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IQUA November 2018 Symposium: Ireland’s Offshore Quaternary Records

The Irish Quaternary Association wish to welcome you to their upcoming symposium “Ireland’s Offshore Quaternary Records” on Friday 23rd November in the Geological Survey Ireland, Dublin. Nine speakers from Ireland and the UK will talk about recent updates in our understanding of the Quaternary marine sediments around Ireland, with the keynote talk given by Heather Stewart of the British Geological Survey. Registration is from 9:30am on the day, with more details included on the flyer.
A drinks reception will follow where award winners of the IQUA Research Award and Bill Watts 14CHRONO awards will be announced.
There is also an associated outreach event: INFOMAR survey vessel RV Keary will be in Grand Canal Dock on Thurs 22nd and Friday 23rd and members of the public are invited to take a tour.
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IQUA 2018 field trip: The Quaternary of the Central Midlands_14th-16th September

IQUA news – after 21 years we are going back to the Midlands on the weekend 14th to 16th September. Regulation around exploitation has given us a rich source of new palaeoecological and archaeological data. Add to this spectacular glacial geology and the outstanding medieval architectural heritage of north Co Offaly…. and you get about half of what’s happening on this trip, see draft itinerary below for more.

The other half is about a very special site called Derragh, located where the river Inny flows out of Lough Kinale. We’re in for a treat here with a plethora of environmental proxies from this one area. See the context of the Discovery Programme site below.

We are basing ourselves for both Friday and Saturday nights in the Greville Arms hotel in Mullingar phone 044 934 8563. The rate is: €139 per person sharing for 2 nights B&B and 1 dinner (i.e. €278 total for two people in a double room, with dinner for both on Saturday). There is a single supplement supplement of €15 on this. The prices without dinner are somewhat less keen but you should still ask for the special IQUA rate. The Friday evening seminar talks will be in the hotel but of course you are not obliged to stay there. There are quite a number of other options in town.

More details towards the end of the summer.

 

Friday evening Bog bodies Isabella Mulhall
BNM ecology
Saturday
Lemanaghan Bog Ellen OCarroll
Lemanaghan St Manchan’s Caimin O’Brien
Glacial site Cathy Delaney
Lunch Tullamore
Croghan settlement Caimin O’Brien
Croghan palaeoenvironment Ellen O’Carroll, Eileen Reilly
Croghan quarry Paul Gibson
Lagan Pit Mike Philcox
Sunday
Railway station Ingelise Stuijts
Derragh Environmental work by its analysts
Lunch in Granard, Greville Arms

The Lough Kinale/Derragh area was studied by the lake Settlement Project of the Discovery Programme between 2002 and 2005. One module of this project was a multi-proxy environmental research project (2002 and 2003) in collaboration with the Palaeoenvironments Research Group at the University of Exeter. The research focused on the history of three crannogs and the general landscape through extensive coring of Lough Kinale and Derragh Lough, and a raised bog separating Derragh peninsular from the mainland. During fieldwork in 2002, Mesolithic and Neolithic lithics were found close to the outlet of the River Inny on the Derragh peninsular. This led to excavations between 2003 and 2005, which exposed a platform area that was used for multiple purposes. Various organic materials including bones and wood, and lithics were subsequently analysed. The IQUA fieldtrip will visit the general area and in particular the Derragh peninsular and the site of the excavation where some of the environmental results will be presented.

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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

The IQUA committee are pleased to confirm that ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: A Quaternary Science Retrospective’ will take place in the Hunt Museum on Saturday 21 April.  This one day symposium will consist of a series of retrospective talks in celebration of key Quaternary scientists known for their trailblazing work investigating how the Irish landscape was shaped during and since the Ice Age.  Please find poster below.

Alongside the day of talks, the Granary Library will feature a free family-friendly exhibition of extinct and contemporary Irish mammals on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 April from 11am – 5pm. Please find poster below.

Please feel free to bring these events to the attention of anyone you feel may find them of interest.

Logistics:

  1. The closest parking to the Hunt Museum and Granary Library can be found at the following link: https://www.parkopedia.ie/parking/carpark/potato_market/v94/limerick/?arriving=201804091130&leaving=201804091330
  2. A list of local accommodation is also below.

 

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Spring Meeting 2018 Core Programme

IQUA are planning on a range of new initiatives this year, the first of many in the lead up to INQUA 2019 (www.inqua2019.org/).

Spring Meeting

The core of programme for IQUA Spring Meeting in the Hunt Museum, Limerick on April 21st is with a selection of talks celebrating key Quaternary Scientists:

  • The challenges face by Women Quaternary Scientists Bettie Higgs (University College Cork)
  • Robert Lloyd Praeger (1865-1953) Timothy Collins (NUI, Galway)
  • Sydney Mary Thompson (1847-1923) Antoinette Madden & Catherine Dalton (Natural History Museum & Mary Immaculate College)
  • Bill Watts (1930- 2010) Keith Bennett (St Andrews University)
  • Valerie Hall (1946-2016) Gill Plunkett (Queens University Belfast)
  • Frank Mitchell (1912-1997) Fraser Mitchell (Trinity College Dublin)

Our spring meeting is generally focussed on postgraduate research – so we would also like to invite postgraduates who would like to make a presentation (oral or poster) to let me know (catherine.dalton@mic.ul.ie).

