The competition was judged by Margaret Kelleher of UCD, Karlin Lillington of UCD and Anne Mulvihill, sister of Mary Mulvihill.
Cian Morgan, a medical student studying at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) is the 2026 winner of the Mary Mulvihill Award, a science journalism competition for third-year students in memory of the late science journalist and author Mary Mulvihill. This year’s theme was about time and how it is an aspect of our existence that, although difficult to define, permeates our lives and experiences.
Morgan received the award and a €2,000 cash prize at a ceremony held at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, while TCD physics student Aoibheann Kearns and Ciaran Lynch, who is studying for a BA in Music and Film at University College Dublin, were highly commended and each received a €500 cash prize.
Morgan’s text, ‘Carlow Cows: A Conversation with My Grandfather’, is an essay inspired by his own reflections and his grandfather’s history on the subject.
He wrote about Dublin Mean Time, which is the national standard time of Ireland, which was established in 1880 and was 25 minutes and 21 seconds behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). He also wrote about the Time Ball on the roof of the Ballast Office in Aston Quay, Dublin, which was lowered from a pole every day at 1.00pm, to allow sailors on the Liffey to calibrate their chronometers at sea.
Morgan said, “At that time in Tullow, my great-grandfather’s hometown in Co Carlow, there was no such sophisticated public clock. So having a clock gave you a lot of dignity in the community. Yet many people planned their day around loose time thinking, so far removed from our current concerns it seemed that minutes and seconds were a ‘right’ to know what ‘minutes and seconds’ was a right to know.
Commenting on the essay, judge and UCD professor of Anglo-Irish literature and drama, Margaret Kelleher said, “I really liked it and found it really informative. Cian’s writing has many of the good qualities of Mary’s work: it provides valuable information in an accessible and engaging way and is very well researched.”
Kearin is the second person in her family to be a prominent laureate, as her sister Aoife, who graduated from TCD also received a highly commended award in 2020 and is now pursuing a PhD in the history of mathematics at the University of Oxford.
Aoibheann’s piece called ‘Your Time, My Time’, explores her personal experience of time over the course of her life, as well as scientific and philosophical views of time, including Aristotle’s concept of force and Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, which “shows that time is not universal”.
Lynch’s installation, ‘Timeless’, is an original piece of music, divided into three parts, with repetitions and images representing the past, present and future. The main melody is played on the grand piano, but Lynch also uses a variety of percussion instruments to mark time and introduce new dramatic possibilities to the piece.
“The theme of this year’s award was ‘Time’, which is a fitting title given that the award is ten years old and the Award committee wonders where time goes,” said Anne Mulvihill, Mary’s sister and a member of the judging panel.
He added, “It was also fitting given that in many ways Mary was ahead of her time in many ways, pioneering science communication.” Once again the judges were impressed and delighted by the wide range of writings on the subject and the winning entries strongly demonstrate that his legacy has endured.”
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