Clonmel GP Harry Murray, who created the definitive record of insect life in Ireland, died on this day in 1955.
Murray was born in Bangalore, India in 1874. He studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and had a GP practice in Clonmel for many years. On top of that, he was a keen entomologist (a branch of zoology dealing with insects) and collected specimens from Ireland, France, Switzerland and even made a trip up the Amazon in South America.
He collected more than 4,000 insects, attaching tiny handwritten labels to each perfectly preserved specimen, detailing the date, location, name and habitat. Dr Murray’s collection can be seen today in the Zoological Museum in Trinity College Dublin. Murray’s collection remains one of the most important in the zoological museum’s possession.
Dr. Murray died at Ashbourne on the Coleville Road in Clonmel on this day in 1955. His funeral was held at the Old St. Mary’s Church in the town and he is buried in St Patrick’s Cemetery.
Sources:
The Irish Naturalists’ Journal, Vol. 11 no. 11 (July 1953), pp297-299.
Irish Examiner, 10/02/1955, p4.
https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/butterflies-land-on-trinity/
