DRAFT BLOG: All in the Family--Mathematical Genes?
What do the names Dowling, Power, Hurley, McDermott, Newell, Kennedy, Timoney and ? have in common?
They are all well-known names in Irish maths circles, and in each case there has been more than one such mathematically trained person in the same family.
Sometimes it's a father and son, sometimes father and daugher, and other times siblings. Below we survey numerous such cases, some going back a few centuries. We will keep adding to this blog, as time permits. So far, we've document N of over M known examples.
As usual, we include some people with physics and engineering leanings. Please alert us to any omissions or errors.
Last updated 23 Jul 2026.
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James Thomson (1786-1849) was born 13 November in Annaghdown near Ballynahinch, Down, and was educated at Glasgow (MA 1812). He taught at the Belfast Academical Institute (1814-1832), being awarded LLD by Glasgow (1829). He then became prof of maths there (1832-1849), where he also served as provost. His 10 books include 4 authored 4 while teaching in Belfast, and the later An Elementary Treatise on Algebra Theoretical and Practical (1844). He had 2 notable academic sons, engineer James and William (later known as Lord Kelvin, see below). Wikipedia / MacTutor / Glasgow / Ulster Bio |
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Physicist, mathematician and engineer William Thomson (aka Lord Kelvin, 1824-1907) was born in Belfast (son of James above), and grew up there and in Glasgow. He was educated at Glasgow and at Cambridge (BA as 2nd wrangler 1845). After a year in Paris, his career was spent at Glasgow (1846-1907). he did pioneering work on heat, electricity and thermodynamics. His engineering insights led to the first successful transatlantic cable. Co-authored landmark book Treatise on Natural Philosophy (1867) with Peter Tait. | |
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George Boole (1815-1864) was born 2 November in Lincoln, England. Despite being largely self taught, in 1849 he secured a job as the first professor of mathematics at Queen’s College, Cork. He died prematurely, and his extensive legacy includes Boolean algebra, which laid the foundations of the information age, and 4 books. His wife Mary and daughter Alicia (see below) also made contributions to mathematics. |
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Mary Boole (née Everest, 1832-1916) was born in Gloucestershire, England. She grew up mostly in Poissy, near Paris, and later in England. Her private education included plenty of mathematics. In time, she married George Boole, who had tutored her and was already settled in Cork as first professor of maths at Queen's College. She helped him assemble some of his landmark books, and their daughter Alice also contributed to mathematics. Following her husband's death, she moved to London where she taught and developed innovative ideas about the use of physical manipulations in strengthening "the unconscious understanding of materials learned in a classroom setting'' (e.g., curve stitching). Her numerous publications include the book Philosophy and Fun of Algebra (1909). |
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Alice Boole (later Stott, 1860–1940) was born 8 June in Cork, a daughter of George & Mary Boole. She grew up there and in London, was educated privately and never attended university. In the 1880s, she was a pioneer in the visualisation of 4-dimensional shapes, and coined the term polytope for higher dimensional analogues of polyhedra. She wrote some of the chapters on sections of 3-dimensional solids in Howard Hinton's book A New Era of Thought (1888). She married Walter Stott in 1890. Between 1900 and 1910 she published numerous papers on polytopes, and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Groningen (1914, in absensia). In the 1930s she worked with Donald Coxeter. |
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John Stevelly (1795-1868) was born 23 June in High Park, near Douglas, Cork, and was educated at TCD (BA 1817, MA 1827, LLB & LLD 1844). He first taught at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute (1823-1849), and took out some patents. He was the first professor of natural philosophy at Queen's Belfast (1849-1867). Bio / Steam Engine / Family |
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Robert Stevelly (1844-1916) was born 25 August in Belfast, Antrim, and was educated at Queen's Belfast (BA 1863) and at Cambridge (Peterhouse, BA 1868). He taught for a while at Aldenham School (Watford) before becoming an inspector of schools in England. |
