Celtic nations
The Celtic nations are territories in western Europe where Celtic languages or cultural traits have survived. The term "nation" is used in its original sense to mean a people who share a common identity and culture and are identified with a traditional territory; the six territories considered Celtic nations are Brittany, Wales, Scotland and the Isle of Man. These together are referred to as the "Celtic fringe". In each of the six nations a Celtic language is spoken to some extent: Brittonic or Brythonic languages are spoken in Brittany and Wales, while Goidelic or Gaelic languages are spoken in Scotland and the Isle of Man. Before the expansions of Ancient Rome and the Germanic and Slavic tribes, a significant part of Europe was dominated by Celts, leaving behind a legacy of Celtic cultural traits. Territories in north-western Iberia —particularly northern Portugal, Galicia and Cantabria, covering north-central Portugal and northern Spain — are considered Celtic nations due to their culture and history.
Unlike the others, however, no Celtic language has been spoken there in modern times. Similar cultural traditions evinced amongst the Basque people of southern France and northern Spain have lead many historians to include them within the greater Celtic diaspora. Basques are considered to be distant relatives of the more numerous Brittonic-Gaelic peoples. A genetics study from an Oxford University research team in 2006 claimed that the majority of Britons, including many of the English, are descended from a group of tribes which arrived from Iberia around 5000 BC, before the spread of Celts into western Europe. However, three major genetic studies in 2015 have instead shown that haplogroup R1b in western Europe, most common in traditionally Celtic-speaking areas of Atlantic Europe like Ireland and Brittany, would have expanded in massive migrations from the Indo-European homeland, the Yamnaya culture in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, during the Bronze Age along with carriers of Indo-European languages like proto-Celtic.
Unlike previous studies, large sections of autosomal DNA were analyzed in addition to paternal Y-DNA markers. They detected an autosomal component present in modern Europeans, not present in Neolithic or Mesolithic Europeans, which would have been introduced into Europe with paternal lineages R1b and R1a, as well as the Indo-European languages; this genetic component, labelled as "Yamnaya" in the studies mixed to varying degrees with earlier Mesolithic hunter-gatherer and/or Neolithic farmer populations existing in western Europe. Each of the six nations has its own Celtic language. In Wales, Ireland and Scotland these have been spoken continuously through time, while Cornwall and the Isle of Man have languages that were spoken into modern times but died as spoken community languages. In the latter two regions, language revitalisation movements have led to the adoption of these languages by adults and produced a number of native speakers. Ireland, Wales and Scotland contain areas where a Celtic language is used on a daily basis.
These communities are in the west of their countries and in more isolated upland or island areas. The term Gàidhealtachd distinguished the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland from the Lowland Scots areas. More this term has been adopted as the Gaelic name of the Highland council area, which includes non-Gaelic speaking areas. Hence, more specific terms such as sgìre Ghàidhlig are now used. In Wales, the Welsh language is a core curriculum subject. Additionally, 20% of school children in Wales go to Welsh medium schools, where they are taught in the Welsh language. In the Republic of Ireland, all school children study Irish as one of the three core subjects up until the end of secondary school, 7.4% of primary school education is through Irish medium education, part of the Gaelscoil movement. In the Isle of Man, there is one Manx-medium primary school, all schoolchildren have the opportunity to learn Manx. Parts of the northern Iberian Peninsula, namely Galicia, Cantabria and Northern Portugal lay claim to this heritage.
Musicians from Galicia and Asturias have participated in Celtic music festivals, such as the Ortigueira's Festival of Celtic World in the village of Ortigueira or the Breton Festival Interceltique de Lorient, which in 2013 celebrated the Year of Asturias. Northern Portugal, part of ancient Gallaecia has traditions quite similar to Galicia. However, no Celtic language has been spoken in northern Iberia since the Early Middle Ages. Irish was once spoken on the island of Newfoundland before disappearing there by the early 20th century. Vestiges remain in some words found in Newfoundland English, such as scrob for "scratch", sleveen for "rascal" There are no fluent speakers of Irish Gaelic in Newfoundland or Labrador today. Knowledge seems to be restricted to memorized passages, such as traditional tales and songs. Canadian Gaelic dialects of Scottish Gaelic are still spoken by Gaels in other parts of Atlantic Canada on Cape Breton Island and adjacent areas of Nova Scotia. In 2011, there were 1,275 Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia, 300 residents of the province considered a Gaelic language to be their "mother tongue".
