The work of an unsung hero of Irish marine science, Dr Ray Keary, is recognised at last. Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent, reports
Geologist, Dr Ray Keary found himself in some distinguished company late last month when he joined the SDLP's Seamus Mallon, trade unionist Peter Cassells and European Parliament president, Pat Cox, in Dublin Castle.
The occasion was the conferring of honorary degrees by the National University of Ireland, and Mallon, Cox et al should have felt similarly overawed at being in the company of the scientist, who is best known for his work with the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI).
It is largely thanks to Keary that Ireland's extensive seabed territory - measuring 10 times the size of this island - is being mapped by a multi-disciplinary team involving the GSI and the Marine Institute at a cost of €27 million.
That accomplishment represents just a small part of his contribution to marine science. As Enda Gallagher of the GSI noted in a recent issue of Sherkin Comment, Keary is held in high respect for his vision and "unwavering determination". But then water - both onshore and offshore - has been an abiding theme of the Galway man's life, wrote Gallagher.
Keary was reared near Lough Derg, and his father was doctor to Inishbofin island off the Connemara coast. Having graduated with a science degree from University College, Dublin, he undertook his first research on Wicklow granite. He was appointed lecturer at University College, Galway (now NUI, Galway) in 1962 and subsequently took an MSc in oceanography.
At the time, many British universities used Connemara as a research base, and Keary realised he couldn't compete with their equipment. This was, he told Gallagher, why he began "rooting around on the seashore".
Geological maps usually stopped at the shoreline, but he convinced the head of the geology department to introduce marine geology on the BSc course. He nurtured an interest in marine science among his students, and encouraged co-operation with the university's zoology department.
As the university was won over to marine science, a small boat, the Ona III, was purchased for research. In 1975, Keary joined the GSI and set up a marine section. That year, the National Science Council purchased the research ship, Lough Beltra. However, marine research took a back seat during the economic uncertainties of the late 1970s and Keary's staff was cut.
BORD Iascaigh Mhara commissioned the first applied work in the marine field from the GSI in 1979. This involved an examination of trawling grounds off the Co Donegal coast using side scan sonar.
When the Lough Beltra was taken out of service for a year as an economic measure, Keary hired the Asgard sail training ship to continue the research. Although the weather was dreadful, the experiment proved to be very successful. In fact, Keary noted, the ship could hold a steady course and was much more sea-friendly than the Lough Beltra.
It was also around this time that the United Nations negotiations on a Law of the Sea convention were in progress. Ironically - or unfortunately - responsibility for seabed boundaries was passed from GSI to the petroleum affairs division of what was to become the Department of the Marine. Keary called repeatedly for a seabed survey and this was eventually supported by Peadar McArdle, head of the GSI.
When the Marine Institute was established a decade ago, Keary received financial support for the GLORIA survey of the seabed, using a long-range mapping device. It proved to be the successful forerunner of the extensive survey which has been progressing since 1999.
Shortly afterwards, Keary retired, but he still continues to assist the GSI and supports its role in the seven-year surveying project.