Long fellow slouches home

Surely some revelation was at hand, there on the old stone bridge at Riverstown, near Birr, Co Offaly at 7.30 yesterday morning. Standing expectant in the fog were Lord and Lady Rosse of Birr Castle, and assorted local people. All awaiting the second coming. It emerged, the rough beast. Sixty feet long, with a diameter of six feet, bulging to eight at the middle, it trundled over the bridge on its way home. And passed by.

"An extraordinary sight," recalled Brigid Roden, " . . . as it came out of the mist - all those flashing lights." The newly reconstructed Birr telescope tube - its hour come round again - had left Woodford, Co Galway, 20 miles away, at 4 a.m. It was carried on a specially built low-loader, with gears at both ends, and pulled by a tractor. Accompanied by a Garda escort, it slouched its way to Birr over the following four hours.

Beginning the journey under stars, ending in fog, and back where it has been since 1844. Until 1917 it was the biggest telescope in the world.

Ms Roden, who is project director of the new science heritage centre being prepared at Birr Castle, spoke of the "genius" of the three McCarthy brothers whose Universal Works company has been working on restoring the telescope tube. Their company is sub-contracted - on the nomination of the Office of Public Works (OPW) - to McNamara's, the building firm, who have overall responsibility for the project. Owen, Brian, and Francis McCarthy took over a factory in Woodford, which had been used to make windmills (for the generation of electricity). They brought the telescope tube there in March.

The tube will be installed in its site next week, after which platform galleries, pulley systems, and a plethora of ancillaries must be built and put in place too. It is hoped it will be open to the public by Christmas, with an official opening by the President, Mrs Robinson, planned for next year.

But there's the mirror. It's in the Science Museum in London, where it has been since 1914. Ms Roden explained that they had written to the museum hoping they might lend them the mirror - made of an alloy of copper and tin - just to put it on show. There's no question of replacing it in the telescope. "It's an artefact, it's unique, it's so valuable, it'll never go back into the telescope," said Ms Roden, by way of patient explanation. What they hope to do is raise £200,000 to build a new mirror.