Madam, – The Irish Times unquestionably gives the best coverage of scientific topics in the newspaper field, particularly the Young Scientist Exhibition.
I was delighted to read of the achievements of two boys from the Abbey Christian Brothers School in Newry who developed a workable mechanism for preventing the use of mobile phones in road vehicles (Home News, January 13th).
My friend Donal McAvoy from Killeavey, Co Armagh and I were the first boys in the Abbey to sit A- level mathematics and physics in 1958. It is wonderful to see the scientific flame carried on by the later generations.
I was fortunate in my later career to be nominated by the British Prime Minister for the award of the OBE for work with the Science Museum in London.
At the conferring ceremony in Buckingham Palace I was asked by Queen Elizabeth who my first inspiration was, and I immediately replied that it was the headmaster of my old school.
Brother Mullins arrived in the Abbey in the late 1950s as the headmaster and he inspired and motivated us to set our sights high and aim for a university education.
It is interesting to note that in the more traditional fields our class at that time produced a professor of history at UCD, a professor of law at Trinity, a professor of English at Maynooth, a professor of law at UCG, a professor of law at UCD and a president of UCD.
Looking at your coverage of the Young Scientist Exhibition the modern equivalents of Brother Mullin are inspiring the young men and women of Ireland and I am optimistic that they and the country will prosper.