Thread by @ThreadsIrish

1. How Prof Tomas Ryan Rose Through The Ranks In Trinity College Dublin

Someone got in touch with me last week about Prof Tomas Ryan & Kevin Mitchell. I have written about Prof Ryan already but was not privy to any of the information I am about to reveal until now. 🧵 1/26

2. I have been communicating backwards and forwards with this person for the last week. They say that the information they have provided is 100% accurate and I have no reason to doubt it whatsoever.

3. I have copied and pasted exactly what they communicated to me. Nothing has been edited. Just before you read what they sent I just want to make sure everyone knows what the acronyms stand for.

4. The Players

TR - Tomas Ryan
LON - Luke O Neill
KM - Kevin Mitchell
AMcL - Aoife McLysaght

Ryan, Mitchell and McLysaght are all members of ISAG

Here we go...

5. Hello again friend! Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, I wanted to get my facts 100% straight for you. Everything I’ve written here is fact.

6. TR started in TCD in December 2016, very high up on the scale of Asst Prof and was promised at the time that he'd be promoted to Assoc Prof if he got an ERC grant, which he did.

7. He then applied for a promotion six months into the job (imagine the ego!) which would be highly unusual and is usually a competitive process.

8. There were four TCD staff who lobbied strongly for him (LO'N one of these), the same people who had made him the promise, which would never stand up to audits/good governing practise.

9. TR threw a strop and was giving out all over the place and threatened to leave (and take his grant money with him). The usual four year probation period was reduced to one year, and he applied for the promotion again after the year and it was approved in October 2018

10. TR has brought millions into TCD in grants, at least:
€1.5million from the European Research Council
800,000AUD from the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia
€780,000 from Science Foundation Ireland
€145,000 from the Jacobs Foundation, Switzerland

11. And of course, the Wellcome Trust funded his PhD research in Cambridge.  (More communication below)

12. Hi there, thanks a million!

Ok so it’s just that I saw on one of your 🧵 lately that Kevin Mitchell was on ISAG and when I looked up their website I saw that he definitely is, so I wanted to share something about him with you that worried me and might interest you.

13. KM - He is the son of a former Provost of TCD, Tom Mitchell, so he has great influence there. Since 2018 he has been TCDs ‘Senior Lecturer’ also known as the Dean of Undergraduate Studies so basically is responsible for the making all the decisions for undergrad students.

14. This position also makes him a member of TCDs Academic Management Group.

tcd.ie/provost/colleg…

15. So, I found out for certain today that he is on another TCD group, the Trinity Living with Covid Oversight Group (described third down on this list)

tcd.ie/Secretary/gove…

16. This has given him direct influence into the response of TCD which has affected the lives of approx 17,000 students and 3,000 staff. All while being part of ISAG!!! This turned my stomach today and might be interesting to you. Last summer TCD seemed to be going in the right..

17... (as you and I would think of it) direction, but then all the great reopening plans were stopped, to the sorrow and bewildered puzzlement of many, but now it makes more sense. Not to mention the influence of auld Luke, Tomas, Aoife, Shane Bergin etc

18. It is disturbing that the sixth most powerful administrative manager in TCD is a member of ISAG and is a Zero Covid advocate, given his position as Dean of Undergraduate Studies and a member of the TCD Living with Covid management group. He has a huge amount of...

19....influence in this group who have now pushed for 18-35 year olds to be vaccinated before the 35+ group and this involves a plan for this to happen in this age cohort of students. He has been directly responsible for the paltry amounts of face to face...

20. ..undergraduate teaching and also how exams have been conducted online since March 2020. His title is Associate Professor in Genetics, in the same department as AMcL. Another mid level academic with zero relevant expertise.

21. It is curious that during TR's degree in TCD to 2005 (in Human Genetics) that his mentors were AMcL and KM, these are a tight knit group going back years.

22. It does seem that TR is highly regarded, he seems to be very good at what he does. But what he does is neuroscience in the area of memory engrams in the brain. He brought a rare line of transgenic mice with him to TCD (the poor things).

23. It’s like we are lab mice to him. These zero covid people are no experts in pandemic science and it is bewildering why they are given such a platform with absolutely no expertise.

24. And I also just want to say you are brilliant and to keep up the good work! If I can ever help just let me know. END

25. Interesting stuff isn't it. Tomas Ryan throwing temper tantrums and Kevin Mitchell are quite the duo. Nepotism abounds in Trinity and it seems like if you can raise cash its easy to get a promotion as long as you have the right contacts and people backing you.

26. As much as I like getting likes (if you liked this 🧵 ) I would far prefer if you could R/T the 1st tweet so as many people as possible get to read it. Many Thanks