@johnbreslin.com
🇮🇪 🇪🇺 👨🏫 Prof in EE @UniOfGalway.bsky.social, Director of TechInnovate 👨🔬 PI at @InsightCentre.bsky.social 🚀 Co-Founder of @PorterShed.bsky.social, boards.ie, adverts.ie 📚 Co-Author of @OldIrelandinColour.bsky.social 💭 Own thoughts #Fanore #Galway #Carcassonne
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Seriously pinch me! This was my Connemara lunchtime backdrop today …………… ❤️
#lovelife #today #mystory #winter #sunset #wildatlanticway #galway #photography #surf #connemara #wildatlantic #surfing #Ireland
Ella Baron on Trump and Netanyahu’s war on Iran – cartoon www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Time for a change: British Columbia decides to keep daylight saving time permanently www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
Zelensky highlighting the moral and strategic poverty of the USA under Trump. In the last year Trump has ended all military aid for Ukraine, has undermined Ukrainian air defense, has tried to bully Ukraine in handing over territory, and has rolled out the red carpet for Putin.
Oh well, that's the Eurovision won then by LMNC 123!
Oh well, that's the Eurovision won then by LMNC 123!
Images from the Old Galway in Photographs talk
We had a great audience at the Westside Resource Centre on Tuesday for my talk on Old Galway in Photographs, organised by Brendan McGowan of Galway City Museum. Thank you to James Coyne and all at the Westside Resource Centre for your kind welcome and help on the day.
Images: c. 1879 to 1914, Shop Street, Galway and 1880 to 1900, Ballybunion, County Kerry (NLI/Old Ireland in Colour and NLI/Old Ireland in Colour)
#5 GLUAS Tramway and KLUAS Monorail
We now have less than half of the 5,630 km of rail track that Ireland had in 1920, including the 3.6 km Galway-Salthill tramway (ran for 39 years), the 14.4 km Ballybunion-Listowel Lartigue monorail (36 years), 79 km from Galway-Clifden, and 85 km in West Clare.
Image: c. 1860s to 1880s, Ireland or England (Public Domain)
#4 Homo neanderthalensis: William King
This QCG geologist named Homo neanderthalensis/Neanderthal man after studying remains from a Neanderthal cave. His discovery was accepted posthumously. He also discredited Eozoon canadense (the dawn animal of Canada) being a fossil, proving it was crystalline.
H91 C1KX
I look forward to giving an illustrated talk tomorrow at Westside Resource Centre (H19 C1KX) on "Old Galway in Photographs", beginning at 10:45 AM. This event is organised by Galway City Museum, and I will talk through some seen and rarely seen images from Galway. galwaycitymuseum.ie/event/illust...
Ep 285 That Great Business Show Conall Ó Móráin
The West of Ireland has better coffee, free green energy and global tech ambitions.
Tomás Ó Síocháin explains why the Gaeltacht may soon be managing the flow of people moving west — not begging them to come. #TacúChunTairbhe
Image: 1860, England (Smithsonian)
#3 Stokes Lens, Fluorescence: Skreen’s GG Stokes
This Sligo man defined a variety of laws and equations during the 1840s and 1850s that govern fluid dynamics, as well as naming the phenomenon of fluorescence and being a spectroscopy pioneer. He also invented a lens to detect astigmatism of the eye.
@dermotncosgrove.bsky.social Thanks for sharing 🙏
(Old Ireland in Colour is a series of non-fiction history books written by Irish academics John Breslin and Sarah-Anne Buckley. The books consist chiefly of colourisations of black-and-white historical photographs by Breslin along with historical context and captions written by Buckley)
There is a photo of the book cover, depicting children in front of a thatched and lime washed building)
The Oughterard Heritage Society invites you to a talk with Professor John Breslin, author of Old Ireland in Colour at the Oughterard Courthouse on Friday 13 March at 8 p.m.
Image: by Benjamin Hudson, c. 1840s to 1850s, England (Public Domain)
#2 Saline, Medical Cannabis: Limerick’s Brooke O'Shaughnessy
During the 1830s cholera epidemic, he came up with the idea of saline injections for rehydration, a vital concept underlying modern IV fluid therapy. He is also credited with the first scientific framework for a medicinal use of cannabis.
![Image: by Nicolas de Largillière, c. 1730, France (Wikimedia Commons) [There is no confirmed portrait of Cantillon, but Mark Thornton has posited that this could be him.]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rrjplyvtrenmnk3sigpenddv/bafkreidjf6y2ryp3ni26gfywiztmzsmo67xadkvrul42lof5pebvo2i3ey)
Image: by Nicolas de Largillière, c. 1730, France (Wikimedia Commons) [There is no confirmed portrait of Cantillon, but Mark Thornton has posited that this could be him.]
#1 Entrepreneurship: Ballyheigue’s Richard Cantillon
Nearly three hundred years ago in his 1730 economics book Essai sur la nature du commerce en général, Kerry-born French citizen and financier Richard Cantillon defined entrepreneur (from the French verb entreprendre) to be much as we now know it.
I've written a blog post based on my presentation, which is now available here: 26 Innovators & Innovations from Past to Present Along Ireland’s Westerly Seaboard
medium.com/@johnbreslin...
Thank you once again to Liz McConnell and Melena Hogan for hosting us and our exhibition, and to @donnchalaw.bsky.social for kindly sharing some photographs of us in action.
It was an honour to speak in Kylemore Abbey's Fordham Law Great Hall last Saturday alongside my @uniofgalway.bsky.social colleague and co-author Dr @sarahannebuckley.bsky.social at the @oldirelandincolour.bsky.social finale event.
"Infinite diversity in infinite combinations is a philosophy that is very important and positive in contributing to a better society." www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe... @georgetakei.bsky.social
Absolutely! Longer version with more info is here: medium.com/@johnbreslin...
Thanks for sharing Áine @whoa-magic.lol
Quite the legacy for one civil engineer.
More innovators from the western seaboard: Joseph Larmor (aether and matter), AG Melville (dodo), Maude Delap (first to breed jellyfish in captivity), Sheila Tinney (first Irish woman with a PhD in maths), Kathleen Lynn (founded St Ultan’s), and Limerick-born Aphex Twin. Add your suggestions below!
Image: 2024, USA (Norah Patten)
#26 Our First Potential Astronaut: Ballina’s Norah Patten
She earned a PhD in Aeronautics from UL, and has spent years training for spaceflight. The IIAS selected her for the IIAS-02 mission on Virgin Galactic’s Delta in 2026, where Patten and crew will conduct research experiments in microgravity.
Image: Date Unknown, Ireland (Wikimedia Commons)
#25 First Female Prof at RCSI: Galway’s Ethna Gaffney
The UCG/UCD BSc/MSc grad set up Ireland's first Diploma in Dietetics in 1944 and became Professor of Chemistry & Physics at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1961. She was daughter of a UCG Surgery Prof, descended from pirate queen Gráinne Mhaol.
