Happy 90th Birthday Dad!

For the month of March I have been taking a break from blogging, but I cannot let the month go by without paying tribute to my wonderful Dad Joe who is 90 years young today. Born on 31st March 1931 in Dublin, he has lived all his life near Carnew: first in Tomacork before moving to Ballingate in 1960. Despite the Lockdown, he is keeping in great spirits and has not lost his sense of humour or love of music and singing. What a pity we cannot celebrate with a big party - no doubt we will be able to get together as a family later in the year.

Here are some photos of Dad over the years:

Tomacork, c1933.

With sister Breda, and brother Pat.

Joe, Breda, Pat, Charlie, Mary, and Eileen O'Loughlin ( Tomacork, early 1950s).

Mid 1950s.

The Mikado - Gorey Musical Society 1956. Dad at centre of front row
(and Mum 3rd lady from left in second row).

Joe and Phil Engagement, 1957.

On FCA parade for the Séamus Wrafter monument unveiling in Enniscorthy, 14th Sept 1958.

Dad is under the letter "J" on the shop sign.

22nd October, 1958.

On stage with the late Pat Sheppard (HMS Pinafore).

O'Loughlin family gathering in Ballingate (1977).

Dad with grand-daughter Claire - new Oak Tree plantation, Ballingate (1995).

40th Wedding Anniversary (1998).

75th Birthday Party (2006).

With Joseph, Brian, Kathleen, Eugene, and Phil O'Loughlin.

With Mum and the late Pat Sheppard (2007).

The Farmer's Journal, 10th December, 2016.

Three Joe O'Loughlins! (2011)

Still working - 1st March 2021

Dad and I in the yard at Ballingate (1st March 2021)

Disconnecting Blog from Linkedin and Twitter #ImRetired

For several years I have been using the dlvr.it platform to automatically post all my blog posts to both Linkedin and Twitter. This was both to keep up some traffic on Linkedin and Twitter, and to save manually posting anything I wrote. Even though several of my posts over the years were not really suitable for a professional network like Linkedin (eg posts about family, and bells!), I felt that I had enough writings about education, video, data analysis, books, etc, to justify the automatic reposting.

As a retired person I feel I no longer need to keep up with everything on Linkedin. I am fed up of getting messages about recruitment, even though my status is "Retired". I am becoming less and less interested in posts from others, though I still love to see postings by former students announcing promotions and new jobs. I am not leaving Linkedin and Twitter altogether - I'm just not auto-posting any more starting March 1st. I can manually repost anything if I think it is suitable. I don't use Twitter that much, but I have found it handy for technical support and am keeping it for that purpose only.

Does a retired person need Linkedin? Comments welcome!

The Sound of the Ballingate Bell

A newspaper article about a bell is of course lacking one major aspect of the story - sound. My "Ballingate bell calling the faithful in Zambia" story is about the quest to find the bell nearly 60 years after it left Ireland. But I also wanted to hear it!

Shortly after photographs and other evidence from the Franciscan Missionaries in Zambia helped us to trace the bell to a church in Malengwa, my Franciscan contact there Br Owen Mwene, made a short video. Several of his colleagues surrounded the bell as many were interested in the story of where the bell came from. I was delighted to hear the bell for the first time. It sounds just like any other bell, but after the long quest to find it I felt a strong attachment to it. 

There's quite a bit of wind noise in the video. It was my original intention to try and make a documentary of this story. One idea I had was to actually go to Malengwa to see and ring the bell for myself. I planned to collect recordings, I already have some of my father telling the original story, a neighbour recounting hearing the bell and what it was used for, and a retired friar telling me about life in Zambia (all done on my Google Pixel 3a phone). Once I realised that a documentary was not going to happen, I got the story published in The Wicklow People instead.

Bell Manufacturing in Ireland

The Ballingate Bell, now ringing in Malengwa in Western Zambia, was manufactured in the Murphy Bell Foundry in Dublin in 1889. This foundry was based at 15 Thomas Street - it is long gone and is now a car park according to Google Maps. According to the June 2002 edition of "The Ringing World" journal, John Murphy and his son John J. Murphy made bells for churches and cathedrals all over the world. Here's an extract from the article: Rings of bells by Murphy included those for Melbourne in Australia, St Thomas the Apostle in Douglas in the Isle of Man, St Mary's RC cathedral in Cork, the fine-spired Church of the Immaculate Conception in Wexford, Mount St Alphonsus' Monastery in Limerick, Thurles cathedral in Co Tipperary, St Nicholas' in Cork and Ss Augustine and John in Dublin. Murphy bells were also "awarded prizes at the Dublin and London Exhibitions and First Prize in 1900 at the Paris Exhibition".

The Ballingate Bell.

