Minister O’Donovan marks Winter Solstice at Newgrange

Minister Patrick O’Donovan, T.D., Minister with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW), marked the winter solstice at the UNESCO World Heritage site Brú Na Bóinne today. He acknowledged the deeply symbolic importance of this ancient monument that aligns with the solstice sun to be illuminated from within, casting a light of hope towards a new beginning and a new year.

Paying tribute to the vision of the OPW in looking after Newgrange, Minister O’Donovan praised the remarkable work done by archaeologists, architects and staff at all of the historic properties and national monuments in State care throughout the year.

Thousands gathered around the world to watch the live-streaming of the event, guided by the OPW’s Clare Tuffy, Manager of Brú Na Bóinne, and archaeologist Frank Prendergast. The pair’s warm, illuminating commentary more than made up for the missing rays of sunshine at dawn, allowing people from Adelaide to Belfast, and from Doha to Eureka, California, to share in their knowledge and to experience this astronomical phenomenon together. This year, while the passage tomb again had to remain closed in line with Government Covid-19 guidelines, the broadcast gained a new dimension with the audible and visible celebration of the winter solstice greeted by a small number of visitors outside the 5000-year-old passage tomb.

The Winter Solstice is an astronomical phenomenon which marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice occurs on December 21 or 22, when the sun shines directly over the tropic of Capricorn. At sunrise on the shortest day of the year, for 17 minutes, direct sunlight can enter the Newgrange monument to illuminate the Chamber, not through the doorway, but through the specially contrived small opening above the entrance known as the ‘roof box’.

The solar alignment of the passage tomb at Newgrange to face the rising sun on winter solstice is a significant astronomical finding and analysis of high-resolution imagery taken during last year’s research programme adds to the convincing body of evidence that the solar illumination of the tomb was intentional.

The OPW together with National Monuments Services of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will live-stream one more sunrise from Newgrange on the morning of 22 December at 8:45.

Viewers can tune in tomorrow morning on gov.ie/newgrange .

All solstice videos can be found on the OPW’s YouTube channel at the following link: youtube.com/c/OpwIe .

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For further information, please contact pressoffice@opw.ie

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