I have made a few attempts to get close enough to photograph this building but every time the gates were locked and today was no different. I had a small camera so was able to photograph through the railings but I was very much constrained.
When the New Library on the Trinity Campus was completed in 1967 the west side of the complex faced – across Fellows’ Garden – a small building of Portland stone in the style of a classical Grecian Doric temple. This building was the Magnetic Observatory, and was built in 1837 by the architect Frederick Darley for the purposes of conducting experiments in magnetic research.
All the materials used in its construction had to be devoid of magnetic influence, and so, copper, brass and gun-metal were substituted for iron. Lloyd’s son Humphrey was Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy at the time, and the building was his laboratory. One of Lloyd’s particular interests was geomagnetism, and he, with the astronomer Edward Sabine, established a global network of magnetic observatories. Together they were the first to confirm the link between solar activity and magnetic disturbances here on Earth.
At the time of its construction the Observatory stood in what was then the garden of the Provost’s House. Thirty years later – in 1867 – Humphrey himself became Provost of Trinity, and lived in that house until his death in 1881. An earlier post referred to the then Taoiseach Eamon de Valera formally opening the Magnetic Observatory as a manuscripts room in 1957, the building having been used as a map store since 1912.
From the completion of the New Library in 1967 until 1971, when the Observatory was removed to make room for the construction of the new Arts and Social Science Building, Fellows’ Garden was bounded on three sides by Library buildings – the New Library, the Old Library, and the Manuscripts Room and 1937 Reading Room.
Soon after its dismantling the Magnetic Observatory was gifted by TCD to University College Dublin, and it was rebuilt, stone by stone, on the Belfield campus between 1974 and 1975. After a refurbishment in 2003 which saw the building converted into a cinema, it now houses the Frank O’Kane Film Centre.
Rachel Joynt was commissioned by leading horse-trainer Dermot Weld to make this sculpture for the new Veterinary Medicine building. The quote beside the piece ‘Omne vivum ex ovo’ means all things come from the egg. Sperm like shapes cover the surface of the egg and include depictions of bulls, rats and hamsters as well as man. The sculpture is decorated with small holes, which create a planetarium-like effect when viewed from the pointed end.
Rachel Joynt (born 1966 in County Kerry) is an Irish sculptor who has created some prominent Irish public art. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 1989 with a degree in sculpture.
Her father, Dick Joynt, was also a sculptor. Rachel Joynt is preoccupied by ideas of place, history and nature, and her work often examines the past as a substrate of the present. Her commissions include People’s Island (1988) in which brass footprints and bird feet criss-cross a well-traversed pedestrian island near Dublin’s O’Connell Bridge. She collaborated with Remco de Fouw to make Perpetual Motion (1995), a large sphere with road markings which stands on the Naas dual carriageway. This has been described by Public Art Ireland as ‘probably Ireland’s best known sculpture’ and was featured, as a visual shorthand for leaving Dublin, in The Apology, a Guinness advert. Joynt also made the 900 underlit glass cobblestones which were installed in early 2005 along the edge of Dublin’s River Liffey; many of these cobblestones contain bronze or silver fish.
PRESS RELEASE:
‘NOAH’S EGG’, a giant cast-bronze egg sculpture, was unveiled on Tuesday 8 June 2004 by leading trainer, Dermot Weld at the UCD Veterinary School in Belfield. The sculpture was a gift from Dermot Weld to the UCD Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
Noah’s Egg represents the beginnings and potential of life, and symbolises both the field of veterinary medicine and the scholarly pursuits and ambitions of the Veterinary students and staff.
Noah’s Egg, which was created by Rachel Joynt, is an interactive sculpture. It is decorated with small holes, which create a planetarium-like effect when viewed from the pointed end. The Egg’s ochre, shell-like surface is richly textured with sperm-like shapes of various creatures including man, bull, rabbit, guinea pig, rat, mouse and hamster. At night, Noah’s Egg will be illuminated by a warm red glow like an incubator light. Noah’s Egg sits outside the UCD Veterinary Faculty’s new state-of-the-art premises at Belfield.
At the unveiling ceremony Dr Hugh Brady, President of UCD said, “It is our ambition that the UCD Veterinary School be recognised as an international leader in veterinary education, research and clinical service. We are delighted that a graduate of the faculty, Dermot Weld, has generously donated this magnificent sculpture to UCD as a symbol of this ambition.”
UCD’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine moved to its new purpose-built facility at Belfield in 2002. The new building provides students with an ideal environment to undertake their studies in Veterinary Medicine, with laboratories suited to the pursuit of innovative research and a superbly planned veterinary hospital to observe and practice veterinary medicine first hand. The Veterinary School is adjacent to the Faculties of Agriculture and Science and the Conway Institute for Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, which ensures that the School is well positioned to participate in the exciting developments in the life sciences at UCD.
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