There were other bell foundries in Dublin including the Eagle Foundry run by James Sheridan in Church Street, and a bell foundry run by Thomas Hodges in Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street) before moving to nearby Middle Abbey Street. Clearly the church building boom of the late 19th and early 20th century fuelled the need for local manufacturing. In a time before telephones of any type, bells were also used as a form of communication. I recall visiting my Aunt Sr. Bridget in the Loreto Convent in Bray - straight after arriving a bell would ring out to signal to her that she had visitors. There were two rings, then a short pause, and then four rings - her number was 24.

Bells on top of houses were not uncommon, and many still exist today, though are no longer in use. Not far from Ballingate there are two bells located on what was the Coolattin Estate. On the roof of Coolattin House you can clearly see a bell when walking from the 16th to 17th tees in the adjoining golf course. Not far away on the road to Shillelagh there is another bell on what was the Building Yard. I'm sure there are many more around the country.

Coolattin House.

Close up of bell on Coolattin House.

The Building Yard bell.

My great-grandfather Thomas Hurley 100th Anniversary

In this time of centenaries in Ireland, there are of course many smaller and minor centenaries that every family will have. Today, 20th February 2021, is the 100th anniversary of the death of my great-grandfather Thomas Hurley. He was just 54 years old.  His wife Bridget had died in 1916, leaving him with a family of six - including my grandmother Kathleen. He died in The Mercy Hospital in Cork due to septicemia as a result of a cut in his finger.   Thomas Hurley was a Creamery Manager and lived in Newmarket, Co Cork. The house in Church Street (see photo below taken in 2008) where he lived was demolished in recent years. I can't tell for certain, but the modern day Kerry Foods Newmarket Cooperative Creameries Ltd premises is located right behind where this house stood. My Dad tells me that Bridget Hurley ran a small shop from their house.

Thomas and Bridget Hurley.

Death registration of Thomas Hurley. Source: Irish Genealogy.

At the graveside of Thomas and Bridget Hurley (2008). Clonfert Cemetery, Newmarket, Co Cork.

Old Hurley House (2008), Church Street,  Newmarket, Co Cork.

The family photos shown here were probably taken around 1910. My grandmother, Kathleen, was born in 1903 - so I'm guessing that she is about seven years old in the photo below. While very serious looking, I think you can tell that Thomas and Mary are very proud of their family. You can imagine the excitement of getting dressed up for the photography studio, and waiting probably a week or more for the photos to be developed and delivered. Another noticeable thing is Thomas's lack of hair - a gene which he unfortunately passed on to his great-grandson! In this family Charles went on to be a priest in Dublin. Tim became a doctor and moved to Wales where he practiced medicine. Hannah joined the Loreto Nuns. Eileen ("Mrs D" to us) married Joseph Dwyer in 1934, but was widowed shortly afterwards - she never married again and had no family. Pat never married. And Kathleen married PJ O'Loughlin (also from Newmarket) on 23 January 1930 - they moved to Tomacork just outside Carnew in Co Wicklow, and had six children (including my Dad Joe).

Thomas and Bridget Hurley with their six children.

Back row left-to-right: Charles, Hannah Mary, and Tim.
Front row left-to-right: Eileen, Pat, and Kathleen.

Relatives in the Missions

Two Murphy brothers from Newmarket in Co Cork, Patrick and Edward, joined the Franciscans in 1939 and 1946 respectively. I am related to them via my paternal great-grandmother Julia Murphy who is a sister of their father (Edmond). Two of their sisters joined the nuns in St Mary of the Isles in Cork. Patrick took the name "Hugh" and was ordained a priest on 5th June 1947. He went on the missions in December of that year and stayed there for the rest of his life. He died in 1990. Edward took the name "Theophilus" and was ordained a priest on 23rd May 1954 - he also went to Zambia in 1954. He retired to Cork, but died shortly afterwards in 2006. Fr Theophilus was the central character in my Ballingate Bell story.

I am fascinated by the faith and dedication of these two men who left everything behind in Ireland. The Murphy family was a very big one - their father Edmond was one of 14 children. Even though they had each other in Zambia, it must have been difficult to be parted from family and friends. Of course, in the 1940s and 1950s, the seminaries were full in Ireland. In 1956, there were 5,489 priests in Ireland - that's one for 593 Catholics (Newman, 1958*). 

Below are some photos that I came across during research for the Ballingate Bell story. I feel that these men could very soon be forgotten as the generations pass. All of the photos below were taken in Zambia and reproduced here courtesy of the Capuchin Archives. Two other people of note in the photos are Br Crispin Brennan, who was also a central character in the Ballingate Bell story, and a young Kenneth Kaunda who would go on to be the President of Zambia from 1964 to 1991.

Fr Hugh (left) & Fr Theophilus (right) with Br. Godfrey Sinvula (centre), in Senanga 1970s. 

Fr Theophilus (standing at left) and Br Crispin Brennan (seated mid-right).

Silver Jubilee of Br. Albert Hayes, in Maramba Livingstone, 13th May 1959, with Bishop T.P. O’Shea Top left:  Hugh and top right: Theophilus. On left of Theophilus is Br. Ronan Herlihy (from Castleisland). In the Middle row, far right: Br. Crispin Brennan from Carnew.

