About the author of this site

I was born in Dublin in 1955. I remember in my first year at secondary school being faced with a choice between being taught Latin and additional maths. At that tender age, I chose Latin, for reasons quite unknown to me now. My mathematics teacher was horrified that I should make such a choice, since in his opinion I had shown considerable ability in mathematics. It turned out that my choice was immaterial, since the school decided that they had made a mistake, and that it was far too early to thrust such choices on the shoulders of children so young. And so I continued to learn both Latin and Maths as I had previously.

As I entered my last years of school life I was still indecisive as to what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Academically I was quite capable, being among the first seven overall in Ireland in Physics in the Leaving Certificate examinations. I spent an extra year studying for the Entrance Scholarship to Trinity College Dublin, in which I came second overall, first in the scientific subjects.

After that I studied Veterinary Medicine at Trinity, and worked as a vet for a number of years. Then I decided to take an Engineering course in Queen's University, Belfast. As I started re-immersing myself in study and reading around my subjects as well as the coursework, I became interested in the foundations of mathematics. It was at that time that I came across Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem. I remember that, logically, the argument that Gödel's proof, for any formal system, led to a statement that the formal system could not prove, but that Gödel's proof did prove it, must lead to a contradiction - since if Gödel's proof could be written down in a formal system, then it would be proving a statement, and at the same time proving that it could not prove it! I began to study it, but had to stop because it was taking up too much of my time. I left with a First Class Degree in Engineering in 1992.

After working as an engineer for some time, despite the fact that to outside observers it seemed that I was performing well in my second career, I still hadn't found what I was looking for.

Then, entirely by chance, a few years ago, I came across a book about Gödel's theorem that re-awakened my interest in the foundations of mathematics and logic and in Gödel's theorem. I became determined that I should fully understand Gödel's proof, and finally my efforts bore fruit. It was this that led to my writing a book, a book that I wanted to be able to reach out to as many people as possible (The Shackles of Conviction).

I do make the claim that I fully understand Gödel's proof, and no less so than anyone else. There appears to be very few people who have studied Gödel's actual proof of his Incompleteness theorem in depth. And it appears that there are fewer still who have gained a full understanding of it. While there are those who will heap scorn upon the possibility that I am one of those few with a full understanding of Gödel's theorem, they are the same people who refuse to give any valid reason why this is so, resorting to diversionary tactics instead of engaging in logical debate. See also Common Objections to my demonstration of the flaw in Gödel's Theorem.