Patagonian Welsh is spoken principally in Y Wladfa in the Chubut Province of
Middle Irish
Middle Irish is the Goidelic language, spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from circa 900–1200 AD. The modern Goidelic languages—Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx—are all descendants of Middle Irish; the Lebor Bretnach, the "Irish Nennius", survives only from manuscripts preserved in Ireland. Middle Irish is a VSO, nominative-accusative language. Nouns decline for two genders: masculine, though traces of neuter declension persist. Adjectives agree with nouns in gender and case. Verbs conjugate for three tenses: past, future. Verbs conjugate for an impersonal, agentless form. There are a number of preverbal particles marking the negative, subjunctive, relative clauses, etc. Prepositions inflect for number. Different prepositions govern different cases, depending on intended semantics; the following is a poem in Middle Irish about King of Connacht. Dún Eogain Bél forsind loch forsrala ilar tréntroch, ní mair Eogan forsind múr ocus maraid in sendún. Maraid inad a thige irraibe' na chrólige, ní mair in rígan re cair nobíd.
Cairptech in rí robúi and, innsaigthech oirgnech Érenn, ní dechaid coll cána ar goil, rocroch tríchait im óenboin. Roloisc Life co ba shecht, rooirg Mumain tríchait fecht, nír dál do Leith Núadat nair co nár dámair immarbáig. Doluid fecht im-Mumain móir do chuinchid argait is óir, d’iaraid sét ocus móine do gabail gíall dagdóine. Trían a shlúaig dar Lúachair síar co Cnoc mBrénainn isin slíab, a trían aile úad fo dess co Carn Húi Néit na n-éces. Sé fodéin oc Druimm Abrat co trían a shlúaig, nísdermat, oc loscud Muman maisse, ba subach don degaisse. Atchím a chomarba ind ríg a mét dorigne d’anfhír, nenaid ocus tromm ’malle, conid é fonn a dúine. Dún Eogain. MacManus, Damian. "A chronology of the Latin loan words in early Irish". Ériu. 34: 21–71. McCone, Kim. "The dative singular of Old Irish consonant stems". Ériu. 29: 26–38. McCone, Kim. "Final /t/ to /d/ after unstressed vowels, an Old Irish sound law". Ériu. 31: 29–44. McCone, Kim. "Prehistoric and Middle Irish". Progress in medieval Irish studies. Pp. 7–53.
McCone, Kim. A First Old Irish Reader, Including an Introduction to Middle Irish. Maynooth Medieval Irish Texts 3. Maynooth. Dictionary of the Irish Language
Midsummer
Midsummer is the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, more the northern European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice or take place on a day between June 19 and June 25 and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different cultures; the undivided Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian martyr St John the Baptist, the observance of St John's Day begins the evening before, known as St John's Eve. These are commemorated by many Christian denominations, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, Anglican Communion. In Sweden the Midsummer is such an important festivity that there have been serious discussions to make the Midsummer's Eve into the National Day of Sweden, instead of June 6, it may be referred to as St. Hans Day. Saint John's Day, the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, was established by the undivided Christian Church in the 4th century AD, in honour of the birth of the Saint John the Baptist, which the Gospel of Luke records as being sixth months before Jesus.