Fr Theophilus (second left) with the then future President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda (centre).

* Newman, J. (1958). Priestly Vocations in Ireland. The Furrow, 9(11), 710-721. Retrieved February 19, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27657513

Mission Bells in Zambia

While searching for the Ballingate Bell in Zambia, we came across three other bells that were discounted as being the Ballingate Bell for a variety of reasons. 

We established from the Capuchin Archives that my cousin Fr Theophilus Murphy was based in Mangango (Western Zambia) from 1962 to 1968, but that the Ballingate Bell was not there. Theophilus was based in Sichili from 1954 to 1961 - the bell here is mentioned in my Wicklow People article, but no photos were displayed. We discounted this bell as it is stamped with the date 1959. Interestingly, a crest on the bell indicates that it was manufactured in Saarlouis in Germany, and I wondered how it ended up in Zambia - it surely had its own story to tell.

The Sichili Bell

A second bell was located in Lukulu, where Fr Theophilus was based from 1968 to 1973. We ruled this bell out as well because of its colour, size, and shape. It turned out to have been manufactured by Rudolf Perner in what was then Czechoslovakia. Perner was a famous bell maker who specialized in bells for West Africa. It is not the Ballingate Bell, but I wonder how did it too end up in Zambia? 

The Lukulu Bell

A third bell was found hanging from a tree in Lumulunga – it was clearly stamped with the word “Zealandia” and the date “1875”. Though a possibility, we ruled it out due to its very wide shape. This bell is almost certainly to be from the SS Zealandia which was a ship built in Glasgow in 1875, but that ran aground in 1917 near Liverpool. It was carrying a cargo of mugs, sheep, and treacle. Again, I wondered how the ship’s bell ended up in Zambia, and what story this and the other bells could tell if they talked.

The Lumulunga Bell

I'm sure that there are many other bells in Zambia and other countries where missionaries worked and who brought what they could from home. It would be an interesting study to find them all and track down their original locations and how they made the long journey to their current location. 

Ballingate bell calling the faithful in Zambia via @WicklowPeople

Thanks to the Wicklow People, my story about The Ballingate Bell is now available on-line for all to read. So if you did not get your hands on a paper copy of The Wicklow People, you can read it here:  https://bit.ly/3b28Jwb Several photos from the print edition, are not posted, but I will be sharing these and more detail about the bell here over the next week or so. Please share!

My Story about the The Ballingate Bell in The Wicklow People

Over the past few months I have been researching for a story about a bell that somehow made a 5,000 mile journey from Ballingate House (where I grew up), near Carnew in South County Wicklow, to a church in Malengwa in Western Zambia. It was quite an experience for me and I finally managed to get it published in this week's Wicklow People.  To read the story you'll have to buy The Wicklow People (Feb 10th edition)!

Once a week has passed, and the print run for this week's edition of The Wicklow People is finished, I will write some blog posts about how this story was put together. The version in the paper is just 1,600 words and I had to cut it down several times and leave some stuff out to get this point. It is not just a story about a lump of iron, but about community, communication, faith, history, and the dedication of Irish missionaries who work in Africa. I also learned a lot about family - especially those who joined religious orders many years ago.

7 Days Later

Exactly a week after I launched a new series of videos on Programming in R, I wondered how the analytics looked for each of the 11 videos published so far. I have very modest expectations for this series of videos, probably just as well given the less than impressive start shown below. I am releasing videos once a day (Monday to Friday) for the next couple of months, so hopefully it will gain a little momentum as well.

Exactly 7 days after the launch, the total number of views is 666, and I have earned the princely sum of €1.26 from ads. It takes a long time for any video to accumulate views. During the same period, my most popular video (How To... Perform Simple Linear Regression by Hand) garnered 16,935 views and earned €25.35.

Here's how the performance for R videos looks so far:

While it is too early to make any clear observations, there is some evidence that Statistics is more popular. I intend a lot more statistics videos later in the series, but I will stick to my plan of release.

Programming in R - New YouTube Videos

The first five videos for my new "How To... Programme in R" series are now available on YouTube - I hope they are the first of many. They are recorded with Snagit and most are 6-8 minutes in length. Each video has a single Learning Objective, and the amount of code covered is mostly just few lines. 

• ​How To... Display "Hello World" in R #01: https://youtu.be/mRlncrX94xQ
• ​How To... Save a Value in a Variable in R #02: https://youtu.be/t_t0FIzLPso
• ​How To... Insert Comments in R #03: https://youtu.be/_vsd5EhzTPw
• How To... Create a Vector in R #04: https://youtu.be/txAn1gKk2QY
• ​How To... Read Data in R #05: https://youtu.be/9wdmQpLScI4

The YouTube Premiere was a complete failure - just three people out of my 53,894 subscribers tuned in live, and there was just one comment from a viewer. My videos are entering a very crowded market, so it will be difficult to gain any level of success. Let's see!

