Sir, – I would like to add my support to the view expressed by Prof Denjoe O’Connor and Prof Brian Dolan (Letters, October 17th) that Ireland should become a member of Cern, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Geneva.
The authors highlighted the significant contributions of the late John Stewart Bell’s work to this year’s Nobel prize in physics, and contrasted the opportunities afforded to Bell with those of current Irish nationals.
Cern is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Although its core mission is fundamental research in particle physics, it also has a remit to train the next generation of scientists and to bring nations together.
Ireland is one of only three EU countries that is not a member of Cern (alongside Luxembourg and Malta), which means that it cannot take advantage of the privileges of participation in Cern: access to scientific and technical programmes, staff employment, career development and training programmes, and industrial return.
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I am a physics teacher, born and raised in the UK to Irish parents.
Having taught at post-primary level both in the UK and Ireland, I am currently completing a fully funded three-year PhD in physics education research at Cern, which is only possible because I was born in the UK.
Similarly, my former students from the UK can come to Cern, both on student programmes and to work, but students from Ireland are denied these opportunities.
I would urge the Government to at least take up associate membership of Cern.
This would allow Irish students and teachers to take part in Cern’s student and teacher programmes, and Irish citizens from many areas (physics, engineering, IT and computing, data science, accounting, international relations, and so on) to avail of opportunities at Cern. – Yours, etc,
RUADH DUGGAN,
Lissarda,
Co Cork,
and Cern,
Geneva.