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Joseph Everett (1831-1904) was born in Ipswich, and was educated at Glasgow. His career included stints at Windsor (Nova Scotia, 1859-1864) and Glasgow (1864-1867), where he worked in Kelvin's lab. He then spent 3 decades as Prof of Natural Philosophy at Queen's Belfast (1867-1897). He wrote 4 books and contributed maths to the Educational Times. His daughter Alice also pursued maths. |
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Astronomer Alice Everett (1865-1949) was born 15 May in Glasgow, and brought up in Belfast, where her father was professor of natural philosophy at Queen's College. She was educated there and at Girton: sitting the Royal University of Ireland examinations earned her a BA (1887) and her Tripos performance (1889) earned her an RUI MA the same year. She worked at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (1890-1895) and in the USA (Pottsdam 1895-1898 and Vassar 1898-1899), and much later did research back in London in optics and the engineering of early television. |
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. Engineer and mathematician John Perry (1850-1920) was born 14 Feb in Garvagh, Londonderry. He was educated at Queen's Belfast (BE & gold medal 1870, MA 1882), and his academic career included short stints in Bristol (1871-1874), Glasgow (1874-1875, with William Thomson, aka Kelvin, whom he successfully challenged on the subject of thermal conductivity), and Imperial College (Tokyo, 1875-1878) before setting down at Finsbury Technical College in 1882 and later Imperial College (1896-1913). He authored 5 books on mechanics and applied maths, including one on spinning tops. He received an honorary DSc from RUI in 1886, and an honorary LLD from Glasgow in 1901. His sister Agnes also did maths, and his nieces included pioneering early engineering graduate Alice and mathematics graduate Agnes (Molly). |
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Jim Muldowney (1939-2022) was born 25 December near Thomastown, Kilkenny, and was educated at UCG (BSc 1960, MSc 1961) and Alberta (PhD 1966). His thesis on "Analyticity and Asymptotics of Jost Functions" was done under Francis Baragar. After 2 years at Univ Oklahoma (Norman), he returned to the Univ Alberta, in Edmonton, from which he officially retired in 2009, having supervised 3 PhD students. His brother Pat (below) is also a mathematician. ResearchGate / LinkedIn / Obit |
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James Goold (1837??-??) was educated at Queen's Cork (BA 1858). Nothing is known about his career. | |
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Michael M. Gould (1839??-1888??) was educated at Queen's Cork (BA 1857). Career in India? | |
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Agnes Clerke (1842-1907) was born 10 February in Skibbereen, Cork. She was educated privately, studying mathematics, physics and astronomy at the third level in Dublin, and later in Italy. Settling in London, she published extensively, wrote numerous popular and well regarded books on the history of astronomy, and contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica on both astronomy and mathematics. Her sister Ellen also wrote about astronomy, and her brother Aubrey did maths at TCD. |
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Aubrey Clerke (1843-1923, brother of Agnes above) was born in Skibbereen, Cork, and was educated at TCD (Scholar 1862, BA & Gold Medal 1865). His career was spent as a barrister in London. |
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Michael Roberts (1817–1882, twin of William) was born 18 April in Carrigaline, Cork, and was educated at TCD (Scholar 1836, BA 1838, Fellow 1843, MA 1848, Senior Fellow 1879). He was appointed inaugural Prof of Maths at Queen's College, Galway, in 1848, but resigned before the first students arrived in 1849. He published mathematics over a several decade period, and was Erasmus Smith's Prof of Maths at TCD (1862-1879). He authored the book A Tract on the Addition of Elliptic and Hyper-Elliptic Integrals (1871). |
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William Roberts (1817–1883, twin of Michael) was born 18 April in Carrigaline, Cork, and was educated at TCD (BA 1838+, MA 1843). He was on the staff at TCD from 1841 on, serving as Donegall Lecturer in Maths (1867-1876). His sons Westropp and Ralph were also mathematicians. RALPH? JAMES? | |
