Darwinism in Europe from 1850-1890

1.
             The nineteenth century started the rise of political nationalism in Ireland and, as a result, dominated politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ireland achieved independence in 1922, but the island partitioned. Ireland's partition reflected the sectarian divisions in Ireland; the largely Protestant and industrialized northeast remained British while the Catholic south became independent from the British Empire. Their distinctive political history meant that much of the impact of Darwinism in Ireland followed a familiar path as in Britain, but there were important differences. The period also began the process that brought Irish Protestants to an uneasy peace with Darwinism by 1890. There were men who spread Darwin's theory. 2 .
             One ordained clergyman who became an academic advisor at the largest and most prestigious college in Ireland, Trinity College in Dublin, George Salmon, addressed the question of Darwinism. Salmon taught future clergyman of the Church of Ireland, the largest Protestant denomination in Ireland, which established their influence over the Darwin debate. George Salmon produced a lecture on the issue in 1874, when he attacked the theory of natural selection. What he said about Darwinism carried much greater weight both intellectually and politically than most of the comments made from other clergymen. His comments held greater weight because he became the most vocal and was more scientifically educated than most scientists because of his more extensive research on evolution theories like Darwin's. Salmon attacked the theory of natural selection on three different levels: he argued that the transition from a lower to a higher species existed, the available evidence suggested was stable only within limits, and there was no evidence of transition from inanimate to animate matter. Salmon, however, admitted the strength of Darwin's view of adaption and made sure to point out the importance of the work in that it underlined "modern science can refer all the wonders of teleology to natural causes.