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Reverend Dr Mark

Hocknull, Canon Chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, pictured delivering the sermon at a service of Choral Evensong in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of George Boole, first Professor of Mathematics at QueenÕs College, now University College, Cork, at St MichaelÕs Church of Ireland in Blackrock, Cork city.
Pic: Diane Cusack
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Commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of George Boole
Service of Choral Evensong
St MichaelÕs Church of Ireland, Blackrock, Cork
8th December 2014
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In 2015, University College Cork will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Boole, first Professor of Mathematics at QueenÕs College Cork, whose Boolean algebra laid the foundation of computer programming and computing technology. The impact of BooleÕs research on the modern world cannot be overestimated.
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Boole lived with his wife Mary and their five daughters in Ballintemple, and they attended services at St MichaelÕs Church in Blackrock. Tragically, he died at the age of 49 and Monday 8th December is the 150th anniversary of his death. Paradoxically, the celebration of his life and work in his bicentenary year will commence with the marking of that date. We are left to wonder what more he might have achieved, had he lived to continue his mathematical investigations.
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The service of Choral Evensong would have been very familiar to Boole and his family. A commemorative service will take place in St MichaelÕs, where Boole was laid to rest, led by Venerable Archdeacon Adrian Wilkinson, in the presence of leading members of the academic community from University College Cork and Cork Institute of Technology, church, civic and community leaders, and the families of the parish of St MichaelÕs. The sermon will be preached by Reverend Dr Mark Hocknull, Canon Chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, and member of the academic staff of the University of Lincoln, BooleÕs home town until the age of 33 when he was appointed as Professor in Cork. Dr HocknullÕs theme will centre on BooleÕs deeply held religious beliefs and the nature of the relationship between science and religion, bringing a modern perspective to an age-old question.
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The music for the Choral Evensong will be provided by the highly acclaimed Clerks Choral, a Cork ensemble that traces its roots back to the 15th century, and will include works by William Byrd, church musician to the court of Queen Elizabeth I, who spent several years as Choir Master in Lincoln Cathedral. ByrdÕs music would undoubtedly have been very familiar to Boole. Readings for the service will be those that formed the inspiration for the beautiful stained glass window in Lincoln Cathedral dedicated to Boole by the citizens of Lincoln after his death.
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In recognition of the place of BooleÕs work in modern information technology, a child from the parish school will be presented by Professor Barry OÕSullivan of University College Cork, co-Director of the Science Foundation Ireland Insight Centre for Data Analytics, with a credit card-sized computer designed by a charitable Foundation in the UK with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools. All children in the school will receive one of these computers in the New Year.
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The Choral Evensong service will be followed by a reception for invited guests in CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory, where the gathering will be addressed by UCC President Dr Michael Murphy, Professor Des MacHale, author of The Life and Work of George Boole: A prelude to the digital age, and Dr Niall Smith, Head of Research at CIT, who, appropriately in that setting, will mention the connection between Boole and astronomy.
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In keeping with the ambition of bringing BooleÕs life and work to global audience, the service of Choral Evensong will be filmed and made available on the University College Cork George Boole 200 website www.georgeboole.com.
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Notes to editors:
In 1849, George Boole was appointed the first Professor of Mathematics at QueenÕs College, now University College, Cork. His research became a prelude to modern mathematics, microelectronic engineering and computer science. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that Boole laid the foundations of the Information Age.
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Boole received a Gold Medal for Mathematics in 1844 from the Royal Society, the first to be awarded to a pure mathematician, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1857. He published many scientific papers and four books, the most famous of which is his magnum opus An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, written while a Professor in Cork, and published in 1854.
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What came to be known as Boolean algebra was used by the engineer Claude Shannon in the 1930s to design electrical circuits which could be used to carry out sequences of logical instructions based on the binary values Òon/trueÓ or Òoff/falseÓ. These circuits evolved into modern computers and the instruction sequences, derived ultimately from Boolean logic, became computer programmes, or algorithms. Thus, BooleÕs work provides the mathematical and logical underpinning of computers, not only in their languages but in their very construction.
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The definitive biography of Boole is The Life and Work of George Boole: A prelude to the digital age, by University College Cork Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Desmond MacHale (Cork University Press, 2014).
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In 1855 Boole married Mary Everest, herself a noted educationalist, and niece of Sir George Everest after whom the worldÕs highest mountain is named. The couple had five daughters, Mary Ellen, Margaret, Alicia, Lucy and Ethel Lillian, all of whom lived interesting lives and several of whom became famous in their own right. (Alicia was a mathematician, Lucy a professor of Chemistry, Ethel Lillian became Ethel Lillian Voynich and wrote The Gadfly.) Indeed, BooleÕs descendants have been influential in a wide range of areas. (For example, Howard Hinton was a Professor of Entomology, Sir Geoffrey Taylor FRS was a mathematical physicist, Joan Engst worked on the Manhattan Project and later lived in China working on the development of agriculture.)
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In addition to his university teaching and research, Boole was also active in Adult Education in Cork. Sadly, in December 1864, Boole died of pneumonia, and he is buried in the Church of Ireland cemetery of St Michael's in Cork
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During the bicentenary George Boole 200 year 2015 UCC will celebrate the man and his achievements. We plan a wide range of events that have a scientific, artistic, cultural or heritage aspect.
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A significant aspect of our celebration will be outreach to schoolchildren (at all age levels), teachers and parents. The intention will be to stimulate interest in STEM subjects, especially mathematics, computer science and engineering. Boole was initially guided in his scientific development by his father, John, and having left school at the age of 14, was essentially self-taught in mathematics and also learned Latin and Greek, French and German. He provides us with a valuable role model whose experience is mirrored in several of the most successful of modern day entrepreneurs.
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Following on this thread of education we will use the Boole name to encourage increased uptake of honours mathematics at Leaving Certificate and subsequent registrations of the most mathematically able students in our programmes at UCC. We will also raise the profile of mathematics, computer science and engineering at UCC throughout the world, especially in our partner institutions in the US, China, India and Brazil, as well as throughout Europe. A principal objective will be to recruit a cohort of students from home and abroad, for bachelors and masters degrees and re-skilling programmes, that will be sufficiently large to make a material contribution to filling the ICT skills gap (predicted by Forf‡s in November 2013 to be of the order of 45,000 vacancies over the next 5-7 years).
Finally, the legacy of the bicentenary year will be found in three major projects: a documentary film on the life of Boole and his descendants; the refurbishment of George BooleÕs house in Grenville Place, Cork (where he wrote An Investigation of the Laws of Thought); and an iconic George Boole Institute, designed as a vehicle for nurturing and developing scholarship in areas that have been touched by the work of George Boole and his family, and providing educational and research opportunities that address the national and international ICT skills shortage. In particular, the George Boole Institute at UCC will serve as an attractor of inward investment in the Cork region and support the development of a pipeline of indigenous start-up companies.