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Ralph Augustus Roberts (1854-? d by 1910) was born 14 May in Dublin and grew up in Kilmoney, Carrigoline, Cork. He was educated at TCD (BA 1876, MA 1882), and taught there for a while, authoring books on conics, plane curves, and calculus. He was an army and civil servant tutor in London the 1890s. His father William and uncle Michael (twins, alove) were also TCD maths men who had been on the staff there. | |
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Edward Dowling (sometimes listed as Hughes-Dowling, 1854-1940) was born in Ballyloo, Carlow (baptised 19 June). He was educated at the University of London (BA 1873 or 1875), and then for a few years travelled and taught on the continent. He taught at St Patrick's College in Carlow in the late 1870s, and was a student at UCD in 1882, possibly earning an RUI degree. He taught maths at UCD (1884-1892), and at various secondary schools throughout Ireland for another 2 decades, also serving as inspector for the Intermediate Board in the 1890s. His brother Patrick is below, and his son John earned UCD degrees in physics and taught there for half a century. (Thanks to Ronan Malin for the photo.) |
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Patrick Dowling (1858-1922), brother of Edward above, was born 26 October in Carlow. He was educated at UCD (BA 1892), and taught elementary maths there at least 1887-1901. He also taught at Maynooth and Carysfort, and later served as registrar of the Royal College of Science for Ireland, for a while also being head of maths at the Dublin Technical Schools (and teaching at Kevin St). His first wife was John Casey's daughter Catherine (who died in 1905), and he edited or revised some 1890s editions of the geometer's books. Obit / Fund / 1901 Census / 1911 Census |
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James Hughes-Dowling (1882-1929) was born 2 April in Fermoy, Cork, and was educated at Maynooth (BA 1909). He was an inspector of schools. |
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Thomas Teegan (1857-1921) was born 16 March in Ballivelone, Enniskean, near Bandon, Cork. He was a schools inspector for the National Board of Education and later taught English and History at the Central Training College. He authored the 1887 book Elementary and Intermediate Algebra, which ran to 10 editions. His son James (1899-1967) got his PhD in physics at UCD (1937). Obit / Book / 1901 Census / 1911 Census |
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William Thrift (1870-1942) was born 28 February in Halifax, Yorkshire, England, and grew up there and in Carlow. He was educated at TCD (BA 1893, MA 1896). He was Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural & Experimental Philosophy (1901-1929), got DSc in 1936, and served as Provost (1937-1942). He was also active in politics, serving at TD several times in the 1920s-1930s. He edited the 1912 edition of Thomas Preston's Theory of Light, and was a very accomplished chess player. His sister Lily (1875-1961) below and Dublin-born brother Harry (1882-1958) did maths degrees too, that latter also working at TCD for many years. Wikipedia / Nature / Masons / 1901 Census / 1911 Census |
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Lily Thrift (later McCaw, 1875-1961) was born 2 October in Halifax, Yorkshire, England, sister of William above, and grew up mostly in Carlow. She was educated at Alexandra College, earning an RUI BA (1898). She taught for a few years then married in 1902 and moved to Armagh. (Thanks to Douglas Mobray for the photo.) |
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Henry (Harry) Kennedy (1887-1968) was born 28 January in Toor, Tippperary, south of Nenagh He was educated at UCD, first in maths science (BA 1909, MA 1910) then in physics (BSc 1911, MSc 1912, PhD 1917), winning but not using the first NUI Travelling Studentship in physics. His doctorate was awarded for previously published papers with UCD's John McClelland. He had taught maths at UCD for several years, before turning his attention to agricultural economics. From 1926 to 1963, he was secretary of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, and NUI awarded him an honorary DEcon in 1954. He was also a director of the ESB from its inception. His was father of mathematician Maurice Kennedy (1924-1994), whose career was spent at UCD.
