THE community of Creeslough gathered to remember computer programming pioneer and proud Creeslough native Kay McNulty on Monday.
The guest speaker at the event was Naomi Most who travelled from San Francisco to speak about her late grandmother and unveil the beautiful bronze plaque that was erected to celebrate her scientific contributions.
Naomi spent months learning Irish before she visited Creeslough as a means of honouring her heritage. So she received a very warm round of applause from the community when she delivered parts of her speech in her grandmother’s native tongue.
“My grandmother only spoke Irish until she was four years old and her father James McNulty fought for our right to speak the language – so I thought it would be good to try,” she told the large crowd.
Eamonn McFadden introduces Naomi Most, granddaughter of Kay McNulty who unveiled the memorial in Creeslough on Monday evening.
Naomi explained how she found thinking ‘as Gaeilge’ a bit different than thinking ‘as Béarla’. She laughed at the language’s quirks and complexity and used the example of how ‘dó dhéag’ directly translates to two and ten – an intricate equation in itself.
When Kay McNulty was recruited to work on the ENIAC, the world’s first electronic computer, the machine had no operating instructions, only a pile of wiring diagrams, that she and her fellow lady mathematicians were tasked to make sense off.
So how do you make a set of 18,000 vacuum tubes do quadratic equations in decimal?
“Well it requires some very flexible thinking,” Naomi laughed.
Naomi Most (second from right) a granddaughter of Kay McNulty with members of the McNulty family from Ard O’Donnell, Letterkenny at the unveiling of the memorial.
She fondly recalled as a teenager when her grandmother would lay long broad papers across the kitchen table – the same ones they used to demonstrate how numbers would be stored and shifted around on the accumulators.
The logical functions that she and her co-workers developed allowed them to actually programme the computer in a time when programming was something that people never thought about. It was more, do the gears turn or does this thing work, but it was not so simple.
So it’s no stretch of truth to say Kay McNulty invented the subroutine, something Noami is now very familiar with herself. She followed in her grandmother’s footsteps and also works as a software engineer.
“My Grandmother excelled in bringing great minds together in conversation and as a consequence she often underplayed her own contributions.
“People noted her as a very different kind of thinker, the kind of person who might think about ‘dó dhéag’ as two and ten, instead of twelve,” she said referring to her opening words.
“So it is really great that Creeslough is honouring her today. Go raibh míle maith agat agus sláinte,” she concluded.
The memorial unveiled in memory of Kay McNulty in Creeslough.
Speaking at the event the local parish priest Father John Joe Duffy described Kay as a “leader of women”, adding that he would like to see more STEM work being done in our schools.
The unveiling was attended by members of National Committee for Commemorative Plaques in Science and Technology and the Women in Technology and Science group.
They were delighted to visit Creeslough on such a momentous occasion, as the plaque honouring Kay McNulty is not only the first national plaque in Donegal, but in the whole of Ulster.
A special tribute was also paid to the late Ben McFadden from Ards who played a significant role in shaping the Creeslough Community Association.
Eamonn McFadden praised Ben’s tireless work which allowed for such projects to be developed.
“Ben was a tireless worker who achieved a huge amount in his life. The great work that he set up during his time has led to projects like this.
“The community association is going from strength to strength but really Ben was the one who paved the way for us to follow,” added Eamonn.
Naomi Most (centre) unveiled the memorial to her grandmother Kay in Creeslough on Monday night.
Ben’s daughter Majella is the newly elected chairperson of the CCA, she said it is fantastic to see the project come to fruition.
“We are immensely proud of Kay McNulty and delighted to honour her legacy. It is fitting to commemorate her life and her work here in her hometown of Creeslough, where so many of her extended family still resides.
“Kay never forgot her roots in Creeslough, and by erecting this plaque we will ensure that Kay won’t be forgotten either,” Majella said.
Majella thanked Eamonn McFadden for all his hard work and described him as the “brainchild” behind the project. But Eamonn said it was the whole community pulling together that stood out in the days leading to the unveiling.
The beautiful bronze and ceramic plaque was created by artist Terry Carton. Terry hand-delivered the plaque to the John McGinley bus in Dublin, they then ferried it to Creeslough early last week.
The plaque was then fitted by stone mason Adam Wainwright and Enda McFadden, in the Corner of the Garden which is pristinely kept thanks to local Tús worker Peter O’Toole.
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