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Kirwan, Richard 1733-1812
Irish chemist

Born in Galway, he was educated at the University of Poitiers with the idea of becoming a Jesuit. After practising briefly as a lawyer, he spent 10 years in London and was elected FRS in 1780. On his return to Ireland he helped to found the Royal Irish Academy, presiding over it from 1799 to his death. He did valuable work on chemical affinity and the composition of salts, publishing the first systematic work on mineralogy in English in 1784. He is best known, however, for his opposition to the discoveries of Antoine Lavoisier. He also challenged the revolutionary views of the Scottish geologist James Hutton.