History of NUI Galway, the Science Faculty and associated scientists.

Thomas Dillon (1884-1971)

Thomas Dillon studied Chemistry under Hugh Ryan at University College Dublin (UCD).  He married Geraldine Plunkett on Easter Sunday morning, 1916.  Dillon had been acting as a chemical adviser to the Volunteers on the production of explosives and was a member of the IRA but was lucky to escape arrest.  He was later appointed to the Professorship of Chemistry at University College Galway (UCG). 

Thomas Dillon was born in Co. Sligo and he attended St. Nathy’s Diocesan College and Clongowes Wood College.  He obtained a BA degree in Chemistry and Physics at University College Cork in 1904, having at first been a medical student on a scholarship.  After his degree he joined Hugh Ryan at the Catholic University School of Medicine in Cecilia Street, Dublin, where he studied for an MA degree and worked as assistant to Ryan.  He also taught science at the Loreto Convent, Dalkey.  In 1908, with the foundation of the National University of Ireland (NUI), Ryan was appointed Professor of Chemistry at UCD with Dillon as his assistant.  Dillon was awarded the D.Sc. degree by the NUI in 1912. 

Dillon married Geraldine Plunkett, who also studied Chemistry under Hugh Ryan.  They were married on Easter Sunday morning of 1916.  Geraldine was a sister of Joseph Plunkett, a signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.  Dillon had been acting as a chemical adviser to the Volunteers on the production of simple explosives and hand grenades, and was sworn in as a member of the IRA.  Dillon was later faced with the decision of choosing between becoming a full-time politician or staying with his profession in chemistry.  He was however imprisoned in 1918 for his political involvement with Sinn Fein.  He was released in 1919 and was appointed to the Professorship of Chemistry at UCG, succeeding Senier.  He served as Professor of Chemistry until 1954.  Dillon played a major role in developing research on the chemistry of seaweed at UCG.  At this time Vincent C. Barry joined Dillon as an Assistant and was a key figure in this research.  Dillon encouraged the teaching of chemistry through Irish.  It is said that Dillon dominated the Department of Chemistry for its second fifty years of existence.  Dillon was a founder member of the Cumann Ceimicidhe in 1923, the forerunner of the current Institute of Chemistry of Ireland.  He believed strongly in a separate Institution of Irish Chemistry.  Dillon’s research continued into the 1950s and he retired in 1954.  He died in 1971, aged eighty-seven years. 

Source:

Professor R.N. Butler on Chemistry: From Queen’s College to National University, Tadhg Foley (ed), Four Courts Press, Dublin 1999.

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