... at the National Museum of Ireland

A crucial element of the museum is the human connection it offers. For both visitors and researchers, the museum has potentially a very different interaction with our history. It is a place of conversations, of shared experience and knowledge, and of shared narrative. Contemporary collecting and the broader policy around thoughts for the future requires some different thinking. Particularly in relation to the kind of museum we want to be, one that is open, accessible and diverse - a place of excellent research and compelling visitor experiences. A place that tells the many stories of our country and its people in a global context.

About the speaker

Lynn Scarff is the newly appointed Director of the National Museum of Ireland, taking up her position in May 2018.

Initially, working in environmental education across a diversity of projects including the Ballymun Regeneration, Lynn’s work is embedded in collaborative practice. As part of the initial development team of Science Gallery Dublin at Trinity College Dublin, she developed a programme of compelling cultural experiences that explored the boundaries of art and science and connected with a target audience of 15 – 25 year olds. In 2012, she was part of the leadership team that established the Global Science Gallery Network bringing the vision of Science Gallery to eight cities globally by 2020. In 2014, she was appointed Director leading Science Gallery Dublin through a process of organisational change, strategic planning and development.

Lynn is an advocate for the participative museum. Her research work focuses on non formal learning settings and the opportunities presented by museums and cultural spaces to engage young people, with a particular focus on under represented audiences. She has presented and written on these themes both in education, museum practice and communication journals globally. Her research and practice work has been funded through competitive grants awarded by Science Foundation Ireland, the Wellcome Trust in the UK and the European Commission through Horizon 2020 and Creative Europe calls.

She studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin, specialising in zoology and natural history and holds an MSc in Science Communications. In 2016 she was awarded a National Arts Strategies Kresge Fellowship completed over one year at Harvard, Michigan Ross and Berkeley Business Schools in the USA, which focused on the critical elements of sustainable business development in the cultural sector. Lynn served on the board of the National Museum of Ireland for 18 months through 2016/2017 and is on expert panels for a number of public engagement trusts and awarding bodies including the Wellcome Trust. She additionally serves on the board of the Rediscovery Centre in Ballymun.

About the Heritage Podcast Series

To Preserve and Protect: Contemporary Issues in Irish Cultural Heritage

This is a series of eight 20 minute podcasts by academic researchers and leaders of major Irish heritage institutions. The series addresses questions of critical importance in Irish heritage. Opportunities and challenges of preservation and protection of Irish cultural heritage are addressed. It also provides a valuable and educational resource recorded by experts in heritage and preservation, which is publicly accessible to prompt thought and discussion.

Developed and produced by the Historical Studies Committee of the Royal Irish Academy. Supported by The Heritage Council as part of the 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage. Recorded by Real Smart Media.

Podcasts released weekly - listen to the latest episodes here: www.ria.ie/heritagepodcast

A Royal Irish Academy Library Lunchtime Lecture on archaeologist and Irish art historian Françoise Henry, MRIA.

Speaker: Dr Eileen Kane

Born in Dublin, Dr. Eileen Kane was educated at the Dominican College, Eccles Street and at University College Dublin, from which she graduated with a B.A. in Latin and French, M.A. in French, and Higher Diploma in Education. After some years teaching at Secondary level, and two years in the Irish Diplomatic Service, she was invited by Dr. Françoise Henry to join the Department of the History of European Painting, in 1967, as Assistant, tasked with delivering the Purser-Griffith Lectures. Along with lectures and seminars in the Degree courses, she continued to deliver and direct the Purser-Griffith Lectures until her retirement in 2000. Eileen was the first student to complete a doctoral thesis in the History of European Painting under the direction of Françoise Henry. Her research interests and publications have centred around late mediaeval art in Avignon and Rome, and religious art in Dublin in the nineteenth century. Since retiring from University teaching, she has specialized and published widely on Christian art.

Location: Academy House

Date: 18 April 2018

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

On Thursday 26 April 2018, the Royal Irish Academy Life and Medical Sciences Committee presented a one-day conference addressing the wide-ranging implications of gene editing techniques for all of life and medical science. Gene editing is a ground-breaking technology that is affording opportunities to make precise, small changes to an organism’s DNA. Using a series of proteins that act in effect as a molecular scissors, the potential of gene editing to address many challenges in biological systems is being realised across human, animal and crop research programmes around the world.

Not surprisingly, public interest in the impact of gene editing has grown steadily in recent years as emerging developments continue to appear in the scientific literature. Offering a unique opportunity for an open, impartial societal discussion on the impact of gene editing technologies, the Royal Irish Academy was delighted to present a conference that highlighted the advances that gene editing can make in tackling societal challenges and also the need for a rational debate driven by science-based reasoning.

The keynote address was delivered by Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, one of the key experts who help society navigate the increasingly complex terrain of the new gene editing technologies. Lovell-Badge was first thrust into the public limelight in the early 1990s when he co-discovered the Y-chromosome gene that orchestrates male development. He then used this gene to make a genetically female mouse develop as a male. As stem-cell sciences took off at the turn of the century, the British Parliament called upon him for advice in revising the Human Fertilisation and Embryonic Act. Since then he has regularly given scientific counsel in areas of public engagement and policy.

