Meet the Scientists
Meet the main scientists from the Interactive Marine Archive project. Click on a card for more information.
Rev. William S. Green
Rev. William Sportswood Green was born in 1847 in Youghal, Co. Cork. He developed an early interest in fisheries from his seaside childhood. He was a government appointed Fisheries Inspector, first mentioned working in 1890. He led the first scientific survey of Rockall in 1896. His significant achievement was to aid in the foundation of the government’s ‘Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction’, under which there was a Fisheries Branch. He worked there as Chief Inspector of Irish Fisheries, until his retirement in 1914.
Ernest Holt
Ernest Holt was born in London, England in 1864. Holt began the first systematic research into Irish Fisheries, working with the Royal Dublin Society and later the Department of Technical Instruction and Agriculture. He dedicated a great deal of his career bringing Irish scientific works and studies up to standard with those from Europe. When ICES was founded in 1902, he had successfully carried out enough work so that Ireland was in a position to participate in the surveys being organised.
Maude Delap
Maude Delap was raised on Valentia Island, Co. Kerry. She was a self-directed scientist who was most acclaimed for her novel work, closing the life cycle of the jellyfish. In her home-laboratory she hand-reared Chrysaora isosceles and then Cyanea lamarcki documenting their full life cycles. Unusual for women of the time, she published a series of significant scientific articles and notes solely under her own name in the early 20th century. The anemone, Edwardsia Delapiae, was named after her, acknowledging her contributions to marine science.
Anne Massey
Anne Massey was born in Dublin in 1867. She focused academically on cephalopods and pteropods. In 1907 she published her first serious scientific work in which she described three new species of cephalopod. Over the following years she published further papers on deep sea cephalopods, becoming a world recognised authority on the topic. The sub-genus of Cephalopod Cirroteuthis (Cirroteuthopsis) massyae was named after her.
Charles Green
Charles Green was the only son of Rev. William Green, and followed his father's footsteps by working in the Irish fishing industry. Though his academic merit was great, he predominantly worked as an administrator. When the foundation of the Irish Free State occurred, Green organised the continuation of the Sea and Inland Fisheries Reports. Green laboriously continued his work without sacrificing the integrity of the data collected. We owe the continuation of these years of Irish Fisheries records to him.
George Farran
George Philip Farran, was born in Templeogue, Co. Dublin in 1876. He attended Trinity College Dublin graduating with a B.A. in Natural Sciences. He had a great academic interest in copepods and herring shoals. He worked in The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction from its foundation 1900 until his retirement in 1946. On the year of his retirement he published ‘Local Names of Irish Fishes’, dedicated to the translation of Irish names of fish. He worked on its compilation for twenty-five years. Impressively, Farran could not speak Irish, and had complied the book phonetically.
Rowland Southern
Rowland Southern was born in Lancashire, England in 1882. He started his scientific career as a freshwater aquatic botanist, but later became an authority in the field of annelids, or segmented worms. He came to Ireland in 1906, working at the Natural History Museum in Dublin. In 1911 he was employed with the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction Fisheries Branch. He took part in a great many dredging surveys on board the Fishery Cruiser Helga II, while also pursuing his studies on worms. In later years he contributed greatly to hatcheries for Salmon and Trout.
Colin M. Selbie
Colin M. Selbie was born in Scotland in 1886. In 1910 he graduated from the University of Aberdeen and came to Ireland in 1911 to work as an assistant naturalist in the Dublin Museum of Science and Art. He developed a specialised interest in Crustacea. He gained great appreciation from his peers for his talent in scientific illustration. He has two works published in the Scientific Investigations, one in 1914 and another published posthumously in 1921, both works contain multiple diagrams that are credited to Selbie.
Arthur Went
Arthur Went was born in Cockney, London in 1910. He came to Ireland in 1936 after attaining a B.A. Hons. in Natural Sciences and advocated heavily for the protection of Irish rivers and lakes against pollution. He spent a great deal of his career working in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries Branch. He participated in several committees, councils and clubs such as: The Irish Institute of Biology Science, Committee of the Royal Dublin Society and Royal Irish Academy. He also took a great interest in history and was historian to the ICES Council.
John Molloy
John Molloy was born in Meath in 1940. He was an Irish fisheries scientist of great renown, mainly accredited for his effort to create open lines of communication and collaboration between fishermen and scientists. He worked in various government fisheries departments over his career, eventually retiring from the Marine Institute in 2006. He was extremely passionate about the midwater fisheries and he published two books ‘The Irish Mackerel Fishery and the making of an Industry’ and ‘The Herring Fisheries of Ireland, 1900-2005’.
