What happened Irelands Moon Rocks

starn

Apparently in the 1970s Richard Nixon gave away 135 lunar rocks sample to countries as a sign of good will. Ireland was one of the countries anywhere know what happened the Irish rocks. Someone was caught out a fe years back by US customs agents trying to flog it. The guy looking for it, was looking for nearly 5 million a gram.

The_B_Man

The radiation emmitted from the rock was used to power the Liffey Millennium clock. however, the liffey water is so corrossive, it melted the rock and it simply drifted out into the atlantic. It then had the effect of making the Irish Sea the most radiated in the world.

Zaph

It used to be on display for years in the old aviation museum that was in Dublin airport. Don't know what happened to it after they closed the museum.

AlmightyCushion

starn wrote: »

The guy looking for it, was looking for nearly 5 million a gram.

Shít. That's almost as expensive as printer ink.

Red Hand

They made Moon Pie out of them.

belleray

By the power of greyskull google

The Irish rock is probably in Dunsink dump or with Erskine Childers decendents (if his widow turned sneaky.

http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2004-July/001829.html

https://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2005/jan/02/childers-widow-wanted-to-keep-moon-rock-as-souveni/

The_B_Man

google told me its in the natural history museum.

eVeNtInE

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marcsignal

Katy French ??

gerky

Wallace and Gromit lied, it tasted nothing like cheese:( but on the plus side your poop will orbit the toilet bowl.

belleray

eVeNtInE wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Childers widow wanted to keep moon rock as souvenir of Aras
Stephen Collins Political Editor
A PIECE of moon rock, now valued at millions of euro, was the subject of a tussle between the widow of President Erskine Childers and the Office of Public Works 30 years ago.

After the death of her husband in office in November 1974, Rita Childers asked if she could take a tiny piece of moon rock as a memento when she was leaving Aras an Uachtarain.

Newly-released state papers show that Mrs Childers inquired if she could be permitted to take a number of items, including the moon rock, with her on leaving the Aras.

They had been presented to her husband, who was the first president to die in office.

In 1973, US president Richard Nixon presented moon rock fragments as good will gifts to Ireland and 134 other friendly nations.

Because of their rarity, the value of the moon rocks is now hundreds of times greater than that of diamonds.

Following Mrs Childers' request to take the Aras moon rock with her, the chairman of the Commission of Public Works, Con Farrell, was told in a December 1974 memo from the Taoiseach's department that there were no hard and fast rules on the issue but items should not be removed "where there is evidence or reason to believe that they were not intended as personal gifts to the president".

The memo said it was clear the moon rock, encased in an acrylic shell and mounted on a plaque with the Irish flag, was the property of the state.

In underlined text, the memo states that: "A minute of 28 August 1973 on our file shows that this plaque was presented to the president for the people of Ireland and indicates the US government had expressed the hope that the government of Ireland would 'designate an appropriate institution where the plaque could be placed on permanent display for the public'.

"Furthermore, the inscription on the plaque itself declares it was 'Presented (by Richard Nixon) to the people of Ireland from the people of the United States of America', " the memo added.

The rock is now in display in the Natural History Museum in Dublin. In recent years there has been considerable disquiet about the fate of the moon rocks presented by the US government to other countries.
January 2, 2005

In a nut shell

monkeyfudge

Don't recall ever seeing it in the Natural History Museum...

When is that place going to open again... how long can it take to repair a staircase...?

starn

It was always very hard to find anything there. The way it was layed out. So Im not surpisesd that I never saw it there.

I think I also read somewhere that parts of Leinster House need to be renovated for safty reasons.The people who occupy offices those parts of LH are being rehoused in the Natural Museum until there finished

So it could be two or three years before it reopens

the_syco

Epic lolz on the location of the rocks?

Capt'n Midnight

gerky wrote: »

Wallace and Gromit lied, it tasted nothing like cheese:( but on the plus side your poop will orbit the toilet bowl.

Actually you'll find it's orbiting Uranus.

Mint Sauce

they were returned to the hollywood film studio along with the landing craft, the lunner rover, and the astronaut outfits

galwayrush

monkeyfudge wrote: »

Don't recall ever seeing it in the Natural History Museum...