As the Western Christian Churches mark the birth of Jesus on December 25, the Feast of Saint John was established at midsummer sixth months before the former feast. By the sixth century, this solar cycle was completed by balancing Christ's conception and birth against the conception and birth of his count, John the Baptist; such a relationship between Christ and his cousin was amply justified by the imagery of scripture. The Baptist was conceived six months before Christ, thus John's conception was celebrated on the eighth kalends of October and his birth on the eighth kalends of July. If Christ's conception and birth took place on the'growing days', it was fitting that John the Baptist's should take place on the'lessening days', for the Baptist himself had proclaimed that'he must increase. By the late sixth century, the Nativity of John the Baptist had become an important feast, counterbalancing at midsummer the midwinter feast of Christmas. —Professor Éamonn Ó Carragáin, University College Cork Within Christian theology, this carries significance as John the Baptist "was understood to be preparing the way for Jesus", with John 3:30 stating "He must increase, but I must decrease".
By the 6th century AD, several churches were dedicated in the honour of Saint John the Baptist and a vigil, Saint John's Eve, was added to the feast day of Saint John the Baptist and Christian priests held three Masses in churches for the celebration. In Florence, medieval midsummer celebrations were "an occasion for dramatic representations of the Baptist's life and death" and "the feast day was marked by processions and plays, culminating in a fireworks show that the entire city attended." The historian Ronald Hutton states that the "lighting of festive fires upon St. John's Eve is first recorded as a popular custom by Jean Belethus, a theologian at the University of Paris, in the early twelfth century". In England, the earliest reference to this custom occurs on in the 13th century AD, in the Liber Memorandum of the parish church at Barnwell in the Nene Valley, which stated that parish youth would gather on the day to sing songs and play games. A Christian monk of Lilleshall Abbey, in the same century, wrote: In the worship of St John, men waken at and maken three manner of fires: one is clean bones and no wood, is called a bonfire.
The 13th-century monk of Winchcomb, who compiled a book of sermons for Christian feast days, recorded how St. John's Eve was celebrated in his time: Let us speak of the revels which are accustomed to be made on St. John's Eve, of which there are three kinds. On St. John's Eve in certain regions the boys collect bones and certain other rubbish, burn them, therefrom a smoke is produced on the air, they make brands and go about the fields with the brands. Thirdly, the wheel which they roll. Saint John's Fires, explained the monk of Winchcombe, were to drive away dragons, which were abroad on St. John's Eve, poisoning springs and wells; the wheel, rolled downhill he gave its explanation: "The wheel is rolled to signify that the sun rises to the highest point of its circle and at once turns back. 15th-century diarist Goro Dati, described the celebration of Saint John's Day at Midsummer in Italy as being one in which guilds prepared their workshops with fine displays, one in which solemn church processions took place, with men dressed in the costumes of Christian saints and angels.
In the 16th century AD, the historian John Stow, described the celebration of Midsummer: the wealthier sort before their doors near to the said bonfires would set out tables on the vigils furnished with sweet bread and good drink, on the festival days with meats and drinks plentifully, whereunto they would invite their neighbours and passengers to sit, to be merry with them in great familiarity, praising God for his benefits bestowed on them. These were called bonfires as well of good amity amongst neighbours that, being befor
Gallo-Roman culture
The term "Gallo-Roman" describes the Romanized culture of Gaul under the rule of the Roman Empire. This was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context; the well-studied meld of cultures in Gaul gives historians a model against which to compare and contrast parallel developments of Romanization in other, less-studied Roman provinces. Interpretatio romana offered Roman names for Gaulish deities such as the smith-god Gobannus, but of Celtic deities only the horse-patroness Epona penetrated Romanized cultures beyond the confines of Gaul; the barbarian invasions beginning in the early fifth century forced upon Gallo-Roman culture fundamental changes in politics, in the economic underpinning, in military organization. The Gothic settlement of 418 offered a double loyalty, as Western Roman authority disintegrated at Rome; the plight of the Romanized governing class is examined by R. W. Mathisen, the struggles of bishop Hilary of Arles by M. Heinzelmann.
