austin bourke was a meteorologist he was involved in agricultural meteorology and was director of met eireann from check their our history page if you want clarification his thesis was entitled 'the potato blight weather and the irish famine' and he published several books concerning the subject the visitation of god' the potato and the great irish famine being one of the more famous it seems a bit weird all right but when you consider phytophthora infestans or potato blight is a water mold meteorology doesnt seem too far off topic