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IGA Event: Dr Patrick Roycroft – “Mineral Treasures Revealed”

14 December, 2014 @ 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM GMT

“Mineral Treasures Revealed”.  

Dr Patrick Roycroft will host an afternoon with the newly saved University College Dublin mineral collection at the National Museum of Ireland’s Beggars Bush stores from 2:00 to 4:00 pm on Sunday December 14th. The NMI stores are the big grey (Calp limestone) building just behind the Geological Survey of Ireland and beside the National Print Museum, so very easy to get to. An abstract for this event is as follows:

Conservation of University College Dublin’s Mineral Collection

In February 2014, Patrick Roycroft was awarded a grant from the Heritage Council (grant M03895) to rescue and conserve a large part of UCD’s extensive, yet almost unkown, mineral collection. The problem was that thousands of specimens had been neglected over many decades and many minerals and their often historic labels were literally degrading away inside a leaking shipping container. With the permission of Prof J. Stephen Daly (head of the School of Geological Sciences) to take the specimens to a safe haven and carry out conservation work, Patrick, in collaboration with Matthew Parkes (National Museum of Ireland), was busy this summer and autumn turning the UCD collection into a national and international mineral resource. As a by-product of this work, minerals either new to Ireland or from hitherto unknown localities have been found and various historically important specimens have been uncovered, such as two very rare native silver specimens from Glendalough (Wicklow) thought by many to no longer exist. An exhibition on the project is currently on display at the National Museum of Ireland (Natural History) on Merrion Square. Further details, plus an ongoing range of pictures and mini-stories, can be found on the Facebook page, “UCD Mineral Collection”.  Or copy/type in the URL:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/UCD-Mineral-Collection/738136006225828?ref=hl&ref_type=bookmark  .

Details

Date:
14 December, 2014
Time:
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM GMT
Event Category:

Venue

IGA Council Members