IRELAND'S LARGEST ever meteorite and a Tricolour flag that was sent to the moon are among geological highlights of a new exhibition which opened last night in the National Museum of Ireland in Co Mayo.
The collection of meteorites and other geological specimens are drawn from the National History Museum in Dublin, which has closed for renovation.
The exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland (NMI) - Country Life, at Turlough Park, Castlebar, is to celebrate International Year of Planet Earth, 2008. It will also serve as a prelude to next year's 40th anniversary of man's landing on the moon.
The largest meteorite recorded in the State landed in 1813 in Adare, Co Limerick, weighing 27kg. Exhibition curator Nigel Monaghan said the specimens came into the museum's possession "because people centuries ago saw them as significant, even if they were a scientific puzzle at the time. Hopefully people will become more aware of the importance of meteorites to Irish science. It would be great if the next time one falls we get a call from the finder."
The exhibition includes material on folk traditions associated with the moon. Other material includes a contemporary description of a meteorite fall at Mooresfort, Co Tipperary, in 1810.
William Higgins wrote: "Some workmen who were laying lead along the gutters of my house were suddenly astonished at hearing a whistling noise in the air; one said, 'the chimney is on fire'; another said, 'it proceeds from a swarm of bees in the air'.
"On looking up, they observed a small black cloud very low, carried by a different current of air from the mass of clouds, from whence they imagined this stone to have proceeded: it flew with the greatest velocity over their heads, and fell in a field about 300 yards from the houses they saw it fall.
"It was immediately dug up, and taken into the steward's office, where it remained two hours cooling before it could be handled," he wrote.
The exhibition, entitled Planet Earth, is open at NMI-Country Life until February 2009.