GEORGE SALMON

GEORGE SALMON

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Rev Prof George Salmon  (25 September 1819 – 22 January 1904) was a distinguished and influential Irish mathematician and Anglican theologian. After working in algebraic geometry for two decades, Salmon devoted the last forty years of his life to theology. His entire career was spent at Trinity College Dublin. Salmon was Provost of Trinty from 1888 until his death in 1904. The highlight of his career may have been when in 1892 he presided over the great celebrations marking the tercentenary of the College, which had been founded by Queen Elizabeth I. His deep conservatism led him to strongly oppose women receiving degrees from the University. He is alleged to have said that women would only be admitted to Trinity as students over his dead body. He eventually agreed to dropping his veto in 1901 when the Board voted in favour of allowing women to enter the university. This was one of his last acts as Provost.Coincidentally, immediately after his death on 22 January 1904, Isabel Marion Weir Johnston (from Buncrana, Donegal) became the first woman undergraduate to succeed in registering at Trinity, and by the end of year dozens of other women had done likewise  She recalled, “When I arrived in Dublin 1904, I was informed that he [Salmon] had died that day, and the examination had to be put off until after the funeral.”

Actor: Joe Duffy
Written by: Joe Duffy
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