became assistant director in 2011, and director in 2016.

LinkedIn / 

53. Conor Sweeney was educated in mechanical engineering at UCD (BE 1995) and TCD (PhD 2000+), his thesis on "" being done under Craig Meskell.  His career started at TCD and DIAS (2001-2003), followed by a spell in the Met office researching climate modelling (2003-2005).  Since 2007 he has been at UCD.

UCD / LinkedIn / ResearchGate / 

54. Michelle Dillon was born in Tullycrine, east of Kilrush, Clare.  She was educated at first at Limerick (BSc 1997) and DCU (MSc 1998).  After several years in IT (1998-2005), she joined the Met service, and earned another MSc (meteorology, UCD 2006).  She started out in the aviation division at Shannon, then moved into general forecasting.  Since 2016, she has been a familiar face on TV.

RTE

56. Meghan Stephens was 

57. Sarah Gallagher was born in Dublin and was educated at first at TCD (BAI 2003).  She joined the Met service in 2006, rising to head of observations in 2020.  Along the way she did an MSc in meteorology in 2011 and a PhD in fluid dynamics in 2014, both at UCD.  Her thesis on "The Nearshore Wave Climate and Wave Energy Resource of Ireland: Past, Present and Future" was done with Frédéric Dias.  

LinkedIn / Gov.ie / ResearchGate

58. Sandra Spillane was born in Thurles, Tipperary, and was educated at DIT (BSc 2003, PhD 2008) and UCD (MSc 2008). Her doctorate8 on "A Study of Boundary Layer Flow with No-slip and Slip Boundary Conditions" was done with Laurence Crane. Her whole career has been at the Met office (2007-  ).    

LinkedIn / ResearchGate / GoogleScholar 

59. Colm Clancy   -2024 now prof

60. John O'Sullivan was educated at TCD (BA 2012), UCD (MSc meteorology 2013), and Maynooth (PhD 2019).  His thesis on "Extreme Events in Calibrated Climate Models: Impacts for Ireland" was done under Andrew Parnell.  He did a 2-year postdoc in climatology at the Met office (2024-2025), before joining the CSO.

LinkedIn / Re-investigation 

61. Jack McDonnell was born in Castleblayney, Monaghan, and was educated entirely at Maynooth (BA 2013, MSc 2014, PhD 2018+). His thesis on "Predicting Grass Growth at Farm Level to Adapt to Changing and Volatile Weather Conditions" was done under Caroline Brophy & Deirdre Hennessy.  After a postdoc at the Met Service (2018-2019) he joined the staff at DKIT.  His current research focus is on modelling and visualising Gaelic football data and multi-species grassland experiments.

Orchid / DKIT / ResearchGate

62. Emily Gleeson was born in Tipperary, and was educated at first at Maynooth (BSc in phy & chem, PhD 2004), her thesis on "Single and Multi-moded Corrugated Horn Design for Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments" being done under A. Murphy.  After a spell at Intel, she joined the Met service in 2006.  After 2 years in forecasting, she moved to research in climate modelling and radiation physics.

Maynooth / TCD / GoogleScholar -