Why Learn R?

The R programming language was designed by statisticians and was specialized for statistical computing. It is often regarded as the most important programming langauge for statistical analyses, but is also extremely useful for any type of data analysis. Many people want to learn R to gain skills for a career in data analysis. Learning any programming language can be daunting for beginners, and there is no doubt that it will take a lot of time and lots of practice to develop skills for deep data analysis. Nevertheless, learning even the basics of R will allow beginners to perform simple data analysis such as visualizing data, make calculations, and performing statisical analysis.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

During my last two years as a Lecturer in the National College of Ireland I taught the module "Programming for Big Data" to students studying Data Analytics. I developed all my own scripts, course notes, R code, and sample data files - so I had built up quite a resource of R education material. I should point out that the R Cookbook (Long & Teetor, 2019) provided lots of inspiration and ideas for code. I am now launching a new series of YouTube videos based on my former module resources. I am also experimenting with YouTube's Premiere tool to announce the series at 16:00 tomorrow. I am also releasing the first five videos at this time, and hope to be able to chat to viewers after the launch.

All my R videos are short, mostly around 6-8 minutes long. Over the next few weeks I will release videos on a regular basis. At the time of writing this post, I have over 50 videos ready to go, but with a lot more planned.

While I have numbered the videos in sequence, it is not my intention to create a course in R programming - there are lots of free and paid for sites doing this. In fact, there is a lot of competition on-line for R education material. I have only modest hopes that my series will be successful. 99% of the people who watch my existing videos find them through a search for that particular topic. I expect the same for R videos.

Finally, I am making all my R code scripts, plus supporting files, available on my Github, where learners can view and download to try out - see https://github.com/eoloughlin/How-To-R.

Just how many people are there by age group in Ireland?

Many people in Ireland and all over the world are anxiously waiting their turn to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. In Ireland we have 15 groups in our HSE priority list for the vaccine. As a 61 year old, I fall into the 12th group ("People aged 55-64"). There are no dates yet for when this group will receive the vaccine. The list is based (fairly in most people's view) on vulnerability and age. This got me thinking about how many people there are in different age groups in Ireland.

The Central Statistics Office provides Census data for 2016 - the most recent available. The population of Ireland in this census was 4,761,845, and data is provided by five year age groups. Using Excel I plotted these data in a bar chart.

Click/Tap Image to Enlarge.

First, I was struck that the age ranges were not evenly balanced. The highest age group are in the 35 to 39 age range, while the lowest is the over 85s. In my own age group (60-64), I am one of 238,856 people. To vaccinate everyone over 65 (priority #5 on the HSE list) means that 570,012 will get the vaccine ahead of the rest of us. According to the 2016 census, there are only 67,555 people over the age of 85 (which includes my Mum and Dad) - this should now be an easy and quick group to vaccinate. If you are in the last group ("People aged under 18 and pregnant women", #15 on HSE list), then there are approximately 3.5 million people ahead of you in the vaccine queue.

Launching: "How To... Programme in R" #data #analytics #youtube

YouTube allows Content Creators to launch a video or series of videos with YouTube Premiere. I'm trying this out for the first time as I will be releasing a new series of videos on How To Programme in R starting on 1st February next. Over the past couple of months I have been spending Lockdown recording lots of short videos using content from my old class notes and exercises. Most videos are between 5 and 10 minutes long, and each has just one learning objective - I have 50 ready so far, with lots more to come. My plan is to release videos one-at-a-time on a daily/weekly basis after 1st February.

I don't know if a YouTube Premiere will do anything to get more viewers to my channel. There is a lot of competition on YouTube, but I'm hoping that my step-by-step learn one thing at a time approach will work. While I'm guessing that YouTube Premiere is aimed more at celebrities and influencers, I'm going to give it a go anyway. Part of this Premiere process is that the video below will not be released until 1st February - this is intended to generate enthusiasm and anticipation. 

Please share!

 

Resisting Temptation to go back Lecturing

Recently, I turned down the opportunity to lecture some modules this coming semester at a College that I had not worked with before. I was flattered, but also very honoured to be asked. The modules did not quite suit me so it was an easy decision to say "no". Even if it was just a little bit - I was slightly tempted to give it a go.

Given that many of the things I had planned to do during retirement will not be possible for the next few months, it might have been a good use of my time to take on a module or two. I had said "no" to joining the Associate Faculty of part-time lecturers in my old College as I did not want to be tied down during a 12 week semester. I wanted the freedom to come and go as I please, and having classes every week would interfere with this. 

I'm wondering how many others who have retired during the Pandemic feel a little cheated and feel they might be better of back at work? Us retirees are all looking for things to do. I am recording a lot of videos for YouTube release and spending time building up my family tree. I'm also watching a lot of Netflix! 

