It’s an intensive, practical — and enjoyable — half-day session that will equip you with basic media skills to publicise your research, business, or event.

You will learn about How To:

• Identify what makes ‘News’
• Find out how to hit the headlines
• Write a successful press release . . . one that isn’t instantly binned!
• Contact journalists
• Develop good media relations

The focus is on the central technique of how to write an effective press release. By the end of the session, you will have drafted a press release, and even sketched out your media campaign.  To get the most out of the day, it helps if you have something to publicise, whether an event, or research finding, etc.

FOR: Anyone wanting or needing to deal with the media. Anyone who wants to encourage the media to cover their work.

More details about our media workshops here.

To apply for this special offer, simply send us a short e-mail (max 200 words), and tell us why you had your organisation need this training. Mark your e-mail: Media skills offer.  Closing date: 5 pm Saturday January 14.

The successful participant will be notified first thing on Monday.

Book now, and save with our earlybird offer!

Are you looking to publicise your business, an event, or maybe your research?  At Ingenious Ireland, we have over 20 years experience in helping people to tell their story to the media.  Now, we’re running a series of half day intensive workshops that will give you the skills to allow you take control of your publicity.

How to hit the headlines: this first session will equip you with basic media skills, and especially how to draft a successful press release, one that isn’t instantly binned.  You’ll also learn how to contact journalists and develop good media relations.  By the end of the morning, you will have drafted a press release, and even sketched out your media campaign.  (January 18th, March 7th)

Effective Interview skills: this second session trains you to do a radio interview in studio, and handle questions when put on the spot at a press conference or event. The focus is on getting your message across effectively in the short time available.    (January 31, March 14)

Both workshops are suitable for everyone, but  particularly for people working in the sciences, technology and health areas, where complex topics and issues are often involved.

To get the most out of each session, it helps if you have something to publicise, whether an event, or research finding, etc. The workshops include practical exercises, and the result is an enjoyable and productive learning experience.

FOR: Anyone wanting or needing to deal with the media. Anyone who wants to encourage the media to cover their work.

NUMBERS LIMITED to ensure individual attention and feedback on the day.

Fees: Include tea/coffee, newspaper, and handouts.

Full details here.

People everywhere can now enjoy a famous ‘Eureka’ moment that took place in Cabra, beside Dublin’s Royal Canal in 1843. That moment was when a great mathematician and scientist, William Rowan Hamilton, had a spark of inspiration and invented a revolutionary new form of algebra.

Hamilton plaque at Broombridge, Cabra

Hamilton’s ‘quaternions’ turned the world of mathematics upside down, and a commemorative plaque marks the spot where he carved his equation in the stonework. Every year on the anniversary – October 16 – hundreds of people walk the canal from Dunsink to Broom Bridge, marking Quaternion Day, and this popular scientific pilgrimage attracts mathematicians, scientists and historians from around the world.

A new digital audio guided tour [launched October 28, 2011] makes this historic walk available to the public and schools, as well as internationally, and provides a new resource for heritage and science tourists. The audio was recorded on this year’s Hamilton walk, and includes contributions from visiting scientists, mathematicians and others, among them mathematician Dr Maurice O’Reilly, from St Patrick’s College Drumcondra, who said that

‘People in Ireland should know Hamilton’s equation, just like they know Yeats’s Lake Isle of Innisfree!’

The audio (or podcast) tour – ‘Quaternions by the Royal Canal’ – is free to download, thanks to support from Maths Week Ireland and the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET). It tells the story of Hamilton and how his revolutionary algebra helped to land a man on the moon, as well as to control space satellites, and make sophisticated computer animations possible. The audio guide also features the history and heritage of the Royal Canal and railway, canal wildlife, and other canal-related science stories such as the discovery of the solitary wave (or, soliton).

IRCSET Director, Dr Martin Hynes, welcomed the new guide, which promotes greater awareness of science and Irish achievements. “The annual Hamilton walk, and other events during Maths Week every October show beyond doubt that there is huge public interest. It remains for us to nourish that interest, especially among young people, and foster their talents.” Interest, creativity and ingenuity, he said, will bring us to a new golden age.

