National Museum at Turlough Park to host talk on bears
A brown bear on temporary display in the National Museum of Ireland in Castlebar as part of an ongoing exhibition, The Murmur of Bees - which explores bees and their important role in Ireland’s biodiversity. Picture: Karen Cox
A leading expert on Ireland’s native natural history is to give a talk at the National Museum of Ireland in Turlough Park - exploring the ancient presence of bears on this island.
Nigel Monaghan is the former keeper of Natural History at the National Museum of Ireland. He will be in Mayo to deliver the talk, titled ‘Brown Bears in Ireland; Fossil Clues of Forgotten Giants’, from 3pm to 4pm on Saturday, January 24th.
Mr Monaghan will discuss fossil evidence, cave finds, and surprising links to Irish folklore - providing insights on how these majestic animals shaped our natural history up to 3,000 years ago.
The talk is in association with the new brown bear exhibit in the National Museum of Ireland at Turlough Park. The bear is on display as part of an ongoing exhibition, The Murmur of Bees, which looks at bees and their important role in Ireland’s biodiversity.
Bears have long been associated with bees and honey and one of the ancient Irish names for a bear is milchobur (honey-lover).
The example on display in Turlough Park is a female bear from Alaska. It has pale brown fur and is mounted standing on her hind legs, with long claws outstretched towards the visitor.
Speaking ahead of the talk, Mr Monaghan said: “I got fascinated with Irish brown bears in 1997 with a major discovery in a cave in Co Leitrim where I got to see bones in situ (and to fly in a helicopter for a television programme). Studying them has been a long-term project working on specimens in the National Museum of Ireland and Irish skulls that have made it into museums overseas. Technology has come a long way since 1997 and we have learned a great deal from radiocarbon dating and the DNA from the bones themselves.”
To celebrate the launch of the new bear exhibit at Turlough Park, the National Museum invited visitors to help name the bear. This resulted in the bear’s new title of Beir Bua, meaning ‘take victory’ in Irish.
Admission to the bear talk is free but booking is required. Visit the event listing on museum.ie for booking details.