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Maurice Kennedy (1924-1994) was born in Dublin, and was educated at UCD. His 1954 Caltech PhD on "Ergodic Theory for a Certain Class of Markov Processes" was done under Samuel Karlin. His career was spent at UCD, where he also served as registrar. His research interests included analysis, functional analysis, and point set topology. | |
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07. Mathematical physicist Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh (1933-2000) was born 11 March in Dublin, and was educated at first at UCD (BSc 1953, MSc 1956). His 1960 doctorate on "Non Local Field Theories" was done at the University of Zurich under Walter Heitler (see above). He had early stints at DIAS (1961-1963), Madras (1963-1964), Syracuse (1963-1967), and IAS Princeton (1967-1968), before settling at DIAS (1968-2000). He supervising many postgraduates and postdocs. His 5 books include Group Structure of Gauge Theories (1986). He is best known for several ground-breaking results in the application of group theory to the physics of elementary particles, notably his "no-go theorem." |
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00 Dick Timoney (1909-1985) was born 17 May in Belleek, Fermanagh, and was educated at first at UCD (BSc 1930, MSc 1931), where he earned an NUI Travelling Studentship Prize. After a year at Edinburgh, studying with E. T. Whittaker, he returned to UCD, where he served on the staff for 47 years. 1911 Census / IMS / UCD |
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00 Richard M. Timoney (1953-2019) was born 17 July in Dublin, son of longtime UCD mathematician JR "Dick" Timoney. He was educated at first at UCD (BSc 1973, MSc 1974), where he earned an NUI Travelling Studentship. His 1978 doctorate on "Bloch Functions in Several Complex Variables" was done under Lee Rubel at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His career was mostly spent at TCD, where he supervised numerous PhD and master's theses and co-authored the book Recent Advances in Operator-Related Function Theory (AMS, 2006). His research interests included several complex variables and functional analysis. Sadly, he died before a conference to celebrate his work. |
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00. Theoretical physicist Nuala Timoney was born in Dublin, where her father and grandfather were both mathematicians. She was educated at TCD (BA 2004) and at Siegan (MSc 2007, Dr rer nat 2010). Her thesis on "Robust Rotations and Coherent Quantum State with a Single Trapped Ion" was done under Christof Wunderlich. Her career started at the Univ of Geneva 2010-2016, following which she has worked for Intel in Dublin.
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Paul Hurley was born in Galway, and was educated at UCG (BSc 1995) and École Poly Féd Lausanne (PhD 2001). His thesis on "The Provision of a Low Delay Service within the Best-Effort Internet" was done under Jean-Yves Le Boudec. He worked at IBM Zurich (2013-2018) before joining the data science staff at West Sydney Univ in Australia. His interests include signal processing, medical imaging, radio astronomy, and abstract algebra. |
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James Yates (1869-1929) was born 24 February in Frankfort, Kilcormac, King's County, and was educated at TCD (BA 1891, MA 1894). His career was spent as a school inspector, including stints in Cork, Armagh, Tipperary, Louth and Dublin. Following partition, he moved to Belfast, and continued to work in education. His brother John and 3 of his children also did maths at TCD, most notably daughter Barbara. |
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Henry Yates (1908-1954) was born 5 May in Nenagh, Tipperary, and grew up there and in Belfast. He was educated at TCD (BA 1930, MA 1933), and taught there till 1933. He then worked for the English Electric Company in Rugby (1933-1944) and subsequently at the Parsons and Marine Engineering Turbine Research and Development Association in Newcastle-on-Tyne (1944-1954), dying comparatively young. |
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James, mother was Thrift James Yates (1915-1957) was born 22 October in Drogheda, Louth, and grew up there and in Belfast. He was educated at TCD (scholar 1936, BA 1938). He was in the physics dept at TCD for several year, and then moved to Cambridge.
