The Cunningham Medal is the premier award of the Royal Irish Academy. It is awarded every three years in recognition of "outstanding contributions to scholarship and the objectives of the Academy".

History

It was which was established in 1796 at the bequest of barrister Timothy Cunningham of

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

. After a period of uncertainty and experimentation regarding the terms and conditions of the award, it was agreed in 1848 that the medals would be open to the authors of works or essays in the areas of Science, Polite Literature and Antiquities, published in Ireland or about Irish subjects. After 1885, the academy stopped giving the award, but it was revived in 1989 for the bicentennial of Cunningham's gift.

Recipients

The following persons have been awarded the Cunningham Medal: *1796: Thomas Wallace *1800: Theophilus Swift (writing, poetry) *1805: William Preston (poetry) *1818: John Brinkley (astronomy) *1827: John D'Alton (history) *1830: George Petrie (history) *1833: George Petrie (history) *1834:

William Rowan Hamilton Sir William Rowan Hamilton LL.D, DCL, MRIA, FRAS (3/4 August 1805 – 2 September 1865) was an Irish mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. He was the Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Trinity College Dublin, and Royal Astronomer of Irela ...

(mathematics) *1838: James MacCullagh (physics) *1839: James Apjohn (physics); George Petrie (history) *1843: Robert Kane (chemistry) *1848:

Samuel Haughton Samuel Haughton (21 December 1821 – 31 October 1897) was an Irish clergyman, medical doctor, and scientific writer. Biography The scientist Samuel Haughton was born in Carlow, the son of another Samuel Haughton (1786-1874) and grandson (by h ...

(mathematics); Sir

(mathematics);

Edward Hincks Edward Hincks (19 August 1792 – 3 December 1866) was an Irish clergyman, best remembered as an Assyriologist and one of the decipherers of Mesopotamian cuneiform. He was one of the three men known as the "holy trinity of cuneiform", with ...

(orientalist); John O'Donovan (history) *1851:

John Hewitt Jellett John Hewitt Jellett (25 December 1817 – 19 February 1888) was an Irish mathematician whose career was spent at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), where he rose to the rank of Provost. He was also a priest in the Church of Ireland. Life He was t ...

(mathematics) *1858:

Edward Joshua Cooper Edward Joshua Cooper (May 1798 – 23 April 1863) was an Irish landowner, politician and astronomer from Markree Castle in County Sligo. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1841 and from 1857 to 1859, but is best ...

(astronomy);

George Salmon George Salmon FBA FRS FRSE (25 September 1819 – 22 January 1904) was a distinguished and influential Irish mathematician and Anglican theologian. After working in algebraic geometry for two decades, Salmon devoted the last forty years of his ...

(mathematics); Charles William Wall (literary criticism); William Reeves (history) *1862:

Robert Mallet Robert Mallet (3 June 1810 – 5 November 1881) was an Irish geophysicist, civil engineer, and inventor who distinguished himself in research on earthquakes and is sometimes called the father of seismology. His son, Frederick Richard Mallet was ...

(seismology); Humphrey Lloyd (astronomy);

John Thomas Gilbert Sir John Thomas Gilbert, LLD, FSA, RIA (born 23 January 1829, Dublin - died 23 May 1898, Dublin) was an Irish archivist, antiquarian and historian. Life John Thomas Gilbert was the second son of John Gilbert, an English Protestant, who was Por ...

(history);

Whitley Stokes Whitley Stokes, CSI, CIE, FBA (28 February 1830 – 13 April 1909) was an Irish lawyer and Celtic scholar. Background He was a son of William Stokes (1804–1878), and a grandson of Whitley Stokes the physician and anti-Malthusian (1763� ...

(linguistics) *1873: Sir William Wilde (polymath, father of Oscar Wilde) *1878: George James Allman (natural history);

Edward Dowden Edward Dowden (3 May 18434 April 1913) was an Irish critic, professor, and poet. Biography He was the son of John Wheeler Dowden, a merchant and landowner, and was born at Cork, three years after his brother John, who became Bishop of Edinbur ...

(literary criticism); Aquilla Smith (numismatics); John Casey (mathematics) *1879: Robert Stawell Ball (mathematics);

William Archer William or Bill Archer may refer to: * William Archer (British politician) (1677–1739), British politician * William S. Archer (1789–1855), U.S. Senator and Representative from Virginia * William Beatty Archer (1793–1870), Illinois politician ...

(natural history) *1881:

Howard Grubb Sir Howard Grubb (28 July 1844 – 16 September 1931) was an optical designer from Dublin, Ireland. He was head of a family firm that made large optical telescopes, telescope drive controls, and other optical instruments. He is also noted for h ...

(astronomy) *1883:

Edward Perceval Wright Edward Percival (Perceval) Wright (27 December 1834, Donnybrook – 2 March 1910) FRGSI was an Irish ophthalmic surgeon, botanist and zoologist. Family, education and career He was the eldest son of barrister, Edward Wright and Charlotte Wrigh ...

(editing Proceedings of RIA) *1884:

John Birmingham John Birmingham (born 7 August 1964) is a British-born Australian author, known for the 1994 memoir ''He Died with a Felafel in His Hand'', and his ''Axis of Time'' trilogy. Early life and education Birmingham was born in Liverpool, United ...

(astronomy) *1885: John Christian Malet (mathematics) ''Award suspended'' *1989: Frank Mitchell (natural history) *2001:

Daniel Joseph Bradley Daniel Joseph Bradley (18 January 1928 – 7 February 2010) was an Irish physicist, and Emeritus Professor of Optical Electronics, at Trinity College, Dublin. Early life and education Born on 18 January 1928, he was one of four surviving chil ...

(physics); Maurice Craig (architectural history); Sir Bernard Crossland (engineering);

David Beers Quinn David Beers Quinn (24 April 1909 – 19 March 2002) was an Irish historian who wrote extensively on the voyages of discovery and colonisation of America. Many of his publications appeared as volumes of the Hakluyt Society. He played a major role ...

(history) *2005: Denis L. Weaire (physics) *2008:

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

(poetry) *2011: John V McCanny (microelectronics) *2014: Patrick Honohan (economics) *2017: Dervilla M. X. Donnelly (chemistry) *2020: Nicholas Canny (history)

References

{{reflist Royal Irish Academy Academic awards Irish awards