Christmas is almost upon us and the end of 2018.
Before we all have a well deserved rest, it’s time to put our next event in your diary: Our spring meeting on Saturday the 13th of April in the National Botanic Garden. And this year, we have a general public event (on top of our usual meeting) with talks from Iain Stewart, John Sweeney and Bethan Davies. See the flyer below to spread the word.
Here are the program of events for the IQUA Field Trip 14th-16th September 2018
Heritage week (18-26 August) is fast approaching, and there are a number of Quaternary-themed geological events, and events run by members of IQUA. For full details please see https://www.heritageweek.ie/. .
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.
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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.
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:
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:
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
The IQUA Symposium 2017 “Drainage in Glacial Landscapes” which will be held on Friday the 24th of November
in the GSI lecture theatre. Registration from 9:30am.
To whet your appetite, here are some teasers for tomorrow’s talks – it certainly looks like it will be a fascinating day!
John Lowe explores the difficulty of timing the Younger Dryas readvance in the Scottish Highlands.
Susan Hegarty revisits the late glacial meltwater channels in county Kilkenny.
Robbie Meehan will try to untangle the Rathcroghan Uplands landscape from county Roscommon. Non-glacial drainage in glacially moulded landscape.
Jasper Knight reviews the eskers from North-Central Ireland.
Ro Charlton reveals the glacial influence of Holocene drainage in the Shannon basin.
Mike Philcox reviews the story of the Glacial Lake at Blessington.
Anthony Beese describes a late-glacial boulder deposit in Tipperary.
Robert Devoy and Pete Coxon join forces to unpeel the interglacial sequences of the lower Lee estuary.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