Ahead of the event, Lovell-Badge commented on the importance of properly regulating clinical use of gene editing technologies, “it could only be a matter of a few years before we actually see people who have had genetic ‘corrections’. However, it certainly should not be just a free-for-all because that would be horrible”. He is Head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom. He is an author of almost 200 publications cited more than 20,000 times

Speaking at the event, Dr Ewen Mullins, member of the RIA Life and Medical Science committee stated, “given the rapid developments in plant breeding the conference was timely. Recent studies have detailed the impact gene editing can make in regards to developing mildew resistant tomato and wheat, merely by editing one single gene. With the technology applicable to all major crop and horticultural species, ‘gene editing’ is in itself an umbrella term. In its simplest form, it is in effect a more precise way to breed a crop that does not require the insertion of artificial DNA. As our cropping systems face significant legislative and environmental challenges, this new breeding process could be key to delivering low input crops to satisfy consumer and policy demands.”

On behalf of the Royal Irish Academy, Professor Michael Peter Kennedy, the president of the Royal Irish Academy RIA’s, remarked, “this conference on gene editing is specifically designed to be thought-provoking, enhance debate and to facilitate a societal discussion around the parameters in which gene editing should be applied.” He concluded by thanking the Health Research Board for generously sponsoring the event and providing delegates with an opportunity to hear from major national and international figures, as they offer their views on the advantages and challenges facing emerging gene editing technologies both at home and abroad.

Academy Discourse by Professor William C. Campbell, Hon. MRIA is the third in the series sponsored by Mason Hayes & Curran. Ivermectin is a medication used in the treatment and control of parasitic diseases. In veterinary medicine, it is widely used in livestock and pets. It has several applications in human medicine, and has been notably successful in the prevention of River Blindness in the tropics. The discovery of ivermectin required innovation, yet rested on simple empirical science. It was a process from which lessons could be learned . . . but will they?

Professor Mary McAleese MRIA, former President of Ireland, delivered a discourse entitled ‘The Holy See and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: is a once-promising journey now going backwards?’

Catherine Day, MRIA and former Secretary General of the EU Commission, examines and contextualises the landscape of Post Brexit EU. The Academy discourse programme is sponsored by Mason Hayes and Curran.

Abstract

The recent increase in the proportion of the population with obesity and/or type 2 diabetes is a matter of great concern for global public health. The rising incidence of these disorders is clearly attributable to changes in the environment that promote caloric consumption and decrease energy expenditure. However, we need to understand why some individuals are susceptible to obesogenic influences while others remain resistant. Similarly, it would be helpful to have a better insight into the mechanises whereby some seriously obese people completely avoid the metabolic consequences of over-nutrition while others succumb to the disabling complications of metabolic derangement despite being only modestly obese. In this lecture, Professor O'Rahilly will describe how human genetics has helped to enhance our understanding of our susceptibility or resistance to obesity and its adverse metabolic consequences. The findings have broad-ranging implications for the management of individual patients, for drug development and for public health strategies.

About the speaker

Stephen O’Rahilly is Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Medicine at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant Physician at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. He led the establishment of the Institute of Metabolic Science, which he now co-directs. He is Scientific Director of the Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. He qualified in Medicine from University College Dublin and undertook post-graduate training in London, Oxford and Boston before setting up his laboratory in Cambridge in 1991. He has sought to better understand the molecular mechanisms leading to diabetes, obesity and related metabolic and endocrine disorders. He remains active in clinical practice and in the teaching of medical students. He has won many national and international awards including the Heinrich Wieland Prize, the Inbev Baillet Latour Prize, and the Zülch Prize. He was elected to the Royal Society in 2003, a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences USA in 2011 and is an Honorary Member of the German Society for Internal Medicine and the Royal Irish Academy. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in 2013.

Panel discussion featuring Noel Dorr, author of 'Sunningdale: the search for peace in Norther Ireland', with Seamus Mallon and chaired by Marie Coleman. Belfast, 8 December 2017.

Library Lunchtime Lecture by Dr Aileen Douglas, School of English, TCD. The third lecture in our series commemorating the 350th anniversary of Jonathan Swift's birth.

Location: Academy House

Date: Wednesday 19 July, 2017

Speaker:

Aileen Douglas is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and Head of the School of English. Her teaching and research interests focus on eighteenth-century writing. Among her publications are several articles on Jonathan Swift and a co-edited collection, Locating Swift: papers from Dublin on the 250th anniversary of the death of Jonathan Swift (Dublin: Four Courts Press). Her most recent book is Work in Hand: Script, Print, and Writing, 1690-1840 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017). In June 2017 she co-organized the Swift350 conference at TCD to mark the 350th anniversary of the birth of Jonathan Swift.

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.

Library Lunchtime Lecture by Professor David Dickson, MRIA, Department of Modern History, TCD. The second lecture in our series commemorating the 350th anniversary of Jonathan Swift's birth.

Location: Academy House

Date: Wednesday 12 July, 2017

Speaker:

David Dickson is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and Professor of Modern History in Trinity College Dublin. He has published extensively on the social, economic and cultural history of Ireland in the long eighteenth century. Among his major publications are Old world colony: Cork and South Munster 1630-1830 (Cork & Madison, 2005), and Dublin: The making of a capital city (London & Cambridge MA, 2014), and he has co-edited 11 books, including 1798: a bicentenary perspective (Dublin, 2003); Refiguring Ireland: Essays in honour of L.M. Cullen (Dublin, 2003); Irish and Scottish mercantile networks in Europe and overseas in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Gent, 2007); and Irish classrooms and British Empire: Imperial contexts in the origins of modern education (Dublin, 2012).

Disclaimer:

The Royal Irish Academy has prepared this content responsibly and carefully, but disclaims all warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy of the information contained in any of the materials. The views expressed are the authors’ own and not those of the Royal Irish Academy.