Documents released from Ireland's National Archive have revealed that a priceless piece of moon rock donated by NASA spent years in a government basement before being lost in a fire at the Dunsink Observatory in Dublin.
Irish state documents from April 1984 show that officials were unsure where to display a piece of moon rock gifted by the United States to Ireland from the Apollo 11 mission of 1969. The moon rock was given to President Éamon de Valera by American ambassador JG Moore in 1970.
The documents show that it wasn't until a second piece of lunar rock was offered to Ireland in 1973, after another successful Apollo mission a display of the rocks was reassessed.
The memo notes: "This piece was given on September 4 1973, on the advice of the Department of Education, to the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies for display at the Dunsink Observatory.
"This piece of Moon rock had lain in the basement of this department for three-and-a-half years due to indecision as to where it might best be displayed.
"It was decided to give the Moon rock to Dunsink when it became known that a second gift was to be made by the US Government and it was thought that some embarrassment would be caused if the first piece was not already on display."
However, placing the rock at Dunsink, in Castleknock, Dublin, ultimately caused its destruction.
"The first piece was destroyed during a fire at Dunsink on October 3, 1977," the documents reveal.
Dunsink Observator, Castleknock, Dublin.
Luckily, as the second piece of moon rock was gifted directly to Ireland's president it was put on display at the Áras an Uachtaráin (the president's official residence).
The rock was later loaned to Aer Lingus for the Young Scientist Exhibition of 1976.
The memo went on to disclose that as the president's residence in ultimately a private home it was not appropriate to permanently house the lunar rock at this location and in the spirit of the US official's intention it should be on display to the public.
It states: "The most appropriate museum collection in which it might be exhibited would be the geological or mineralogical collection — [but] the [National] Museum has no space to mount its geological exhibition and therefore the Moon rock would have to be put in storage, which would not satisfy the requirements."
Read more
The rock was then lent to Aer Rianta, the operator of Ireland's national airline and airports.
Another memo noted, "Aer Rianta agreed to accept the plaque for their exhibition and the Office of Public Works (OPW) transferred the plaque to them on October 28, 1975."
Eight years later it was returned when the display had ended. The Department of the Taoiseach (Irish leader) noted that a new Geographical Survey Office exhibition space would play home to the US gift.
Comments