Into the seventh century, Gallo-Roman culture would persist in the areas of Gallia Narbonensis that developed into Occitania, Cisalpine Gaul, Orléanais, to a lesser degree, Gallia Aquitania. The Romanized north of Gaul, once it had been occupied by the Franks, would develop into Merovingian culture instead. Roman life, centered on the public events and cultural responsibilities of urban life in the res publica and the sometimes luxurious life of the self-sufficient rural villa system, took longer to collapse in the Gallo-Roman regions, where the Visigoths inherited the status quo in 418. Gallo-Roman language persisted in the northeast into the Silva Carbonaria that formed an effective cultural barrier with the Franks to the north and east, in the northwest to the lower valley of the Loire, where Gallo-Roman culture interfaced with Frankish culture in a city like Tours and in the person of that Gallo-Roman bishop confronted with Merovingian royals, Gregory of Tours. Based on mutual intelligibility, David Dalby counts seven languages descended from Gallo-Romance: Gallo-Wallon, Franco-Provençal, Ladin and Lombard.
However, other definitions are far broader, variously encompassing the Rhaeto-Romance languages, Occitano-Romance languages, Gallo-Italic languages. Gaul was divided by Roman administration into three provinces, which were sub-divided in the third century reorganization under Diocletian, divided between two dioceses and Viennensis, under the Praetorian prefecture of Galliae. On the local level, it was composed of civitates which preserved, broadly speaking, the boundaries of the independent Gaulish tribes, organised in large part on village structures that retained some features in the Roman civic formulas that overlaid them. Over the course of the Roman period, an ever-increasing proportion of Gauls gained Roman citizenship. In 212 the Constitutio Antoniniana extended citizenship to all free-born men in the Roman Empire. During the Crisis of the Third Century, from 260 to 274, Gaul was subject to Alamanni raids because of the civil war. In reaction to local problems the Gallo-Romans appointed their own emperor Postumus.
The rule over Gaul and Hispania by Postumus and his successors is called The Gallic Empire although it was just one set of many usurpers who took over parts of the Roman Empire and tried to become emperor. The capital was Trier, used as the northern capital of the Roman Empire by many emperors; the Gallic Empire ended. The pre-Christian religious practices of Roman Gaul were characterized by syncretism of Graeco-Roman deities with their native Celtic, Basque or Germanic counterparts, many of which were of local significance. Assimilation was eased by interpreting indigenous gods in Roman terms, such as with Lenus Mars or Apollo Grannus. Otherwise, a Roman god might be paired with a native goddess, as with Rosmerta. In at least one case – that of the equine goddess Epona – a native Gallic goddess was adopted by Rome. Eastern mystery religions penetrated Gaul early on; these included the cults of Orpheus, Mithras and Isis. The imperial cult, centred on the numen of Augustus, came to play a prominent role in public religion in Gaul, most at the pan-Gaulish ceremony venerating Rome and Augustus at the Condate Altar near Lugdunum annually on 1 August.
Gregory of Tours recorded the tradition that after the persecution under the co-emperors Decius and Gratus, future pope Felix I sent seven missionaries to re-establish the broken and scattered Christian communities, Gatien to Tours, Trophimus to Arles, Paul to Narbonne, Saturninus to Toulouse, Denis to Paris, Martial to Limoges, Austromoine to Clermont. In the fifth and sixth centuries, Gallo-Roman Christian communities still consisted of independent churches in urban sites, each governed by a bishop; some of the communities had origins. The personal charisma of the bishop set the tone, as fifth-century allegiances, for pagans as well as Christians, switched from institutions to individuals: most Gallo-Roman bishops were drawn from the highest levels of society as appropriate non-military civil roads to advancement dwindled, they represented themselves as bulwarks of high literary standards and Roman traditions against the Vandal and Gothic interlopers. Bishops took on the duties of civil administrator after the contraction of the Roman imperial administration d
Calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, commercial or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time days, weeks and years. A date is the designation of a specific day within such a system. A calendar is a physical record of such a system. A calendar can mean a list of planned events, such as a court calendar or a or chronological list of documents, such as a calendar of wills. Periods in a calendar are though not synchronised with the cycle of the sun or the moon; the most common type of pre-modern calendar was the lunisolar calendar, a lunar calendar that adds one intercalary month to remain synchronised with the solar year over the long term. The term calendar is taken from calendae, the term for the first day of the month in the Roman calendar, related to the verb calare "to call out", referring to the "calling" of the new moon when it was first seen. Latin calendarium meant "account book, register"; the Latin term was adopted in Old French as calendier and from there in Middle English as calender by the 13th century.