Eoin Gill coordinator of Maths Week Ireland also welcomed the launch of the tour. “The story of Hamilton’s discovery of quaternions is one of the great stories of world mathematics and Ireland’s very own ‘Eureka story’. This audio guide celebrates this story while also helping walkers discover science, maths, engineering and history along this quiet stretch of waterway so near the heart of Dublin. Maths Week Ireland is particularly pleased that this is a free resource for schools, families and everyone to celebrate this important part of our heritage.”

Recording by the Royal Canal

Annual Quaternion Day walk

The Hamilton walk each year is co-ordinated by Dr Fiacre Ó Cairbre of the Mathematics Department in NUI Maynooth, and the department has championed the walk since the 1970s.

The new audio guide was developed by science writer Mary Mulvihill, whose company Ingenious Ireland, specialises in tours with a science twist. “This walk makes a lovely outing for families and school groups, and combines local history, with a great story. Not many people know that Irish algebra helped to land a man on the moon!”

The new audio guide complements another Ingenious Ireland project, Dublin by Numbers – a series of free activity trails for families and schools, with a mathematical twist, which was launched as part of Maths Week earlier this month.

‘Quaternions by the Royal Canal’ was launched as part of Innovation Dublin 2011.

The audio tour

The 45-minute, 4-km tour starts near Dunsink Observatory, and follows the canal to Broom Bridge. Stories along the route include: the Royal Canal, the Midlands & Great Western Railway, canal locks and engineering, the canal-side discovery of solitons, and more. It also includes the ballad of William Rowan Hamilton, written by local singer-songwriter, Jack Gannon.

Press Release /  Friday 28 October 2011

The diving bell on Dublin's south docks. (c) Enterprise Ireland

It was designed in 1860 by the port engineer, Bindon Blood Stoney. The bell was crucial to Stoney’s innovative way of building dock walls with pre-cast concrete, and there was great international interest in it at the time (see below).

The lower section is hollow and bottomless, with just enough room for six men to work. Once the 80-tonne bell had been lowered into position in the river, the crew entered through an access tunnel from the surface. Compressed air was fed in from an adjacent barge, but even though the air was cooled, the temperature inside quickly became unbearably hot, and shifts lasted only 30 minutes.

The men inside the bell worked on the river bed exposed at their feet, excavating the site where a massive concrete block would later go; all the excavated soil was stashed in baskets hanging inside the bell, and brought up when the bell was lifted.

Amazingly, the bell was still in use in the 1960s to repair dock walls, by which time it had a telephone link to the surface. It was renovated in 2000, when holes were cut to provide a view of the interior.

An alternative diving technology used to be on show at the nearby Waterways Centre: a canvas diving suit, tightly woven to keep water out, and worn with a metal helmet; air was supplied via a tube connected to a pump on the surface. The suit was bought in 1905, and worn by Denis Madigan and later by his son when repairing canal locks and inspecting seaplanes at Foynes. Despite being patched, it was still used in the 1970s.

Building the docks

The North Bull Wall was part of a major programme to develop Dublin’s docklands in the mid-1800s. It was fuelled by increasing overseas trade – all of which went by sea in those days – and the arrival of big steamships needing larger berths.

The engineer who did most to develop the docks was Bindon Blood Stoney (1828-1909) , who devised an ingenious new way to build dock walls, and pioneered the use of pre-cast concrete as a building material.

Stoney was born at Clareen in County Offaly, to a family that had come to Ireland from ‘stoney’ Yorkshire during the 17th-century plantations (Blood was his mother’s family name). He and his brother George Johnstone Stoney (who ‘invented’ the electron), worked as astronomical assistants on the great telescope at nearby Birr Castle.

Bindon studied engineering at TCD and made his name in the 1850s working on the Boyne railway viaduct at Drogheda* – the elegant metal viaduct was an engineering triumph and is still in use. He moved to Dublin as a port engineer, and under his care the docks were rebuilt and extended, especially on the northern side. Several kilometres of new quays were built, also new graving (dry) docks and the Alexandra Basin, named after the princess of Wales who opened it in 1885.

