103 



Another eminent Member of Council, who has largely contri- 

 buted to the fame of this Academy, and of the University to which 

 he belonged, was James Mac Cullagh. 



He was born in the County Tyrone, in the year 1809, in the 

 parish of Upper Badony, about ten miles from Strabane. At a very 

 early period of his life he was put to school at Strabane, to which 

 town his father had removed, chiefly for the purpose of obtaining 

 the means of education for his son. His taste for mathematical 

 pursuits was soon perceived, but from the want of well qualified 

 instructors, he had great difficulties to contend with. It is said that 

 he was set to learn the demonstrations of Euclid by heart, without 

 any reference to the diagrams, or any attempt to understand the 

 reasoning. This was peculiarly distateful to his active and inqui- 

 ring genius, and produced an uneasiness which caused a rebellion 

 in his mind against the unintellectual task to which he was con- 

 demned. In his distress, it is said that he was led accidentally to 

 communicate his perplexity to a neighbour, a working carpenter, 

 but a man of some intelligence and information, who had the high 

 honour of first communicating to the mind of Mac Cullagh the per- 

 ception of a geometrical demonstration. 



Having outstripped his teachers at Strabane, he was sent to the 

 school of the Rev. John Graham, at Lifford, and afterwards to that 

 of the Rev. Thomas Rollestone. He entered Trinity College, Dub- 

 lin, in November, 1824, as a pensioner, and in the following year 

 he obtained a sizarship. Throughout his undergraduate course he 

 was eminently successful both in classics and science. In 1827 he 

 was elected a scholar, and in 1832 he obtained a fellowship. 



In 1835 the Professorship of Mathematics having been placed 

 under new regulations, in virtue of a Statute then recently obtained 

 from the Crown, Dr. Sadleir, the present Provost, resigned the 

 office, and Mac Cullagh was appointed Professor. 



In February, 1833, he was elected a Member of the Academy, 

 and in 1838 was put upon the Council, where he continued to serve 

 to the day of his death. In 1844 he was elected Secretary to the 

 Academy, which office he resigned at the beginning of 1846. 



In 1843, the Chair of Natural Philosophy in the University 