A calendar can be on paper or electronic device. The course of the sun and the moon are the most salient natural recurring events useful for timekeeping, thus in pre-modern societies worldwide lunation and the year were most used as time units; the Roman calendar contained remnants of a ancient pre-Etruscan 10-month solar year. The first recorded physical calendars, dependent on the development of writing in the Ancient Near East, are the Bronze Age Egyptian and Sumerian calendars. A large number of Ancient Near East calendar systems based on the Babylonian calendar date from the Iron Age, among them the calendar system of the Persian Empire, which in turn gave rise to the Zoroastrian calendar and the Hebrew calendar. A great number of Hellenic calendars developed in Classical Greece, in the Hellenistic period gave rise to both the ancient Roman calendar and to various Hindu calendars. Calendars in antiquity were lunisolar, depending on the introduction of intercalary months to align the solar and the lunar years.
This was based on observation, but there may have been early attempts to model the pattern of intercalation algorithmically, as evidenced in the fragmentary 2nd-century Coligny calendar. The Roman calendar was reformed by Julius Caesar in 45 BC; the Julian calendar was no longer dependent on the observation of the new moon but followed an algorithm of introducing a leap day every four years. This created a dissociation of the calendar month from the lunation; the Islamic calendar is based on the prohibition of intercalation by Muhammad, in Islamic tradition dated to a sermon held on 9 Dhu al-Hijjah AH 10. This resulted in an observation-based lunar calendar that shifts relative to the seasons of the solar year; the first calendar reform of the early modern era was the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582 based on the observation of a long-term shift between the Julian calendar and the solar year. There have been a number of modern proposals for reform of the calendar, such as the World Calendar, International Fixed Calendar, Holocene calendar, the Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar.
Such ideas are mooted from time to time but have failed to gain traction because of the loss of continuity, massive upheaval in implementation, religious objections. A full calendar system has a different calendar date for every day, thus the week cycle is by itself not a full calendar system. The simplest calendar system just counts time periods from a reference date; this applies for Unix Time. The only possible variation is using a different reference date, in particular, one less distant in the past to make the numbers smaller. Computations in these systems are just a matter of subtraction. Other calendars have one larger units of time. Calendars that contain one level of cycles: week and weekday – this system is not common year and ordinal date within the year, e.g. the ISO 8601 ordinal date systemCalendars with two levels of cycles: year and day – most systems, including the Gregorian calendar, the Islamic calendar, the Solar Hijri calendar and the Hebrew calendar year and weekday – e.g. the ISO week dateCycles can be synchronized with periodic phenomena: Lunar calendars are synchronized to the motion of the Moon.
Solar calendars are based on perceived seasonal changes synchronized to the apparent motion of the Sun. Lunisolar calendars are based on a combination of both solar and lunar reckonings; the week cycle is an example of one, not synchronized to any external phenomenon. A calendar includes more than one type of cycle, or has both cyclic and non-cyclic elements. Most calendars incorporate more complex cycles. For example, the vast majority of them track years, months and days; the seven-day week is universal, though its use varies. It has run uninterrupted for millennia. Solar calendars assign a date to each solar day. A day may consist of the period between sunrise and sunset, with
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic or Scots Gaelic, sometimes referred to as Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish. Most of modern Scotland was once Gaelic-speaking, as evidenced by Gaelic-language placenames. In the 2011 census of Scotland, 57,375 people reported as able to speak Gaelic, 1,275 fewer than in 2001; the highest percentages of Gaelic speakers were in the Outer Hebrides. There are revival efforts, the number of speakers of the language under age 20 did not decrease between the 2001 and 2011 censuses. Outside Scotland, Canadian Gaelic is spoken in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Scottish Gaelic is not an official language of either the United Kingdom. However, it is classed as an indigenous language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which the British government has ratified, the Gaelic Language Act 2005 established a language development body, Bòrd na Gàidhlig.