Exhibition and Booklet

IQUA has applied for funding to translate these talks into a pull-up banner exhibition and a booklet to be published by IQUA.

We are seeking further expressions of interest from IQUA members for a range of other written contributions.  Quaternary scientists included in the booklet paper should have carried out Quaternary-related research in (or relevant to) Ireland, but do not necessarily need to be from Ireland.

Names that have been suggested in conversation with members include:

  • Francis Synge
  • Jean (Jeanne) Margaret White
  • Hilda Parkes
  • Susan Geraty
  • Anthony Farrington
  • Nick Stephens
  • Anthony Orme
  • William King
  • Wood Martin
  • JB Whittow
  • Mary Sommerville (nee Fairfax)
  • Barbara Miller
  • Sybil Watson
  • Mary Patricia Happer Kertland

We propose include papers between 500-1000 words in length to maximise the range of individuals included in this booklet.  Author guidelines will be forwarded to contributing authors.

Can I encourage IQUA academic members to encourage your postgraduates to suggest and prepare contributions on key individuals.

Please send your suggestions to catherine.dalton@mic.ul.ie or eocarro@tcd.ie or mcglyng@tcd.ie  by April 1st 2018.

Deadline for submissions of papers will be June 30th  2018.

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IQUA convened session at CIG 2018

This year IQUA has convened a session at the upcoming Conference of Irish Geographers (CIG) taking place in Maynooth university from the 10th to the 12th of May 2018 (http://www.conferenceofirishgeographers.ie/). Below are the details of the session and information about abstracts submissions (deadline: 30th of March 2018).

The Irish Quaternary: Exploring Landscape Change Over The Last 2.6 Million Years
Martha Coleman, Maynooth University; Alwynne McGeever, Trinity College Dublin

To tie in with the recent release of Advances in Irish Quaternary Studies and the approaching INQUA2019 conference to be held in Dublin this session will consider how the Irish landscape changed during the most recent period of Earth’s history; the Quaternary. The Quaternary refers to the last 2.6 million years. Quaternary studies are multi-disciplinary in nature and provide a critical long-term perspective that offers fascinating insights about the early Irish landscapes and culture. Research in this area includes the study of on and offshore glaciation and deglaciation in Ireland, reconstructing landscape development, quantifying past climate change and extreme weather events, uncovering the arrival and development of human civilisation and visualising the expansions and declines of Irish flora and fauna populations over time. This session will highlight the vast range of ongoing Irish research that provides unique insights into climate and landscape change over the last 2.6 million years, providing critical information on past and present Earth processes from a uniquely Irish perspective.

Although this session is convened by the Irish Quaternary Association (IQUA) we welcome relevant research/researchers from outside Ireland also. The wide scope of this session of study accommodates a diverse range of topics and invites papers from:

  • Archaeology
  • Climatology
  • Ecology
  • Engineering
  • Geomorphology
  • Geology
  • Hydrology

To be part of this session, please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to martha.coleman@mu.ie and amcgeeve@tcd.ie by 16 March 2018.

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South-west Donegal over the weekend of the 15th – 17th of September, 2017

This year we enjoyed a beautiful few days in Southwest Donegal. Yet another very well attended IQUA fieldtrip with 35 attendees making the trek northwest.

IQUA members at Cloghanmore Portal Tomb

A packed agenda meant that a few sites had to be dropped but we still managed to see the Derryness submerged forest, Inishkeel, Cloghanmore Court Tomb, a Station and Souterraine at Turas Colmcille, and the spectacular Sheskinmore Nature Reserve.

The IQUA committee wish to thank all the speakers.

Thanks in particular to Malcolm and Ellen for organising such a memorable weekend.

***Please note that there will be a delay in releasing the finalised Southwest Donegal Fieldguide while we add in few additional papers***

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IQUA Spring Meeting 2018 – ‘Standing on the Shoulders of Giants’

As indicated before Xmas we plan on having the IQUA Spring Meeting in the Hunt Museum, Limerick on April 21st

Our spring meeting is generally focussed on postgraduate research – so we would like to invite members who would like to make a presentation (oral or poster) to let me know.  We are also planning on a few new initiatives this year, the first of many in the lead up to INQUA 2019 (www.inqua2019.org/).

To this end we plan on adding a selection of talks celebrating key Quaternary Scientists to the Spring Meeting programme (including Frank Mitchell, Sydney Mary Thompson, Bill Watts, Valerie Hall and Robert Lloyd Praeger).  These talks will subsequently form the core of a booklet to be published by IQUA.

We would like to invite IQUA members to contribute short papers on OTHER Quaternary Scientists to this booklet.

Please send your suggestions to catherine.dalton@mic.ul.ie or eocarro@tcd.ie by April 1st 2018.

Deadline for submissions of papers will be June 30th  2018.