Indian ambassador unveils plaque to Kilkee scientist

THE Indian Ambassador to Ireland, Debasish Chakravarti, unveiled a plaque to Kilkee-born scientist, Sir Edwin J Butler, at Kilkee library on Tuesday. Mayor of Clare Pat Hayes also attended the ceremony.
Edwin Butler was born in 1874 in Kilkee, where his father was resident magistrate. He graduated in medicine from Queen’s College Cork, now University College Cork, where a building is named in his honour, in 1898.
After graduation, Edwin won an 1851 exhibition travelling scholarship and studied mycology (fungi) in Paris, Freiburg, Antibes and Kew. In 1901, he was appointed cryptogamic botanist to the Government of India.
He trained mycologists and technicians in India, set up a herbarium and culture collection, inspired workers and advanced knowledge and research. In 1905, he was appointed imperial mycologist at the new Agricultural Research Station in Pusa and in 1920 was appointed agricultural adviser to the Government of India.
He is known in India as ‘The Father of Indian Plant Pathology and Mycology’.
Edwin investigated the diseases of many crops in India, including potatoes, wheat, rice, sugarcane, coconuts and rubber. He and his colleagues produced some 40 publications, including Fungi and Diseases in Plants, The Fungi of India, a classic monograph of the Pythium fungus and Plant Pathology, which became the international textbook on plant diseases.
He served as secretary of the Agricultural Research Council in the UK from 1935 and was knighted in 1939. He died in 1943.
In conjunction with the unveiling, an inaugural Sir Edwin J Butler Commemorative Art Competition was organised by Clare County Library, involving national schools in the Kilkee area.
Children from senior classes were invited to produce an image of flowers, plants or trees native to the area in which they live with the choice of working in a variety of media, including oils, watercolours, acrylics, ink, crayon and pencils, or a combination of any of these, as well as collage.
First, second and third prizes were awarded to children from fourth, fifth and sixth classes in the area by the ambassador. The prize-winning schools were Scoil Réalt na Mara, Kilkee, Carrigaholt, Bansha and Doonaha national schools.
In the fourth-class category first prize went to Robin McNamara, Scoil Réalt na Mara, Kilkee; April Mulcahy, Scoil Réalt na Mara, was second, while Cathal McMahon, Carrigaholt National School finished third.
In the fifth-class category, the winners were Jennifer Kelly Carrigaholt National School; Catherine Halpin, Doonaha National School and Jake Cantwell, Doonaha National School.
Katie Linnane, Bansha National School; Hannah Murphy, Scoil Réalt na Mara, Kilkee and Eoin Lynch, Carrigaholt National School were the prize winners in the sixth-class category.
Sinéad Greene, Bansha National School and Jayne Redmond, Scoil Réalt na Mara, in the fourth class category; Ciara Montgomery, Scoil Réalt na Mara and Kevin Keane, Carrigaholt National School in the fifth-class category and Laura Redmond, Scoil Réalt na Mara and Hiram Wood Hennessy, Doonaha National School all had their submissions acknowledged by competition judge, Carmel Madigan.