Aside from "Scottish Gaelic", the language may be referred to as "Gaelic", pronounced or in English. "Gaelic" may refer to the Irish language. Scottish Gaelic is distinct from Scots, the Middle English-derived language varieties which had come to be spoken in most of the Lowlands of Scotland by the early modern era. Prior to the 15th century, these dialects were known as Inglis by its own speakers, with Gaelic being called Scottis. From the late 15th century, however, it became common for such speakers to refer to Scottish Gaelic as Erse and the Lowland vernacular as Scottis. Today, Scottish Gaelic is recognised as a separate language from Irish, so the word Erse in reference to Scottish Gaelic is no longer used. Gaelic was believed to have been brought to Scotland, in the 4th–5th centuries CE, by settlers from Ireland who founded the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata on Scotland's west coast in present-day Argyll.:551:66 However, archaeologist Dr Ewan Campbell has argued that there is no archaeological or placename evidence of a migration or takeover.
This view of the medieval accounts is shared by other historians. Regardless of how it came to be spoken in the region, Gaelic in Scotland was confined to Dál Riata until the eighth century, when it began expanding into Pictish areas north of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. By 900, Pictish appears to have become extinct replaced by Gaelic.:238–244 An exception might be made for the Northern Isles, where Pictish was more supplanted by Norse rather than by Gaelic. During the reign of Caustantín mac Áeda, outsiders began to refer to the region as the kingdom of Alba rather than as the kingdom of the Picts. However, though the Pictish language did not disappear a process of Gaelicisation was under way during the reigns of Caustantín and his successors. By a certain point during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become Gaelicised Scots, Pictish identity was forgotten. In 1018, after the conquest of the Lothians by the Kingdom of Scotland, Gaelic reached its social, cultural and geographic zenith.:16–18 Colloquial speech in Scotland had been developing independently of that in Ireland since the eighth century.
For the first time, the entire region of modern-day Scotland was called Scotia in Latin, Gaelic was the lingua Scotica.:276:554 In southern Scotland, Gaelic was strong in Galloway, adjoining areas to the north and west, West Lothian, parts of western Midlothian. It was spoken to a lesser degree in north Ayrshire, the Clyde Valley and eastern Dumfriesshire. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was widely spoken. Many historians mark the reign of King Malcom Canmore as the beginning of Gaelic's eclipse in Scotland, his wife Margaret of Wessex spoke no Gaelic, gave her children Anglo-Saxon rather than Gaelic names, brought many English bishops and monastics to Scotland.:19 When Malcolm and Margaret died in 1093, the Gaelic aristocracy rejected their anglicised sons and instead backed Malcolm's brother Donald Bàn. Donald had spent 17 years in Gaelic Ireland and his power base was in the Gaelic west of Scotland, he was the last Scottish monarch to be buried on Iona, the traditional burial place of the Gaelic Kings of Dàl Riada and the Kingdom of Alba.
However, during the reigns of Malcolm Canmore's sons, Alexander I and David I, Anglo-Norman names and practices spread throughout Scotland south of the Forth–Clyde line and along the northeastern coastal plain as far north as Moray. Norman French displaced Gaelic at court; the establishment of royal burghs throughout the same area under David I, attracted large numbers of foreigners speaking Old English. This was the beginning of Gaelic's status as a predominantly rural language in Scotland.:19-23 Clan chiefs in the northern and western parts of Scotland continued to support Gaelic bards who remained a central feature of court life there. The semi-independent Lordship of the Isles in the Hebrides and western coastal mainland remained Gaelic since the language's recovery there in the 12th century, providing a political foundation for cultural prestige down to the end of the 15th century.:553-6By the mid-14th century what came to be called Scots emerged as the official language of government and law.:139 Scotland's emergent nat
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies was established in 1940 by the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera under the Institute for Advanced Studies Act, 1940 in Dublin, Ireland. As set out in its legislation,'the functions of the Institute shall be to provide facilities for the furtherance of advanced study and the conduct of research in specialised branches of knowledge and for the publication of results of advanced study and research.'The Institute consists of 3 schools: the School of Theoretical Physics, the School of Cosmic Physics and the School of Celtic studies. The directors of these schools are Professor Werner Nahm, Professor Chris Bean and Professor Ruairí Ó hUiginn; the Institute under the act is empowered to "train students in methods of advanced research" but does not itself award degrees. Following a comprehensive review of the higher education sector, its institutions, conducted by the Higher Education Authority for the Minister for Education and Skills in 2013, DIAS was approved to remain a statutory, independent research institute carrying out fundamental research.