I don't see myself going back to part-time teaching. Hopefully we will all be vaccinated before the end of the summer, and my retirement can really begin!

New YouTube video: "How To... Download and Insert a YouTube Video into PowerPoint with Mozilla Firefox"

In August 2019 I received the following Channel Violation message on my YouTube Channel:

Eugene O'Loughlin, your content violated YouTube's Community Guidelines and has been removed

The video was about how to download videos from YouTube using Mozilla Firefox - originally published on 23 October 2013. At the time I was genuinly shocked that I had allegedly violated some rule and I was very surprised that it took five years for this happen. I appealed the decison, but was rejected. It turned out that I was guilty of posting content that encouraged other users to violate YouTube's Terms of Service. Towards the end of the video I stated that downloading a video was a good way to avoid ads. Guilty m'lord!

The Channel Violation message is still located at the top of my Channel page. Before the video was taken down it had amassed 89,918 views, 177 Likes, and 15 Dislikes. I checked today if there are any other videos that show how to do the same thing, and there are hundreds. So I have decided to re-record without the "encouraging other users" message (I did this last year), and upload again. Fingers crossed that I have not violated any further rules as this would be my second strike - YouTube operates on a "three strikes and your out rule".

Fr Theophilus Murphy OFM

Over the past few months I have had the time to do a lot of research into my family tree, and one of the more interesting ancestors that I have is Fr Theophilus Murphy. When I was growing up, there were many mentions of a "Fr Theophilus" and "Rhodesia". I have vague memories of him calling to our house in Ballingate. 

Edmond Murphy was born in 1928 and grew up in Newmarket, Co Cork. He was my Grandfather PJ O'Loughlin's first cousin, making him my first cousin twice removed. When he joined the Franciscans in 1946 he took the name Theophilus. He was ordained a priest on 23rd May, 1954 and within a few of months was on his way to the Missions in Northern Rhodesia (modern day Zambia). His brother Patrick (Fr Hugh) was already a missionary in N. Rhodesia. He was just 26 years old, and he would spend the next 52 years in Africa.

In those days, Franciscans were only allowed home every eight years. So, it would have been 1962 at the earliest that he could come back to Ireland, and visit our house. It happened that the previous Christmas that my grandfather presented our house with a picture of the Sacred Heart, which still hangs in the kitchen in Ballingate to this day. At the bottom of the picture is a dedication to the Sacred Heart to my parents Phil and Joe, plus myself, my brother Joe, and sister Kathleen (my youngest brother Brian was born after 1962). Though very faded, you can make out the signature of Fr Theophilus Murphy. A nice, if distant, connection with my cousin.

Fr Theophilus served in many locations in Zambia, and also served three terms as Religious Superior, responsible for the lives and welfare of the friars in Zambia. His postings in Zambia were as follows:

Sichili 1955 to 1961

Mangango 1962 to 1968

Lukulu 1968 to 1973

Lourdes parish in Mongu: 6 months in 1978, 

Nalionwa (Kalabo): 2 months in 1978;  

Mangango, most of 1979 

Senanga 1980 to 1983

Malengwa 1985 to 1988

Sioma for 6 months in 1989

Malengwa for 1990

Mangango 2000 to 2006

Fr Theophilus retired in 2006 to the Holy Trinity Friary in Cork, but sadly died suddenly later that year (7th Oct) while preparing for Mass. I would love to have met him and hear about his times in Zambia. Today's generations will soon forget that Theophilus and many young Irish men and women became missionaries all around the world.

Fr Theophilus Murphy. (Photo courtesy of Fr Noel Brennan OFM)	Fr Theophilus (2nd left) with Kenneth Kaunda (centre), before KK became President of Zambia. (Photo courtesy of Fr Noel Brennan OFM)

Goodbye 2020

It's New Year's Eve and this is my final blog post of the year. It is also the 87th post for 2020, which is my lowest annual total since 2007. While 2020 has been a momentious year, you-know-what has curtailed much activity and stiffled ideas for things to write about.

Good riddance 2020!

Image source: freepik.

Earlier in the year, Roma and I were planning our big trip to Australia and New Zealand for October straight after my planned retirement. We had planned to come back to Ireland via Canada and so complete our first ever round-the-world trip. I remember saying to Roma one evening as we were looking at flights: "Let's wait a bit and see what is going to happen with this virus...". Little did we know.

I suppose the biggst thing that happened for me in 2020 was my retirement. While perhaps my timing was not the best, I have no regrets. I do find myself looking for things to do, but I am working away on my plans for a Programming in R series of videos for launch in January 2021. 

2021 holds out the prospect of a vaccination and a return to some kind of normality. I am near the end of the list of vaccination priorities, so it could be closer to the summer when my turn comes. I am looking forward to meeting people and seeing old friends again, playing golf, riding my bike, having lunches and dinners out, going to all the museums I had planned to visit, taking random breaks, and of course travelling. You know - normal stuff!

Happy New Year everyone - it's gotta be better than 2020!

