Warm tributes have been paid to diver, diving instructor, underwater photographer, and DCU assistant professor Brian Stone, who recently died at the age of 67.
Brian was a university lecturer and researcher at Dublin City University whose work brought together his passions for marine science, technology, photography and education.
“Brian Stone was a true pioneer of underwater photography in Ireland, and one of the people who shaped our underwater photography community,” said Sarah Staunton, President of Diving Ireland. “He founded the Diving Ireland Underwater Photography Exhibition, helped establish DCU Sub Aqua Club, and shared his passion and knowledge generously with divers right across the country. Just as importantly, Brian was warm, generous and a great friend, always bringing people together, in and out of the water. We are deeply grateful for everything he gave to our sport, and his legacy will live on through the many people he inspired,” she said.
A shoal of horse mackerel. Photograph: Brian Stone
His research at DCU focused on marine image analysis and developing technologies to automatically gather and analyse images of fish, seals and cetaceans. Through his involvement with MESTECH — the Marine & Environmental Sensing Hub — and the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, he worked alongside researchers from DCU, the Marine Institute, the National Centre for Sensor Research, MERC Consultants and the SmartBay project in Galway Bay. This interdisciplinary work supported research into marine biodiversity, biomass, conservation and changing environmental conditions.
“Brian particularly enjoyed the challenge of combining engineering, software and image analysis to solve real-world problems in marine science. He also took great pleasure in working with students, including developing, with them, a fish-identification system through the National Infrastructure Access Plan,” said Prof Fiona Regan, director of the DCU Water Institute. “For Brian, research was as much about inspiring and involving the next generation as it was about developing new technology. His career reflected a lifelong curiosity about the sea and a belief in the value of combining research, technology, photography and education to better understand and protect the underwater world.”
Known for his passion for scuba diving and underwater photography, he combined both pursuits to record wonderful images of marine life – some of which formed part of an exhibition commemorating Maude Delap in 2018 and can still be viewed at Valentia Island Lighthouse, in Co. Kerry.
Brian Stone, off the coast of Co Kerry. Photograph: Nigel Motyer
Brian was born in Dublin in 1959. He studied land surveying at Bolton Street College of Technology (now part of Technical University Dublin) and was proud to have drawn maps for Uinseann MacEoin’s book Survivors. However, there was little work in land surveying at the time, and after a number of years took the difficult decision to go back to college. This time he studied computer science at DCU, went on to do a Master's degree and subsequently started lecturing.
He loved his job, but he also had many other interests: music, cycling, cooking, gardening, fishing, travel, and later diving and underwater photography. As a child, he learned the tin whistle, followed by the flute, the low whistle and then the uilleann pipes, which he learned at Na Píobairí Uilleann (The Pipers’ Club) and under the mentorship of Tom Clarke. He was also a member of the County Wicklow Anglers Association.
From a young age, Mulcahy recalled at his funeral, it was only a matter of time before he took up diving, “exploring the mystery and wonder of the underwater world”.
Fireworks anemone. The photograph features in a collection of Brian Stone’s pictures which are part of a permanent installation at Valentia Lighthouse, in Co Kerry, and are always viewable when the Lighthouse is open for visitors. The exhibition closes on November 1 and will re-open next year in March
When he founded the DCU Sub-Aqua Club 25 years ago, he laid the foundations, including sourcing equipment and providing training, to ensure the club would survive. At his funeral, Aoibhéann Bird, longstanding member of DCU Sub Aqua Club, leading examiner and former vice president of Diving Ireland, recalled how she got to know “a charismatic, constantly kind, gentle, dependable and quiet gent, looking out for everyone around him”.
While he “gave us the space to become capable, confident divers and, in many cases, leaders and instructors ourselves,” he was there whenever challenges arose, Bird said. “He was our safe haven, our coast guard,” she said.
In 2009, national governing body Diving Ireland (formerly the Irish Underwater Council) wanted to create a course on underwater photography, and Stone played a pivotal role in establishing it. Fellow diver and underwater photographer Ivan Donoghue said Stone was particularly helpful with lecture writing and practical course delivery, and later suggested updates to keep it current with technological advances.
Stone spearheaded an underwater photography exhibition that evolved from this in 2013. As Donoghue recalled, Stone was adamant that it would have a non-competitive ethos, where people could have their photos printed professionally and then displayed at the annual dive show. Over ten years on, the exhibition is still touring the island.
Stone contributed photographs to The Irish Times, and to the Shipwreck Inventory of Ireland by Karl Brady, senior archaeologist with the National Monuments Service. He also joined the Curragh Subaqua Club, where he was a member for many years and played an active role in the club’s annual dive trip to Inishbofin, which he always thoroughly enjoyed.
Through his interest in underwater photography, he also led a group of licensed divers with marine archaeologist Eoghan Kieran to conduct underwater surveys for the Department of the Environment on the wreck of the Tayleur, which sank in Dublin Bay in 1854.
This project helped set the national standard for divers planning expeditions to protected historical shipwrecks in Irish waters, adopted by CFT (now Diving Ireland); it also yielded important photography and video of this historic wreck for the State.
With a passion for underwater photography, he went on diving trips to the Caribbean and the Azores as well as doing an underwater photography workshop led by Alex Mustard in the Red Sea in 2019.