The system Stoney invented for building dock walls was to use massive pre-cast concrete blocks instead of stone and rubble. First, the ground to be levelled, then the blocks made on-site and lowered into place.  Traditionally, men would do the work inside a wooden dam from which the water had been pumped out.  But Stoney designed the diving bell so they could work underwater.

The concrete blocks used were veritable monoliths, weighing an unprecedented 350-tonnes; each took four weeks to make and a further 10 to ‘cure’ before they could be moved. The design called for precision engineering to ensure a tight fit between the blocks. Once part of the new quay wall was built, the blocks for the next section could be made there, and so the wall inched forward.  The technique was first used on the North Quay extension beginning in 1870; only when that was complete in 1884, did attention shift to the southern side, where the docks were by then in bad repair.

The resulting berths were independent of the tides, and deeper than any other port at the time, and there was considerable international interest: when the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) met in Dublin in 1878, an expedition visited the docks to inspect the technique.

The docks are an enduring monument to Bindon Blood Stoney – known as “the father of Irish concrete” – who won international fame for his innovative work.  Stoney Road near the East Wall is named after him.

Take a photo of a shape, a number, or anything related to mathematics that catches your eye when you’re on the Dublin by Numbers trail.  You could win a wonderful iPod Touch for yourself, and a signed copy of Ingenious Ireland for your family, plus a Science Week goody bag.

Everyone has a chance to win! So start looking for shapes and numbers now, and practise seeing maths everywhere.  Then submit your photograph here. The winner’s name will be drawn at random from among all the entries in the category, and announced at the end of the Science Week 2011.

Make sure to show some of the surroundings in your photo, so that we know where you took it.

Read the full terms and conditions here.

This photo competition is in association with Maths Week Ireland, which is generously providing the iPod Touch prizes.

.

Christina Hickey (7) inspects the skull of an extinct Giant Deer at the launch of Dublin by Numbers. Photo: Eric Luke

Find out how downloadable audio guides can help promote heritage and science, in this great feature about our work in The Irish Times.

The feature came during our busiest week — starting with a long interview about our guided tour to the Hill of Tara on RTE History Show, then on Monday we launched our new Dublin by Numbers maths trails for families, spoke about art and science at the wonderful Dublin Contemporary exhibition, launched a new photo competition, and appeared on Newstalk’s Shenanigans, to talk numbers with Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabháin.  Whew!

We’ll be exploring art and science with physicist and poet Iggy McGovern, Rough Magic director Lynne Parker, and Arthur ‘ Improbable Frequency’ Riordan.

Asking how — did Austria Nobel physicist Erwin Schrodinger connect with Myles na Gopaleen?  And is it about a bicycle? And any questions you care to pose!

It’s all part of Dublin Contemporary,  and the Office of Non-Compliance.  And Ingenious Ireland is delighted to be on the panel — and looking forward to seeing you there.

Thursday, October 20, 7 pm. FREE — but booking advised.

http://www.dublincontemporary.com/events/event/the_art_of_science

Meteorologist Evelyn Cusack, who launched the trails, and Christina Hickey (7), from Scoil San Carlo Junior in Leixlip, measure the antlers of an ancient giant deer, at the Natural History Museum in Dublin.

An Irish system of algebra that helped to land a man on the moon, and the geometry of a Dublin sculpture are just some of the stories featured in three new city tours, that also get people to spot symmetry in Georgian buildings, measure extinct Irish fossils, and see if Wolfe Tone’s statue is out of proportion!

The new ‘Dublin by Numbers’ trails are packed with puzzles and things to do at each stop, all celebrating the mathematics around us every day.  Designed for families and schools (ages 6-plus) the trails were launched today [October 17, 2011] by meteorologist Dr Evelyn Cusack, in the Natural History Museum, Dublin.