Data Visualization: Covid-19 Lives Lost via @IrishTimes

Over Christmas I was reading the "Covid-19 Lives Lost" series in The Irish Times. It is dedicated to "Those who have died in Ireland and among the diaspora led full and cherished lives. This series is designed to tell the stories behind the numbers". There are 68 people listed to date and it makes for very sad reading - each death of course affects 68 families. There were some couples who died within days of each other, at least three priests, two died just short of their 100th birthdays, and there was one from 1959 - the same year I was born. What struck me most was that so many of the stories were about people born in the 1920s and 1930s. They lived very long lives, but were cut down in the end by a cruel virus.

While not a scientific study, I decided to note the year of birth for each of the 68 people listed. The year of birth varies, but sadly they all have on thing in common: 2020 as the year of death. The chart below illustrates the cruel nature of the virus. Nine of the deaths occured in those born in 1937, while eight occured in those born in 1926, 1931, and 1935. Let's hope that the new vaccines will stop these deaths so that our parents and grandparents can live out the rest of their lives in comfort.

Tap/Click to enlarge.

Happy Christmas 2020!

It's Christmas Day and I want to wish all my friends and family a very Happy Christmas! 

What a year it has been, and it is not over yet! I wonder what 2021 has in store for us? Our Christmas tree this year is from Ballingate grown in a neighbouring farm to my Mum and Dad. It's one of the nicest I have ever got. Later I am off to the in-laws for a small family dinner that hopefully will be safe for us all. I miss not being at choir this year, so I'll have to burst into song later on.

Introduction to Children First Certification

Today I completed Tusla's "Introduction to Children First" e-Learning programme, and I'm happy to report that I passed the assessment and I am now certified as having completed the course. It is the first e-Learning course that I have completed for several years. I have had to complete this course as part of a new volunteer role that I am taking up in the New Year. The role does not involve any contact with children and I will be working from home, but nevertheless it is compulsory training for all volunteers. I have five more courses to complete before I can get started. While I was a little reluctant to have to complete this programme since I will not be involved with children, the "Introduction to Children First" course was quite interesting and covered much material that I did not know about. It was about 1.5 hours long and featured a lot of video - it was well made, and deals well with this difficult subject matter. The programme is free, though you will have to register to take it. Tusla emails you a certificate once you have completed the (very easy) assessments. It's definitely worth taking for anyone that will be involved with children in any capacity. The programme is available here.

Remembering a Football Icon (and my Shame) #Pablito

It was sad for all football fans to hear the news of the death of Paulo Rossi this week at the young age of 64 from lung cancer. I watched nearly every game of the 1982 World Cup and remember his hat-trick against Brazil like it was yesterday. A World Cup winner is a rare commodity, and Rossi was definitely a zero to hero icon.

Unlike my other football heros such as Alan Kelly, Pelé, George Best, Maradona, and Messi - I did actually get to see him play in the flesh on the night of the 5th of February 1985 in Dalymount Park. The World Champions were in town to play Ireland and I had a ticket for the match. Unfortunately, the FAI only issued tickets for one section of the ground, and 40,000 fans showed up. I remember the massive queues at the turnstiles, and virtually no stewarding at the match. My ticket told me to go to the North Circular Gate, but there were hundreds of non-ticket holders there as well - the Gardaí opened the gate and we all spilled in. It was very crowded inside, but despite the mayhem - I got to see all the action.

The first goal in Italy's 2-1 win was scored from the penalty spot by Paulo Rossi. Despite it being a clear penalty (Lawrenson foul on Altobelli), Rossi was booed as he lined up the spot kick. While booing a penalty taker is not a surprise, afterwards the crowd chanted "Paulo Rossi, you're a w***er" several times over. To my shame, I joined in. 

Perdonami Pablito.

Most Visited Pages on this Blog - Plagiarism!

Every month, Google sends me performance data for www.eugeneoloughlin.com. For the month of November, there was a very modest 868 "Total clicks" (how many times a user clicked though to my blog). It also tells me which pages are the most popular - the top three (with dates published) are:

1. Using Google Translate to Beat Plagiarism Detection Software (11th February, 2013)
2. How To... Calculate Pooled Variance in Excel 2013 (11th May, 2015)
3. Word Mixing to Defeat Plagiarism (15th June, 2017)

The had 195, 178, and 57 clicks respectively for the month of November. I'm surprised that a nearly eight-year old post is the number one, but this has been the case ever since I posted it - it is consistently one of the top viewed posts. It has had 17,717 views in total since first posted. The third highest post, also about plagiarism, shows that this is a popular topic. 

Even more interesting is that over the same period, the "Total Impressions" (how many times a user saw a link to my site) is 54,900 impressions. Of these, 4,639 (8.5%) are for the number one post about Google Translate. 

What does this tell me? It's stating the obvious that there are a lot of people out there looking to find out how to cheat. None of my posts offers a service to cheaters - they were simply comments at the time after I had been involved in cheating/plagiarism issues at work. It also tells me that if you want to attract traffic to your site, plagiarism as a topic will sell!   

In contrast to above, my recent "Retiring Today" post attracted just one click (thanks Dad!) and four impressions over the same month. I should note that all my posts are automatically re-posted to LinkedIn where my retirement post got 3,501 views!

Sub-titles on YouTube

Today a viewer of one of my YouTube videos sent me the following message: "Thanks for the arabics substitles". While this is gratifying, I have no idea how Arabic subtitles were shown - I can only guess that viewer's own language settings are in Arabic and that YouTube detected this and provided the subtitles by translating my spoken word (reveal - I can't speak Arabic!). 

This is a fantastic piece of technology. It has been around for a while and is getting better all the time. My spoken word in English is automatically translated into other languages - I'm assuming that it is first transcipted into English so that the text can then be translated into any language supported by Google.

Just to check, I turned on sub-titles on one of my videos - my language settings are that English is used. I was surprised to see how accurate YouTube is - despite my Irish accent, there were very few errors in translation. I did not have to do anything when I created the video, and a transcript of my voice is also auto generated. This is brilliant for non-English speaking or for viewers with hearing disabilities.

What will they think of next!   

The First Month #NoRegrets

This day last month was my last official working day at the National College of Ireland - I can't believe how fast the time has flown, and how easily I am fitting into retirement. Of course, all my plans for travel have had to be postponed for another day, and the Lockdown has reduced options for things to do. 

The best part of retirement so far is that I can now visit my parents Joe and Phil during the week as well as at the weekend. I have been stopped several times by the very polite Gardaí on the road to Carnew in Co Wicklow asking me the purpose of my journey. I usually have some dinner for my parents on the passenger seat to show them, and they let me continue. We have plenty of chat and we have not yet exhausted all topics.

Have I missed my work at NCI? Yes. I do miss teaching, but I am 100% satisfied at my decision to retire. I am so glad that I am not stuck at my computer working from home all day long - this must be hard for everyone. While I feel that on-line classes are here to stay, there's nothing like the classroom experience on a good teaching day. 

At first, in the days after my retirement day there were so many on-line messages congratulating me on my retirement - I was overwhelmed! There were over 800 "Reactions" and 100 comments to NCI's lovely message on LinkedIn. I loved getting messages from past students and from people I had worked with in the past. This has now all dried up - the party is definitely over!

As posted elsewhere on this blog, I have been making some new YouTube videos to keep me busy. And plans for a series of videos on R Programming are well advanced - I hope to start releasing these videos in mid-January. I have also done a small piece of work for another third-level College, which I found really satisfying - it was good to feel useful again.

So far - retirement is good!

Lecturer in Computing Vacancies at NCI

National College of Ireland has just advertised for FIVE permanent positions for Lecturers in Computing - see NCI Vacancies here. The areas of specialty sought are: "data science, cybersecurity, financial technologies, computing, business computing, cloud computing, (and) artificial intelligence". If you are an aspiring Lecturer, NCI is a great place to work and you should consider applying. Please read the "Qualifications & Experience Required" - there are a lot. The salary is quite low starting off, and it will take a few years to rise up the salary scales. You won't be doing this job to get rich.

NCI - A Great Place to Work.

Image source: The Irish Times.

One thing that does strike me about the job advertisement is that I would not be qualified to apply! I do not have a "PhD in Computing, Informatics, Computer Science, Data Science, Cybersecurity, Financial Technologies, Business Computing/technologies or related areas". Nor do I have an "Established track record of research achievement as evidenced by scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals". I have absolutely no "Evidence of research funding". It's sobering to think that I would not have qualified to apply for my old job.

Nevertheless, applicants should not be put off by this. It's rare that a candidate ticks all the boxes on any job description. Passion and commitment to education are the primary characteristics needed. Good luck to all who apply!

Return to Whole Blood Donation #GiveBlood

I have been donating blood to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service since I was about 18 years old, but for the last several years I had been doing so at the Blood Platelet Clinic in St James' Hospital. Platelet donation is very different from whole blood donation - it can be done much more frequently. However, earlier this year I was retired from the Platelet Panel due to several consecutive low platelet count levels. So, after 155 donations, today was my first day back at the whole blood clinic in Stillorgan. Lots of Covid-19 restrictions of course, but nevertheless a pleasant experience.

If you can, give blood.

Four New "How To..." YouTube Videos

Things to do during retirement? Make videos!

Today I posted four new statistics videos to YouTube - I have never done this in one single day before. These are about using SPSS for non-parametric tests (Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon Signed Rank, and Kruskal-Wallis), and one for how to determine if a data set is normal or not. While I used to cover these exact same tests in class, I never made the effort to make videos about how to do them in SPSS. 

