seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Bletchley Park


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Birth of Michael “Mouse” Morris, Racehorse Trainer & Jockey

Michael Francis Leo Morris, Irish racehorse trainer and former amateur and professional jockey informally known as “Mouse” Morris, is born on April 4, 1951, in Spiddal, County Galway. As a trainer, he has won the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and has won the Irish Grand National twice. In 2016, he wins both the Grand National and Irish Grand National. He is formally known as the Honourable Michael Morris.

Morris is the third son of Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin, who is president of the International Olympic Committee from 1972 to 1980 and Chairman of Ballybrit Racecourse from 1970 to 1985. His mother, Sheila, is the daughter of Canon Douglas Dunlop, Rector of Oughterard and the granddaughter of Henry Dunlop who is involved in the construction of  Lansdowne Road in 1872. During World War II his mother is a cryptographer at Bletchley Park. According to Morris, “she was in Hut 6, but she wouldn’t ever talk about it. Neither of them would talk about the war. She was bound by the Official Secrets Act, but whatever she did, she got an MBE for it.”

Morris’s twin brother John (Johnny) becomes a photographer and marries Thelma Mansfield. Their elder brother, George Redmond, follows in the footsteps of their father, Lord Killanin, by becoming a film producer. His credits include The Reader. They also have one sister, Monica Deborah.

At the age of fifteen Morris’s formal education ends following his diagnosis with dyslexia. He then begins working at racing stables. He earns the nickname “Mouse” when he is an amateur rider.

Initially, Morris comes to prominence as an amateur jockey. In 1974 he rides  Mr. Midland to victory at  Cheltenham Racecourse giving Edward O’Grady his first Festival winner. In 1975 he turns professional. He rides Skymas in his successive victories in the 1976 and 1977 Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham. He rides Billycan to victory in the 1977 Irish Grand National, a race he is subsequently to win twice as a trainer. His career as a rider ends after a fall in South Carolina‘s Colonial Cup.

Morris is based in Fethard, County Tipperary. In 1981, he takes out a licence and begins his National Hunt training career. Hus first major breakthrough comes when Buck House wins the 1983 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, giving him his first winner at Cheltenham.

The 1990s start brightly for the “Mouse” Morris yard when Trapper John, ridden by jockey Charlie Swan, wins the Stayers’ Hurdle at the 1990 Cheltenham Festival. The following year, Cahervillahow is beaten by a short head in the Irish Grand National and merely three weeks later in the Whitbread Gold Cup he is controversially judged to have interfered with runner-up Docklands Express in the closing stages. As a result, Docklands Express is awarded the race. He finishes second in the 1993 Grand National which is voided after a false start. He trains His Song who is one of the best novice hurdlers of the period. His Song finishes second behind the J. P. McManus owned Istabraq in the 1998 AIG Irish Champion Hurdle on his fourth race outing before again finishing second in the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown Racecourse. One of his most important wins as a trainer comes in 2006 when he sends out the seven-year-old gelding War Of Attrition to win the 2006 Cheltenham Gold Cup, beating another Irish challenger, Hedgehunter, on Saint Patrick’s Day. In 2008, he trains Hear The Echo to victory in the Irish Grand National. In 2011, he trains the winner of the Grade 1 Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, First Lieutenant, ridden by Davy Russell. In 2016, he wins the Irish Grand National again this time with Rogue Angel. Also in 2016, he wins the Grand National for the first time with Rule The World.

Morris is married to Susanna Felicity Clark. They have two sons, James (Jamie) born in 1983 and Christopher (Tiffer) born in 1985. Tiffer dies at the age of 30 in June 2015 of carbon monoxide poisoning while traveling in Argentina.


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Magee College Opens in Derry, County Londonderry

magee-college-1870

Magee College opens on October 10, 1865, as a Presbyterian Christian arts and theological college in Derry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Since 1953, it has had no religious affiliation and provides a broad range of undergraduate and postgraduate academic degree programmes in disciplines ranging from business, law, social work, creative arts & technologies, cinematic arts, design, computer science and computer games to psychology and nursing.

The Magee Campus gains its name from Martha Magee, the widow of a Presbyterian minister, who, in 1845, bequeathed £20,000 to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland to found a college for theology and the arts. It opens in 1865 primarily as a theological college but accepts students from all denominations to study a variety of subjects. It is a college of the Royal University of Ireland from 1880 and later becomes associated with Trinity College, Dublin when the Royal University is dissolved in 1909 and replaced by the National University of Ireland.

During World War II, the college is taken over by the Admiralty for Royal NavyRoyal Navy operational use, becoming with Ebrington Barracks (HMS Ferret), a major facility in the Battle of the Atlantic. A 2013 BBC report describes a secret major control bunker, later buried beneath the lawns of the college. From 1941 this bunker, part of Base One Europe, together with similar bunkers in Derby House, Liverpool and Whitehall is used to control one million Allied personnel and fight the Nazi U-boat threat.