A Caribbean reef shark, in the Bahamas, 2016. Photograph: Brian Stone
Friend and fellow diver Polly Dolan recalled that underwater photographer Nigel Motyer “organised the trip on Jim Abernethy's boat in the Bahamas to see Emma the tiger shark. I was very fortunate to be on this trip as I was the only non-photographer,” she said. “Once in the water, each photographer found a spot they liked and would sit patiently in one spot for whatever came by. There are wide varieties of sharks in the Bahamas, and many of them did come by. Meeting Emma the tiger shark was great, and despite being surrounded by a battery of huge camera-wielding divers, she gave everyone a turn. Brian got some great photos of her. Brian's love of nature, diving, photography, music, and a multitude of other interests was infectious. There was a childlike excitement to his enthusiasm which just sucked you in. You had to listen! A big man with a big laugh and a huge zest for life, which he shared with all he met. A wonderful and sorely missed friend,” she said.
Brian Stone photographing Emma the tiger shark in the Caribbean. Photograph: Nigel Motyer
Emma the tiger shark with underwater photographers in the Caribbean. Photograph: Brian Stone
As his interest in underwater photography grew, he joined Dalkey Sub Aqua Club, where he shared his passion with fellow divers.
Stewart Andrews, long-time member of the club, recalled: “I believe that I was a participant in Brian’s first Diving Ireland’s classroom photography processing workshop in his DCU ‘computer lab’. As a lecturer and a friend, these times set you down a road that you never turn back from - what a joy he passed on to us, with ease,” he said.
Fellow Dalkey Sub Aqua Club member Mary Patterson at his funeral recalled his sense of humour and his love of the “finer things in life”, including music, food and cooking. She described a scene on Rossroe pier in Connemara on a “cold, wet, windy March day” when she was among a gang “shivering between dives” and “about to unwrap soggy sandwiches with a pack of Tayto and a flask of lukewarm coffee. Meanwhile, Brian, surrounded by wetsuits, dive gear and very smelly nets, was “casually turning around to offer fresh Baguette with camembert and relish… In Connemara! In March!”
Tunicate on kelp in Connemara. Photograph: Brian Stone
Aside from his passion for the underwater world, in DCU, after completing his MSc by research in 1993, Stone continued his research in data communications and computer networks, Professor Michael Ryan, former head of the computing school, recalled. Stone’s teaching extended beyond DCU, including as a visiting lecturer in Management Information Systems at Trinity College Dublin and as a visiting Professor at Northeastern University in Shenyang, China.
He also represented the School of Computing as co-chair of the MSc in Electronic Commerce, a joint venture with the DCU Business School.
Prof Regina Connolly, who co-chaired the programme with Stone, said it was a flagship one for the university at the time. “Brian was an excellent academic and a wonderful colleague, but above all he was kind, fair, funny and thoroughly decent. I feel very fortunate to have worked with him, and I remember him with great affection.”
“His students found him deeply knowledgeable, warm, and humorous, and he inspired in them a love of computer networking and an appreciation of the complexity of the technologies that underpin everyday life,” Prof Ryan added. Former colleague Prof Martin Crane said, “To so many of us, Brian was far more than a colleague: he was a much valued friend and a generous mentor to colleagues and generations of students alike. He gave tirelessly of his own time and energy to others. It was this guidance, generosity and kindness that will leave an indelible mark and will live on in the memory of everyone fortunate enough to know him.”
Mauve Stinger (Pelagia noctiluca) off the coast of Sicily. Photograph: Brian Stone
Another former colleague of Stone’s and former head of school in DCU, Prof Joe Morris, said, “I treasured him as a colleague in the university where his great talent was in dealing with staff and students in his unique way, which to me always felt more like an embrace than an encounter. I never heard a cross word from him. As Head of School, I received many student gripes, but never one about Brian. He was highly innovative in his approach to teaching and was a favourite of the students.” Prof Morris added, “Brian is unforgettable. I am going to miss his kindness, energy, enthusiasm, jolliness, easiness, company, stories, support, his infectious joy of life wherever he found it or just made it himself… He lifted my spirits. He lifts them still.”
Bird said he was “an advertisement for a way of living”: remaining curious, taking time to look around, and never losing a sense of wonder. At Stone’s funeral, she recounted one particular dive that her husband, Phil Smyth, undertook with Stone at St John’s Point, Co Donegal. “Phil was preparing for his two-star exam, so he expected the usual sort of testing. But Brian chilled,” Bird said. “Instead of rushing around looking for something interesting, he encouraged them to become still, to look carefully and to allow the marine life to come to them. Brian took photographs, and Phil saw things differently,” she said. “It was not a dramatic lesson. Brian did not announce that he was about to impart some great wisdom. He simply demonstrated it… Slow down. Be still. Pay attention. Let the life come to you. I think that was Brian’s great gift. He could reveal the extraordinary through the simplest of actions.”
Some of Brian Stone’s underwater photographs will feature in the DCU Sub Aqua Club’s underwater photography exhibition marking the club's 25th anniversary, which runs in the DCU library from October 12th to 23rd
A collection of Brian Stone’s underwater photographs forms part of a permanent installation at Valentia Lighthouse, in Co. Kerry, and is always viewable when the Lighthouse is open for visitors. The exhibition closes on November 1st and will re-open in March 2027.