I have now posted 11 new videos in the past two weeks. They will take a while to attract new views, but as of today they have received almost 1,000 views between them already. I'm not expecting too much, but they do fill some gaps in what I used to cover in class. 

I think that's it for now for Statistics videos, hopefully viewers will dine them useful.

 

 

 

How To... Determine Cronbach's Alpha in Excel and SPSS #Statistics

Cronbach's Alpha is a test statistic to measure internal consistency and reliability. I never covered it in any of my statistics classes as the datasets I used did not suit this as a test. It seems to be very suitable for data like survey responses and to determine if questions on the survey correlate with each other strongly enough so that you can conclude they all measure the same thing (the subject of the survey). If, for example, you  were conducting a survey on attitudes to Medical Insurance, you would want to make sure that your survey questions measure the same thing (attitude). You would expect respondents who give a high rating to the statement "I like the quality of my Medical Insurance", to also rate the statement "My Medical Insurance is good value for money" highly. 

Excel does not have an option to calculate Cronbach's Alpha, so a workaround is necessary. This is a very easy test to do in SPSS - here's how to do both:

 

Two More YouTube Videos on Effect Size

I never really concentrated on Effect Size while teaching statistics at the National College of Ireland - I just showed a formula for calculating it for a two-sample test, didn't really explain it that well, and moved on. I should have placed more emphasis on it, but now I have posted videos for one-sample, two-samples, and ANOVA tests.

When you find a significant difference in Statistics, another way of putting it is that you have found an "effect". But statistical tests do not tell you if this is a small, medium, or large effect. I have concluded this short series of four videos on Effect Size with the final two about ANOVA tests - this is an easy test to do and is worth following up when conducting the ANOVA test.

 

How To... Calculate Effect Size #YouTube #Statistics

Following on from yesterday's publication of a video showing how to calculate Effect Size for a one-sample test, today I have added a new video showing how to calculate Effect Size for a two-sample test. When you find a difference (in other words, an "effect") with a statistics test, it is often important to know how meaningful that difference or effect is. For example, if you were conducting a test to see if a drug had an effect on the treatment of a disease, you would like to find a meaningful difference rather than a trivial one.

This series of "How To By Hand" videos are being made at home with my GoPro Hero 7. I am using it like a document reader and it gives good quality, but is awkward to set up. I have to use my old SCUBA diving lead weights to anchor the GoPro stand on my desk. Once recorded, I use the GoPro Quik App to transfer it to my computer for upload to YouTube. As usual, I do not edit the videos - if I make a mistake, I simply start over.

Here is today's video:

How To... Calculate Cohen's d for Effect Size #YouYube #Statistics

On my first "working" day of retirement I have made a new statistics video - it is over six months since I last published a video on YouTube. This is one of a few statistics videos that I wanted to do to plug a few gaps in the series that I have already produced. Statistics videos are now my most popular, so I'm hoping that this one will prove popular too.

Cohen's d measures effect size. This tells us how meaningful a difference is when we find a significant difference as a result of a statistics test. Usually we report a difference as p < 0.05, but this does not tell us if the difference is small, medium, or large - so it is important to calculate the effect size.

Here's how it's done for a one sample z test (it can also be used for a one sample t test):

Kevin Barry and "The Mons" #100years

Image source: Wikipedia.

One hundred years ago today, Kevin Barry was hanged in Mountjoy Prison for the murder of a young English soldier. He was the first of 24 republicans to be executed by the British during Ireland's War of Independence. He was accompanied to the gallows by two priests: Canon John Waters, and a Fr McMahon who gave him all the spiritual comfort that a condemned person would want.

There is a story in our family, which I got from my Uncle Pat, that my paternal grand-uncle Monsignor Charles Francis Hurley (my second name is also Francis in his honour) also attended the execution and that it greatly affected him for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, he is not mentioned on any of the documents in the Kevin Barry Papers archive in UCD, nor does a Google search find any connection between him and Barry.

Affectionately know as "The Mons" in our family, he attended Cistercian College Roscrea (1908 - 1912) was ordained as a priest on the 28th February, 1920 in the Irish College in Rome. One of his first postings was to St Patrick's College in Carlow - at the time it was operating principally as a seminary for the priesthood. So he was a very young priest when Barry was hanged nine months later. Kevin Barry grew up in nearby Tombeagh and went to school in Hacketstown, Co. Carlow. I don't know if The Mons knew the Barrys personally or how he was connected other than he was working in Carlow where Barry was from in 1920. It is also thought by some in my family that at the time of the execution that he had moved to the Holy Cross College on Clonliffe Road in Dublin - this is where Canon Waters was based. It is possible that at the execution he assisted Frs Waters and McMahon, carrying holy water and oils for anointment. Clonliffe College is about a mile from Mountjoy Prison. Perhaps he was outside the prison where hundreds of people were praying for Barry on the morning of his execution - we might never know what exact part my grand-uncle played on that fateful day exactly one hundred years ago.

PS - if any family are reading this and can add more to this story, please get in touch!