Leo Enright: Ireland's long and eminent role in space discovery

A spaceport at Shannon Airport? It's not as wild an idea as you'd think and is certainly not the country's first foray into space, writes Leo Enright

The edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth, according to NASA. Photo: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

You might need to go back 150 years, and to Birr in County Offaly, to find a moment in astronomy as dramatic as the one which happened this week. 

Back then, Ireland was a world leader in the exploration of space and time, and the third Earl of Rosse had just built the most powerful telescope on Earth.