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Barbara Yates (1919-1998) was born in 22 January in Dublin, and grew up mostly in Belfast. She was educated at first at TCD (scholar 1940, BA 1941), then lectured at QUB (1942-1945) and at Aberdeen (1945-1948). She was on the staff at Royal Holloway (1948-1984?), earning her 1952+ Aberdeen PhD on "A Difference-Differential Equation" under Edward Wright. She was the first female Irish university graduate to get a pure maths doctorate. |
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Eleanor Nevill (later Dobbs, 1917-1999) was born 28 July in Nurney, Carlow, and was educated at TCD (Scholar & BA 1940). She married Neil Dobbs above, and their grandson Neil is a mathematician (currently at UCD). Following decades in the Gold Coast, she taught at Alexandra College until 1981. Her sister below also got a maths degree. |
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Cecily Nevill (1921-2002) was born 10 July in Nurney, Carlow, and was educated at TCD (Scholar 1942, BA 1944). She taught at Royal Holloway for a while, and was then engaged in teacher training and student enrichment in both Kenya and Bath. |
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Hugh Dobbs was born 11 April in Dublin, and was educated at TCD (BA in chemistry 1970, HDip). He taught maths in school in Waterford for 35 years. His son Neil is a mathematician at UCD. | |
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Neil B. Dobbs was born 26 January in Waterford city and was educated at TCD (BA 2001) and Paris (PhD 2006+). His theseis on "Critical Points, Cusps and Induced Expansion in Dimension One" was done under Jacek Graczyk. His career so far has included positions in IMPAN Warsaw (2007-2008), Stockholm (2008-2010), IBM New York (2010-2012), Helsinki (2012-2014) and Geneva. Since 2017, he has been at UCD, where his interests include measure-theoretical behaviour of chaotic dynamical systems and the geometric properties of Julia sets. |
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00. Donal J. Hurley was born 31 March in Clonakilty, Cork. He was educated at UCC (BSc 1965, MSc 1966, Travelling Studentship Prize 1966), and at Yale. His 1970 PhD on "Existence and Properties of Class A Geodesics on Riemannian Manifolds" was done under Gustav Hedlund (1904-1993). Most of his career was spent at UCC. He co-authored the books Geometry, Spinors and Applications (Springer 2000) and Topics in Differential Geometry; a New Approach Using D-differentiation (Springer 2002). | |
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00. John P. McDermott (born 22 March in Salthill, Galway) was educated at first at UCG (BSc 1962, MSc 1963, Travelling Studentship 1963). His 1968 DPhil "On the Representation Theory of the General Linear Group" was done at Oxford under Graham Higman. After 7 years on the staff at Newcastle, he returned to UCG where he taught for over 3 decades. | |
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00. John J. McDermott (born 2 July in Galway city, son of John P. McDermott above), was educated at first at UCG/NUIG (BSc 1991, MSc 1992, Travelling Studentship Prize 1992). His 1999 PhD on "Subgroup Growth and the Plane Crystallographic Groups" was done at Bath under Geoff Smith. His career has seen him teach at UCC and work as scientific officer in computing St Andrews. He now lecures at Dundee. |
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00. Theoretical physicist Barry Spain (1914-2007) was born 18 November in Derry city, Londonderry. He was educated at TCD (BA 1936, MSc 1938, MA 1957) and at the University of Edinburgh (PhD 1939), his thesis on "A Nuclear Statistical Model with Applications to Stability" being done under Klaus Fuchs, a man who later passed nuclear secrets to Moscow. His career was spend at Imperial College (1945-1947), TCD (1947-1957), and Sir John Cass College (1957-1980). He wrote five books, including Tensor Calculus--A concise Course (1953) and Analytical Conics (1957). His son Philip is also a mathematician. |
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Philip Spain was born in Dublin and educated at Cambridge (BA 1965) and Glasgow (MA 1969, PhD 1971), his thesis on "Weak Compactness in Operator Algebras" being done under Henry Dowson. His whole career was spent at Glasgow (1967-2006). |
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Seamus (Moss) Murray (1939-1983) was born 20 July in Dublin, and grew up there and in Nenagh, Tipperary. He was educated at UCD (BA 1960, MA 1961) and was awarded an NUI Travelling Studentship Prize in 1964. He studied for a while at Caltech, and spent his career at United Aircraft, the University of Southampton, and the University of Petroleum Minerals (Dahara), dying relatively young.
