John Mahaffy was born in Switzerland of Irish parents. From the age of nine he was educated at home in Donegal or Monaghan. In 1855 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, and became Professor of Ancient History from 1869 to 1899. Flinders Petrie asked him to decipher Egyptian papyri, and he subsequently published The Empire of the Ptolemies (1895). His publications until then had been mainly on the civilisation of the Ancient Greeks, except for Principles of the Art of Conversation, which appeared in 1887. From 1911 to 1916 he served as President of the Royal Irish Academy, and in 1918 he was knighted. He was appointed Provost of Trinity College in 1914.

Born:	26 February 1839
Died:	30 April 1919