Commentary: Darwin's Origin: the Irish connection

A few years after his 5-year round the world voyage aboard HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin purchased Down House in the village of Down in Kent. 1 There he began to ponder the implications of what he had collected and observed, a process that ultimately led to the publication of 'On the Origin of Species' more than 20 years later. The delay is said 1 to have been due to Darwin's agonising over the furore he expected would ensue when the bombshell of his theory was unleashed on Christian orthodoxy. The village of Down subsequently changed the spelling of its name to 'Downe', to avoid postal confusion with the Irish County Down. 1 The name of Darwin's house retained its spelling, which was a pretty coincidence, for without the actions of two members of County Down's landed families, Darwin would almost certainly have never set foot on the Beagle.