It appointed a new CEO, Dr Eucharia Meehan Director of the Irish Research Council, in the summer of 2017. The Institute was located at 64 and 65 Merrion Square and had two schools - the School of Theoretical Physics and the School of Celtic Studies - to which the School of Cosmic Physics was added in 1947; the Institute has its schools located at three premises on the Southside of Dublin at 10 Burlington Road, 31 Fitzwilliam Place and 5 Merrion Square. It maintains a presence at Dunsink Observatory in north County Dublin. Shortly after becoming Taoiseach in 1937, Éamon de Valera investigated the possibility of setting up an institute of higher learning. Being of mathematical background, de Valera was aware of the decline of the Dunsink Observatory, where Sir William Rowan Hamilton had held the position of Royal Astronomer of Ireland. Following meetings with prominent academics in the fields of mathematics and astronomy, he came to the conclusion that astronomy at Dunsink should be revived and an institute for higher learning should be established.
The Institute is modeled on the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, founded in 1930, theoretical physics was still the research subject in 1940. Most Erwin Schrödinger was interested in coming to Ireland, this represented an opportunity not to be missed; the School of Celtic Studies owes its founding to the importance de Valera accorded to the Irish language. He considered it a vital element in the makeup of the nation, therefore important that the nation should have a place of higher learning devoted to this subject; the founding of the Institute was somewhat controversial, since at the time only a minority were completing elementary education, university education was for the privileged. By this reasoning, the creation of a high-level research institute was a waste of scarce resources. However, Éamon de Valera was aware of the great symbolic importance such a body would have on the international stage for Ireland; this thinking influenced much of de Valera's premiership. Work by the Geophysics section of the School of Cosmic Physics on the formation of the North Atlantic demonstrated that the Irish continental shelf extended much further than thought, thereby more than doubling the area of the seabed over which Ireland can claim economic exploitation rights under the international law of the sea.
In addition to geophysical research, the Geophysics Section maintains the Irish National Seismic Network. Fundamental work in statistical mechanics by the School of Theoretical Physics has found application in computer switching technology and led to the establishment of an Irish campus company to exploit this intellectual property; the Institute has in recent years been one of the main agents helping to set up a modern e-Infrastructure in support of all Irish research. In 1968 the Royal Society recognised de Valera's contribution to science in establishing the Institute by electing him to honorary fellowship. In July 2009 the report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes suggested, as part of a long list of proposals, that the Institute be amalgamated into either University College Dublin or Trinity College, Dublin; the Report noted 79 staff members being paid €6.7m by the Exchequer, an average of nearly €85,000 per person p.a. However, the audited accounts contained in the annual report for 2009 show that the exchequer pay grant included a figure of just over €1m on pensions as well as smaller sums for visitors and that the actual Salaries and Wages figure was €5.1m bringing the average down to €65k.
Subsequently, in the comprehensive review of the higher education sector, its institutions, conducted by the Higher Education Authority in 2013, it was proposed that'In the case of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies... no structural change be made to this statutory, independent research institute carrying out fundamental research in three schools, Celtic Studies, Cosmic Physics and Theoretical Physics. However, responsibility for allocation of funding to the Institute will be transferred from the Department of Education and Skills to the Higher Education Authority; the Minister for Education and Skills accepted this proposal as part of the broader reconfiguration of the higher education system