An enthusiastic Dr Cusack, deputy director of forecasting in Met Eireann, said that “maths teaches us priceless skills in problem-solving – if people are mathematically informed they will make better economic and political decisions. The rigours of maths would also help us not to be hoodwinked by pseudoscience and trickery  – such as seasonal long-range weather forecasts!”  She added that “Children love maths puzzles and challenges and will have genuine fun, as well as intellectual stimulation, on these trails.”

The trails were developed by science writer Mary Mulvihill, whose company Ingenious Ireland specialises in walking tours with a science twist.  “These trails make a great outing for families, school groups.  They take you to both familiar and less well-known places, and you’ll see them differently, with our mathematical lens.” Several Irish scientists are featured, including two women mathematicians with Irish connections.

The activity trails are free to download, thanks to support from key project partners: Discover Science and Engineering (DSE), Intel, and sponsors: the Centre for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Teaching & Learning (CASTeL), and Engineers Irelands’ STEPS programme.

DSE Director, Peter Brabazon, said it “is a great way of learning maths by exploring it directly in the world around us”, adding that the project strongly supports the work of Discover Science and Engineering, which is about finding new ways to make the public aware of opportunities for learning and careers in science, maths and engineering.

Dr Pádraig Ó Murchú, manager of Education & Research at Intel Ireland, welcomed the trails as “a fun and interactive way to introduce young children to maths and numbers.    Numbers and maths are the building blocks for science and technology, and if we want to become a knowledge society we can only do that if we are scientifically literate and numerate.”

CASTel director, Dr Eilish McLoughlin of DCU, said that by using  Dublin by Numbers “teachers will readily get ideas on how they might prepare similar trails for their own locations, and in so doing inspire the mathematical imagination of the children they teach.”

The trails were developed in conjunction with experts from St Patrick’s College Drumcondra: Dr Dolores Corcoran, of the Mathematics Education Unit, and Dr Maurice O’Reilly, head of the Mathematics Department.

Dublin by Numbers was launched as part of Maths Week and Innovation Dublin 2011.

More about the trails: The richly illustrated activity sheets are free to download, and packed with activities, riddles and puzzles, and make a perfect outing for a family or school group.

The first trail –Art, arches and architecture… around St Stephen’s Green – is available now, with two more following shortly: #2 explores Merrion Square and Georgian Dublin, and #3 connects Merrion Square to TCD’s Science Gallery, via the National Gallery and Westland Row train station.

Penrose tiling in the Science Gallery, Dublin

Our next project is Dublin by Numbers, a maths walking trail for families and school groups, packed with games and puzzles and things to do along the way. We want to include short mathematical riddles and puzzles as well — and we’d love to get your suggestions.

For example, we are thinking of using:

Q. What’s red and invisible? A. No tomatoes! ( Which we like, because  it’s like zero, and children can easily make up their own version of the joke.)

Q. Why is a dog with a lame leg like adding 6 and 7s?

A. He puts down the three and carries the one.

And the question, Why are manhole covers circular?

So, if you’ve got a favourite, suitable for a family audience, we’d love to hear it.  You can add it as a comment here, or (if it’s very short) tweet it to #mathsjokes

The Dublin by Numbers trail will be a free download, available here from October 15, and launching as part of Maths Week 2011 and Innovation Dublin Festival.

We are taking names on the ‘waitlist’ for cancellations, as the tour is fully booked (see booking form below). But even if we can’t accommodate you this time, don’t worry! Just get our fully downloadable Dublin Rocks audio-guided tour,  and you can take the full tour at your own pace whenever you want.

We are delighted to bring you a  special guided tour — Streets, Stones and Stories — as part of this year’s Culture Night programme in Dublin, on Friday September 23rd.

It’s a great chance to explore the very fabric of the city, in a two-hour stroll that starts in the heart of Viking Dublin, and includes  some of the city’s finest buildings and little-known gems, ending in St Stephen’s Green.  Along the way, we’ll be looking at everything from cobblestones and windows to fossils.

Book your free ticket below or on Eventbrite: