The weekend featured The StarDome portable planetarium on tour from Blackrock Castle observatory.
Friday 16th Sept
Saturday 17th Sept
Sunday 18th Sept
Bishop Brinkley was born in Woodbridge, Suffolk and baptised there in 1763. He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1788 and was elected a fellow of the college and was awarded Cambridge Master of Arts in 1791.
He was ordained at Lincoln Cathedral in the same year and in 1792 he became the second Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin, which carried the new title of Royal Astronomer of Ireland. In 1826, he was appointed Bishop of Cloyne, a position he held for the remaining nine years of his life. During his career he received numerous medals and natural science awards for his work on the theology of science and his research and observations on how science supported nature and demystifying some religious beliefs which was revolutionary for his time. Thanks to his learned and scientific approach and training and his well respected standing in the community he was believable and believed and therefore allowed the huge gap between religion and science to be narrowed. He was elected and served as President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 for two years.
This weekend is dedicated to the essence of Bishop Brinkley and on Friday at 8pm Peter Gallagher will talking about ‘The astronomical times of John Brinkley’ and discuss the Science and history of Bishop Brinkley and science at his time.
From 11am to 4pm on Saturday, the Stardome Portable Planetarium from the Blackrock Castle Observatory will be at Cloyne Cathedral and at 3pm Dr Niall Smith, Head of Research at Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and founder and head of the Blackrock Castle Observatory public centre in 2007 (BCO – www.bco.ie) will explore ‘Science and Spirituality’ and how science has changed over time and his thoughts on how scientific discoveries and science in general has evolved and what it tells us about the universe – which, in his opinion, is not a million miles away from Bishop Brinkley’s early revelations.
The weekend’s events concluded with a service on Sunday 18th September in Cloyne Cathedral in celebration of the life and work of Bishop John Brinkley, last Bishop of Cloyne.
