Bryan Patrick Beirne (22 January 1918 – 31 March 1998) was an Irish entomologist who emigrated to Canada in 1949. He specialised in pest management.
Early life and education
Bryan Patrick Beirne was born in Ballygeary, County Wexford, on 22 January 1918. His parents were Patrick Beirne, tax inspector with UK Customs and Excise and later the Irish Revenue Commissioners, and Mabel Beirne (née Kelly). His maternal grandfather was the owner of the Tuam Herald, Richard J. Kelly.
A student at Blackrock College in Blackrock, County Dublin, Beirne was uninterested in most subjects and even less interested in sport. Beirne entered Trinity College Dublin in 1936, where he devised his own course of studies in entomology and received his PhD at age 22. He held the prestigious Overseas Scholarship of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, before becoming a full-time member of the faculty of Trinity College in 1943, at the age of 25.