“This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.” – Alan Turing.
We first wrote about Alan Turing’s Tipperary connection on January 11th, 2017 last. The code-breaker and visionary mathematician, who was convicted under Victorian homophobic laws, will now be the face of Britain’s new £50 note.
The Stoney family were once prominent landlords, here in North Tipperary. His mother Ethel Sara Stoney (1881–1976) was daughter of Edward Waller Stoney (Borrisokane, North Tipperary) and Sarah Crawford (Cartron Abbey, Co. Longford); Protestant Anglo-Irish gentry.
Educated in Dublin at Alexandra School and College; on October 1st 1907 she married Julius Mathison Turing, latter son of Reverend John Robert Turing and Fanny Boyd, in Dublin. Born on June 23rd 1912, Alan Turing would go on to be regarded as one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century.
A brilliant mathematician and cryptographer Alan was to become the founder of modern-day computer science and artificial intelligence; designing a machine at Bletchley Park to break secret Enigma encrypted messages used by the Nazi German war machine to protect sensitive commercial, diplomatic and military communications during World War 2. Thus, Turing made the single biggest contribution to the Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany, possibly saving the lives of an estimated 2 million people, through his effort in shortening World War II.
In 2013, almost 60 years later, Turing received a posthumous Royal Pardon from Queen Elizabeth II. Today, the “Turing law” grants an automatic pardon to men who died before the law came into force, making it possible for living convicted gay men to seek pardons for offences now no longer on the statute book.
Alas, Turing accidentally or otherwise lost his life in 1954, having been subjected by a British court to chemical castration, thus avoiding a custodial sentence. He is known to have ended his life at the age of 41 years, by eating an apple laced with cyanide.
The character of Alan Turing was played by actor Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Imitation Game,“ latter a 2014 highly recommended film.
Great Info. George, Thanks.
George. I was only asked by one of my senior men the other day about him. I had no idea what he was talking about. This is great information. I can now show him this write up. That will cheer him up.
George. I was listening to a conversation on our radio about Alan Turing last night. Not one mention about his connections with Ireland. But you know George that does not surprise us one bit. There was also something about Sinead O’Conner gone into a convent in Ireland. George I had an email from one of the Irish Papers in Dublin asking expats to sign up so they can vote in the next Irish election. A lot of Irish expats in America have done so. George have you heard anything about this.
(A) Sinead O’Conner did at one time get ordained as a female priest in the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church. After her ordination, she indicated that she wished to be called Mother Bernadette Mary. She later had a conversion to Islam, adopting the name Shuhada’Davitt.
(B) Yes papers were checking would people holding Irish Citizenship abroad vote, if allowed, in Irish elections. However, no effort to resurrect such a notion has ever been put forward seriously in a required Irish referendum.
Thank you George for your response.
George, We are at a loss as to why Ireland is taking a boat loaded with migrants who were turned away by Grease and Italy.
Apparently Germany asked Ireland to take them in. Ireland such a small Island and there own young professional’s leaving every day because there is not enough work. What on earth is wrong with the Irish Government. This is all over our news. I never thought Ireland was paying TV licence we don’t here in Australia.
Question (1): Ireland as you will be aware Katie, has had its own history of emigrants migrating from our shores and for this reason alone it feels obliged to play some small part in not just implementing but also developing a common European migration and asylum policy.
Migrants, the vast majority of which are plain ordinary citizens, anxious to flee from war-torn countries, peaked in 2015, with more than one million people landing on Greek and Italian shores. Over 1.2 million people alone applied for asylum in EU countries.
Ireland currently has no real obligation to take in refugees as it negotiated an opt-in / opt-out clause on justice and immigration measures when the Lisbon Treaty was drafted.
However, Ireland initially decided to participate through an arrangement with Italy called Operation PONTUS, and later our parliament approved vessels to be deployed to serve as part of the EU navy’s “Operation Sophia”.
Ireland then voluntarily agreed to participate in the EU relocation and resettlement schemes by accepting up to 4,000 migrants and have been allocated more than €52.2 million from the Asylum, Migration and Integration EU Fund (AMIF), with significant funding going to Irish projects run by community groups that support migrants.
Such a small group mingling on an island containing some 4,851,000 persons is unlikely to change our culture.
Question (2) Yes we have to pay a TV licence here in Ireland amounting to €160 Euros ($261.80 Australian Dollars I believe). But Ireland is now fed up with paying, per annum, so-called not so talented radio & TV celebrates like Ryan Tubridy €495,000; Ray D’Arcy €450,000; Joe Duffy €389,988; Sean O’Rourke €308,964; Marian Finucane €300,617; Miriam O’Callaghan €299,000; Claire Byrne €216,000; Bryan Dobson €198,146; George Hamilton €186,195 and Mary Wilson €185,679, just to name a few. In Australia you make TV programmes, eg “Home and Away”, “Neighbours” etc. Our national TV station RTE today trundles out “Fair City” humorously referred to as “Fair Sh.tty”. Most of the time people watch English Channels except for weather and news.
RTE 1 beneficiaries of our licence fee last year, of €189.1 million, is a total failure and really not worth watching. It revealed losses of €13 million in 2018 with commercial revenues continuing to slip, because of a reduced viewer-ship.