Royal Astronomer of Ireland

The Royal Astronomer of Ireland was a title attached to the Andrews Professorship of astronomy in Trinity College, Dublin, and the directorship of its astronomical observatory at Dunsink, near Dublin. The eight title-holders included three men who were knighted: Professor Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Professor Sir Robert Stawell Ball, and Professor Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker. The title of Royal Astronomer of Ireland was introduced by Letters Patent of George III in 1792, so John Brinkley was the first Royal Astronomer. The appointments were discontinued in 1921 as a result of Irish autonomy.

• 1783–1790 Henry Ussher (first Francis Andrews Professor of Astronomy).
• 1792–1827 John Brinkley (first Royal Astronomer of Ireland).
• 1827–1865 Sir William Rowan Hamilton
• 1865–1874 Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow
• 1874–1892 Sir Robert Stawell Ball
• 1892–1897 Arthur Alcock Rambaut
• 1897–1906 Charles Jasper Joly
• 1906–1912 Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker
• 1912–1921 Henry Crozier Keating Plummer

See also

• Astronomer Royal
• Astronomer Royal for Scotland

External links

• Trinity College Dublin's Astrophysics Research Group website.