When is that place going to open again... how long can it take to repair a staircase...?

The moon rock is what broke the staircase.;)

gerky

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Actually you'll find it's orbiting Uranus.

How do you know what's going on there:eek:

timmywex

Trinity college have some, theres a thread about them at the moment in the tcd forum under education

Xiney

Actually I saw the rock in question at the museum of country life (operated by the NHM) in castlebar last weekend.

So does it look like anything special or just normal rock? Cause I may have an ingenious plan ..

galwayrush

Deleted User wrote: »

So does it look like anything special or just normal rock? Cause I may have an ingenious plan ..

The stuff i saw was black, but i was confused because the Moon dosen't look black. Looked like black granite, and extremely heavy.

robinph

You can actually touch the moon rock that they have in the Smithsonian Air and Space in Washington.

It was just a bit of rock though.

ThenComesDudley

As Xiney said above. They have one rock on display in the The National Museum of Ireland in Turlough Park, CastleBar. Its part of a display of meteorites that fell in Ireland

Scarinae

It does seem to be the same one!

This temporary exhibition is based on the geological collections from the National Museum of Ireland – Natural History. The exhibition will feature a sample of moon rock, complete with an Irish tricolour flag that was brought to the moon.

galwayrush wrote: »

The stuff i saw was black, but i was confused because the Moon dosen't look black. Looked like black granite, and extremely heavy.

The rock was probably from one of the maria (seas) - the dark patches on the moon, these are from ancient volcanic eruptions. Basalt is the same rock you see at the Giant's Causeway up in Antrim, it is fine grained, dark and quite dense. It makes sense that they would have collected basalt, as Apollo 11 landed in the Sea of Tranquility. Most of the 'highlands' on the moon are covered with a layer of anorthosite, which is pale and reflective and makes the moon look mostly white.

johnp

robinph wrote: »

You can actually touch the moon rock that they have in the Smithsonian Air and Space in Washington.

Books flights

robinph wrote: »

It was just a bit of rock though.

Cancels flights

Capt'n Midnight

galwayrush wrote: »

The stuff i saw was black, but i was confused because the Moon dosen't look black. Looked like black granite, and extremely heavy.

the moon only looks bright because it's in direct sunlight.

iirc the moon is as dark as coal

Random

complete with an Irish tricolour flag that was brought to the moon.

Does this mean we can stake a claim to the moon now?

DublinWriter

Zaph wrote: »

It used to be on display for years in the old aviation museum that was in Dublin airport. Don't know what happened to it after they closed the museum.

I started a thread on this about two years ago.

The Moon-rock officially given to Ireland went missing. My investigations on this involved interviewing a retired Airport Police Sergeant and the son of one of the Aer Rianta employees who used to be a part-time curator of the museum.

My own hunch is that it's currently in a barn somewhere in North County Dublin. Don't expect me to disclose the exact location, as it's worth in the region of $10 million dollars and I have a balaclava, torch, and an Ebay account!

galwayrush

DublinWriter wrote: »

urator of the museum.

My own hunch is that it's currently in a barn somewhere in North County Dublin. Don't expect me to disclose the exact location, as it's worth in the region of $10 million dollars and I have a balaclava, torch, and an Ebay account!

I know it's in a National School in Co Galway.:cool:
Can i use your e-bay account to sell it?:D

Havermeyer

I'd say it had something to do with them fecking Greeks.

craiginireland

nummnutts wrote: »

I'd say it had something to do with them fecking Greeks.

Feckin Greeks,
They invented gayness.

Senna

what size is it? i'm imagining some tiny pebble that was stuck in the groves of an astronauts shoe.

iPlop

Zaph wrote: »

It used to be on display for years in the old aviation museum that was in Dublin airport. Don't know what happened to it after they closed the museum.

When irish scientists realised it was made on earth "in the mid 90's" they removed it in disgust ,apparently true and it never made it to another museum again. Ah Hemmm not a conspiracy??;) Ahhh Run To Da hills:D

taram

There's slides of it in UCC, about 5 iirc. Extremely pretty under the microscope, all sorts of shades of colours overlapping each other.