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James Murray (son of Seamus above) was born in Nenagh, Tipperary, and was educated at UCD (BSc 1995, MSc 1996). His career has been spent as a quant. |
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00. Martin J. Newell (aka Máirtín Ó Tnúthail, born 30 July in Galway city, 1910-1985), was educated at UCG (BSc 1929, MSc 1930, Travelling Studentship 1930, studied quantum mechanics at St John's, Cambridge, 1930-1933 under Ralph Fowler. After 2 years teaching at St Michael's in Listowel, he spent the rest of his career at UCG. He was appointed prof of maths in 1955, and later served as college president (1960-1975). He authored the book Algébar Iolscoile and co-authored the calculus book Nótaí ar mhion-áireamh with Michael Power above. |
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00. Martin L. Newell (born Galway city, son of Martin J. Newell above), was educated at first at UCG (BSc 1961, MSc 1962, Travelling Studentship Prize 1962). His 1966 PhD on "Poly-e-Gruppen" was done in Frankfurt under Reinhold Baer. He first taught at Queen Mary in London before returning to UCG for 35 years. He has edited 2 conference proceedings on group theory. His son John is also a mathematician. |
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Biostatistician Johnnie Newell was born in Galway, and was educated at NUIG (BSc 1990, MSc 1992) and Glasgow (PhD 1999). His thesis on "Practical Methods for Analysing Dependent Survival Data" was done under Tom Aitchison. His career so far has been at NUIG. He has supervised 7 PhDs, and co-authored book Statistics for Sports and Exercise Science: A Practical Approach (2010). His father Martin and grandfather Martin (1910-1985) also had careers in maths at Galway. |
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Michael Power (aka Mícheál de Paor, 1885-1974) was born 2 April in Piltown, Kilkenny, and was educated at UCD (BA 1907, MA 1908, BSc 1909). He was awarded an NUI Travelling Studentship Prize in 1909 and a Travelling Studentship in 1910. After a few years at UCD he was appointed to UCG (1912-1955). He co-authored the 1950s book Nótaí ar mhion-áireamh with Máirtín Ó Tnúthail (Martin Newell). His daughter Sheila became a maths physicist. |
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Mathematical physicist Sheila Tinney (née Power, 1918-2010) was born 15 January in Galway, where her father Michael was professor of maths. She was educated at first at UCD (BSc 1938, MSc 1939), where she was awarded an NUI Travelling Studentship Prize. Her 1941 PhD from the University of Edinburgh on "The Stability of Crystal Lattices" was done with Max Born, making her the first Irish university educated woman to get a doctorate in mathematical science. Her career was spent at DIAS (1941-1949), where she was one of the first scholars in residence, and at UCD (1941-1978). At UCD she introduced generations of students to quantum physics, and briefly served as acting dept head of maths physics. Wikipedia / MacTutor / Obit / MathsIreland/ DIAS / IAS
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00. Henry Smith () |
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Jim Muldowney (1939-2022) was born 25 December near Thomastown, Kilkenny, and was educated at UCG (BSc 1960, MSc 1961) and Alberta (PhD 1966). His thesis on "Analyticity and Asymptotics of Jost Functions" was done under Francis Baragar. After 2 years at Univ Oklahoma (Norman), he returned to the Univ Alberta, in Edmonton, from which he officially retired in 2009, having supervised 3 PhD students. His brother Pat (below) is also a mathematician. ResearchGate / LinkedIn / Obit |
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00. Henry Smith () |
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Aongus Ó Cairbre was born in Drogheda, Louth, and was educated at Maynooth (BSc 1980, MSc 1982) and at Berkeley (PhD 1987). His thesis "On Unitary Equivalence of von Neumann Algebras Generated by Weyl Operators on Fock Space" was done under Marc Rieffel. His career has been spent at Kevin St / DIT. |
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Fiacre Ó Cairbre was born in Drogheda, Louth, and was educated at Maynooth (BSc 1981, MSc 1982), where he earned an NUI Travelling Studentship Prize, and at Berkeley (PhD 1987). His thesis on "Ergodic Actions of SU(2) X T on Operator Algebras" was done under Vaughan Jones. His career has been spent at Maynooth. Maynooth |
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