Using new methods to tell Irish science stories

Mary Mulvihill is using the internet and apps to bring science stories to a new audience

AN OBSESSION with making science and technology come to life through stories about people, places and objects has made Dubliner Mary Mulvihill one of Ireland’s best-known science writers and broadcasters.

The author of Ingenious Ireland, a county-by-county guide to the natural, scientific and man-made wonders around the island, and the presenter of numerous radio programmes centred on science, Mulvihill is now using the internet and apps to bring her stories to new audiences of all ages.

“I suppose I just love understanding how things work in the world,” she says. Out of her book came a live walking tour, then the downloads, “and now I have a company. We are a brand, and we’re doing things,” she laughs.

Her initial efforts, which received a range of funding support, including money from the Heritage Council and the Government, are downloadable walking tours of Dublin’s Botanic Gardens, a family-oriented tour to the Hill of Tara that includes print-out activity sheets for children, and a guide to the treasures in the Royal Irish Academy.

This week, Mulvihill launched the first of a new series of free downloadable “Dublin by Numbers” mathematics walking tours that let listeners find the magic of numbers in fossils, well-known Dublin statues, buildings and other unexpected places.

“It’s amazing. When you look around, there are numbers everywhere, on cars, on lamp posts, on the arch in St Stephen’s Green,” she says. Intended for anyone from the age of six upwards, the first walk, called “Arts, Arches and Architecture” is centred around St Stephen’s Green.

It is full of puzzles and numerical activities, such as trying to work out the size of the antlers of the fossil deer in the National History Museum and estimating the height of the wall of “Tonehenge” – the Dublin sculpture commemorating Wolfe Tone.

The emphasis is on fun and on discovering how mathematics is all around us – and not doing equations. “It’s not about getting the right answer. Some questions don’t have answers and some will send you to the internet to learn more. It’s about looking at mathematics with a whole different eye.”

The walk was developed in conjunction with St Patrick’s College Drumcondra.

Two more Dublin walks to be released shortly include a mathematical exploration of Merrion Square and Georgian Dublin, and a walk that connects Merrion Square to Trinity College Dublin’s Science Gallery, via excursions to the National Gallery and Westland Row train station.

A fourth, starting from Dunsink Observatory on the outskirts of the city, will be an audio companion to what she calls “the world’s greatest science walk”, retracing the famous Royal Canal walk of perhaps Ireland’s most important scientist, William Rowan Hamilton. On that walk long ago, he came up with the idea for mathematical equations known as quaternions which now underpin everything from the animations in film and computer games to space voyages.

Initially a sideline to Mulvihill’s in-person walking tours, the downloads have taken on a life of their own after the success of the Tara and Botanic Garden tours, which can be downloaded from her website, Ingeniousireland.ie, or bought on an MP3 player at those sites.

Their popularity made her realise there was the potential for a company using the Ingenious Ireland monicker.

“It started out from two things,” she says. “First, the Tara project, There’s just so much you can tell people about Tara, but not much explanation at the actual site. And also, my background in radio. I knew that it’s a great way to tell a story and I have a passion about getting these stories out to a wider audience.”

She also realised creating downloads would expand what she is able to do with live walking tours. “I can’t do the tours all the time, so I thought I’d start to record them. Creating the talk downloads would free me up to do other things. And once you start these things, a road just sort of emerges.

“It’s very much about storytelling. I tell stories you won’t hear anywhere else, and take you places you didn’t know existed. Just download a tour, and you have me by your shoulder.”

Ideas for the tours can happen in curious ways. “The maths one is just something that came out of a glass of wine with a mathematician at a reception,” she says. She thought about it, realised it would have to be for families, and “Dublin by Numbers” was born.

“Also, Dubliners are really fascinated about stories they don’t know about their own city,” she says, so she began to think of ways to tell people more.

Through the tours, she loves introducing people to Dublin locations they might never have visited, such as the Royal Irish Academy. “It’s wonderful, and visitors can see their manuscript of the day for free. Did you know the benches in the meeting room came from Grattan’s parliament? And they have Thomas Moore’s harp.”

While it is today’s latest technologies, such as downloads and apps, that make her tours accessible, she notes that in many ways, the technologies and concepts are quite old.

“This is just radio in your pocket but some of this is 50 years old. We’ve had audio guided walks since portable audio players became available 50 years ago. What’s new is the downloading, accessibility and availability.”

She hopes that tour guides will eventually highlight the existence of the downloadable tours, so that visitors can make use of them.

“That would be tremendous, especially with Tara, trying to reach the independent traveller. I do see tourist potential for the downloads. We have a huge number of heritage sites, and you’d like to encourage a little more understanding and awareness without impinging with the centre. With downloads, you can do it in a low-key way.”

For example, the Office of Public Works could have downloads, she says. “There is tremendous potential for that, using a really simple app. Were not talking very expensive apps here, where sometimes you’re doing it for the sake of the technology.”

She’s looking forward to Dublin’s designation as City of Science next year, and has plenty of plans. “We’ll do a range of walking tours and have a suite of downloads,” she says.

She’s also working on a new version of her original Ingenious Ireland book. “It’s been out-of-print for three years so I’m updating it – and this time around I can add links, and create an e-version, too.”

It’s all clearly work that she loves, if “work” is even the right word. “It’s almost a compulsion,” she says. “There are these stories, and the story has to be told.”