An appreciation: Charles Hepworth Holland (1923–2019), founding editor of the Irish Journal of Earth Sciences

AN APPRECIATION: CHARLES HEPWORTH HOLLAND (1923–2019), FOUNDING EDITOR OF THE IRISH JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES PATRICK N. WYSE JACKSON, MATTHEW A. PARKES and JOHN MURRAY Charles Hepworth Holland, who died recently, could be described without fear of contradiction as the pre-eminent geologist who worked in Ireland over the last sixty years. A native of Southport, Lancashire, he was educated at Manchester where he held his first academic position. Although he commenced his postgraduate studies there, his PhD was awarded by Royal Holloway in London (Holland 1956; see also Holland 1958). He later taught at Bedford College in London, becoming a senior lecturer. His association with Ireland commenced in 1966 when he was appointed Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at Trinity College, Dublin, following worthies such as John Phillips, Samuel Haughton and John Joly as holders of this particular Chair (Wyse Jackson 1994). He quickly expanded the Department of Geology, recruiting more staff and firmly obtaining an increase in its annual budget from the college. Charles Holland was a founding editor, together with David Naylor and Ian Sanders, of the Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, and according to Ian its distinctive colour branding was actually based on the colour of Charles’ favourite tie! The ‘purple journal’ as it would become affectionately called remains an important vehicle for the dissemination of research on the geology and geomorphology of Ireland. Prior to its inception in 1978, papers on Irish geology published in Ireland generally appeared as separate issues in either the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section B or the Scientific Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, Series A, or more occasionally within the Irish Naturalists’ Journal. Irish Journal of Earth Sciences 38 (2020), 1–4 doi: https://doi.org/10.3318/IJES.2020.38.1© 2020 Royal Irish Academy Charles Holland in the field (Photograph ­ courtesy of Celia Holland). 2 Irish Journal of Earth Sciences (2020) Begun as a means to cater for increased research output from the Irish university and professional sectors, to foster publication in a timely manner, and also to highlight both in Ireland and abroad the elevated interest in Ireland’s rich geological heritage, the first five volumes were published by the Royal Dublin Society when it was styled the Journal of Earth Sciences, Royal Dublin Society. In 1984 the Royal Irish Academy assumed responsibility for the publication of the journal, which then was renamed the Irish Journal of Earth Sciences. Aside from editing duties, Charles also contributed a number of papers to the journal (Clayton et al. 1980; Holland et al. 1988; Hutton and Holland 1992; Ferretti and Holland 1994; Holland 1996; Holland and Yochelson 2000, 2002), which were focused on aspects of Paleozoic palaeontology and stratigraphy. A short note published in 1990 with his co-editors provided a retrospective view of what had been achieved with the first ten volumes of the Irish Journal of Earth Sciences (Holland et al. 1990). Charles’sgeologicalresearchinterestswerebroadly four-fold: he was a stratigrapher, a cephalopodologist, a skilled commentator on landscapes and their geological foundations, and also a thinker on deep time. This appreciation will focus largely on his contributions on Irish geology. Further biographical information, a discussion of his academic work, and a detailed bibliography to 2001 can be found in the Special Papers in Palaeontology volume dedicated to him and published by the Palaeontological Association in 2002 to mark his retirement (Wyse Jackson et al. 2002). Charles Holland’s interest in stratigraphy began as a student in Manchester. His studies led him to carry out detailed mapping and assessments of the Silurian sequences of the Welsh Borderlands, which was conducted alongside the work of Vic Walmsley and Jim Lawson (Holland et al. 1963). Soon after his arrival at Trinity he embarked on mapping the Silurian of the western end of the Dingle Peninsula (Holland 1969), a field area that drew him back many, many times (Holland 1987a; 1988a). He established a programme of mapping and description of the stratigraphy and relationships of Paleozoic inliers across the country and supervised the studies of a number of PhD students, including John Parkin, John Doran, John Feehan and Audrey Jackson. His study on the Silurian sequences of the Cratloe...