In 1953, Magee Theological College separates from the remainder of the college, eventually moving to Belfast in a 1978 merger that forms Union Theological College. Also in 1953, Magee College breaks its ties with Dublin and becomes Magee University College. It is hoped by groups led by the University for Derry Committee that this university college would become Northern Ireland’s second university after Queen’s University Belfast. However, in the 1960s, following the recommendations in The Lockwood Report by Sir John Lockwood, Master of Birkbeck College, London and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of London, the Parliament of Northern Ireland makes a controversial decision to pass it over in favour of a new university in Coleraine. Instead it is incorporated into the two-campus New University of Ulster in 1969. The next fourteen years see the college halve in size, while development focuses on the main Coleraine campus.

In 1984, the New University merges with the Ulster Polytechnic, and Magee becomes the early focus of development of a new four-campus university, the University of Ulster. Student and faculty numbers recover and grow rapidly over the next ten to fifteen years, accompanied by numerous construction projects. Magee grows from just 273 students in 1984 to over 4,000 undergraduates in 2012. In 2012, the University continues to lobby the Northern Ireland Executive for an additional 1,000 full-time undergraduate places, leading to 6,000 students at Magee in 2017.

On September 14, 2013, Magee hosts, for the first time on the island of Ireland, the 23rd International Loebner Prize Contest in Artificial Intelligence based on the Turing test proposed by the renowned British computer scientist Alan Turing in 1950. Turing also works on cracking the Enigma machine code at Bletchley Park which is instrumental in the Battle of the Atlantic.

In October 2014 the University of Ulster is rebranded as Ulster University.

(Pictured: Magee College, c. 1870)


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Birth of Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander, Cryptanalyst & Chess Player

Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander, Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer, is born in Cork, County Cork, on April 19, 1909. He works on the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park during World War II, and is later the head of the cryptanalysis division at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) for over 20 years. In chess, he twice wins the British Chess Championship and earns the title of International Master. He is usually referred to as C.H.O’D. Alexander in print and Hugh in person.

Alexander is born into an Anglo-Irish family, the eldest child of Conel William Long Alexander, an engineering professor at University College Cork (UCC), and Hilda Barbara Bennett. His father dies during the Irish War of Independence in 1920, and the family moves to Birmingham in England where he attends King Edward’s School. He wins a scholarship to study mathematics at King’s College, Cambridge, in 1928, graduating with a first in 1931. He represents the University of Cambridge in the Varsity chess matches of 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932.

From 1932, Alexander teaches mathematics in Winchester and marries Enid Constance Crichton Neate on December 22, 1934. In 1938 he leaves teaching and becomes head of research at the John Lewis Partnership.

In February 1940 Alexander arrives at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking centre during the World War II. He joins Hut 6, the section tasked with breaking German Army and Air Force Enigma messages. In 1941, he transfers to Hut 8, the corresponding hut working on Naval Enigma. He becomes deputy head of Hut 8 under Alan Turing and formally becomes the head of Hut 8 in November 1942. In October 1944, Alexander is transferred to work on the Japanese JN-25 code.

In mid-1946, Alexander joins GCHQ, which is the post-war successor organisation to the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. By 1949, he has been promoted to the head of “Section H” (cryptanalysis), a post he retains until his retirement in 1971.

Alexander is twice a winner of the British Chess Championship, in 1938 and 1956. He represents England in the Chess Olympiad six times, in 1933, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1954 and 1958. At the 1939 Olympiad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Alexander has to leave part-way through the event, along with the rest of the English team, due to the declaration of World War II, as he is required at home for codebreaking duties. He is also the non-playing captain of England from 1964 to 1970. He is awarded the International Master title in 1950 and the International Master for Correspondence Chess title in 1970. He wins the Hastings International Chess Congress 1946/47 with the score 7½/9, a point ahead of Savielly Tartakower. His best tournament result may have been first equal Hastings 1953/54, where he goes undefeated and beats Soviet grandmasters David Bronstein and Alexander Tolush in individual games. He is also the chess columnist of The Sunday Times in the 1960s and 1970s.

Many knowledgeable chess people believe that Alexander had Grandmaster potential, had he been able to develop his chess abilities further. Many top players peak in their late twenties and early thirties, but for Alexander this stretch coincided with World War II, when high-level competitive opportunities were unavailable. After this, his professional responsibilities as a senior cryptanalyst limited his top-class appearances. He defeats Mikhail Botvinnik in one game of a team radio match against the Soviet Union in 1946, at a time when Botvinnik is probably the world’s top player. Alexander makes important theoretical contributions to the Dutch Defence and Petrov’s Defence.

Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander dies on February 15, 1974, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.