with some earlier
experience teaching secondary school in Tralee. He wrote three books,
of which two, both undergraduate textbooks, were published in his lifetime.
This book, whose title means "A New Course in Geometry",
and which was completed in the mid-fifties,
was never published, as the financial support that was needed
was not forthcoming from the state. The book was intended for
use by teachers and pupils in the early years of secondary schools,
and there was in place an adequately-funded government scheme to
assist with the publication of textbooks written in Irish, so
one might wonder why this text was not deemed worthy of support.
To make a long story short, the basic reason appears to be
that the book was considered too original, and hence unlikely
to be adopted by many schoolteachers. In fact, the text appears
to have no parallel in any language.
Logic Press is pleased, with the consent of Newell's heirs,
to make a facsimile of this
manuscript text available to the
general public, not only because the content will be of interest
to mathematics teachers, but also because it preserves the
living Irish of someone whose fluency and style were much admired.
Like the Irish of most speakers of the period, it does not
adhere to An Caighdeán (the official standard), and
is all the more interesting for that.
