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Polynesian navigation
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Hokule'a, Hawaiian double-hulled canoe sailing off Honolulu, 2009.
Hawaiian navigators sailing multi-hulled canoe, c. 1781
Traditional Polynesian navigation was used for thousands of years to make long voyages across thousands of miles of the open Pacific Ocean. Navigators travelled to small inhabited islands using wayfinding techniques and knowledge passed by oral tradition from master to apprentice, often in the form of song. Generally each island maintained a guild of navigators who had very high status; in times of famine or difficulty they could trade for aid or evacuate people to neighboring islands. As of 2014, these traditional navigation methods are still taught in the Polynesian outlier of Taumako Island in the Solomons.
Polynesian navigation used some navigational instruments, which predate and are distinct from the machined metal tools used by European navigators (such as the sextant, first produced in 1730; the sea astrolabe, from around late 15th century; and the marine chronometer, invented in 1761). However, they also relied heavily on close observation of sea sign and a large body of knowledge from oral tradition.[1]
Both wayfinding techniques and outrigger canoe construction methods have been kept as guild secrets, but in the modern revival of these skills, they are being recorded and published.
Contents
1 History
2 Canoes and navigation
3 Navigational devices
4 Navigational techniques
4.1 Bird observation
4.2 Navigation by the stars
4.3 Swell
5 Routes
5.1 Subantarctic and Antarctica
5.2 Pre-Columbian contact with the Americas
6 Revival
7 Post-colonial research history
8 Notes
9 References
10 See also
11 External links
History[edit]
See also: Ancient Hawaii and Discovery and settlement of Hawaii
A projection of the Polynesian triangle on the globe.
Between about 3000 and 1000 BC speakers of Austronesian languages spread through the islands of Southeast Asia – almost certainly starting out from Taiwan,[2] as tribes whose natives were thought to have previously arrived from mainland South China about 8000 years ago – into the edges of western Micronesia and on into Melanesia. In the archaeological record there are well-defined traces of this expansion which allow the path it took to be followed and dated with a degree of certainty. In the mid-2nd millennium BC a distinctive culture appeared suddenly in north-west Melanesia, in the Bismarck Archipelago, the chain of islands forming a great arch from New Britain to the Admiralty Islands. This culture, known as Lapita, stands out in the Melanesian archeological record, with its large permanent villages on beach terraces along the coasts. Particularly characteristic of the Lapita culture is the making of pottery, including a great many vessels of varied shapes, some distinguished by fine patterns and motifs pressed into the clay. Within a mere three or four centuries between about 1300 and 900 BC, the Lapita culture spread 6000 km further to the east from the Bismarck Archipelago, until it reached as far as Tonga and Samoa.[3] Lapita pottery persisted in places such as Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji for many years after its upbringing to Western and Central Polynesia. However, pottery-making died out in most of Polynesia due to the scarcity of clay on the islands.[4] In this region, the distinctive Polynesian culture developed. The Polynesians are then believed to have spread eastward from the Samoan Islands into the Marquesas, the Society Islands, the Hawaiian Islands and Easter Island; and south to New Zealand. The pattern of settlement also extended to the north of Samoa to the Tuvaluan atolls, with Tuvalu providing a stepping stone to migration into the Polynesian Outlier communities in Melanesia and Micronesia.[5][6][7]
Canoes and navigation[edit]
The Polynesians encountered nearly every island within the vast Polynesian Triangle using outrigger canoes or double-hulled canoes. The double-hulled canoes were two large hulls, equal in length, and lashed side by side. The space between the paralleled canoes allowed for storage of food, hunting materials, and nets when embarking on long voyages.[8] Polynesians used strategic and natural navigation aides such as the stars, ocean currents, and wind patterns.[9]
Navigational devices[edit]
Polynesian navigation device showing directions of winds, waves and islands, c. 1904
There are numerous traditional Polynesian devices used for navigating and/or teaching navigation. These include charts, spatial representations of islands and the conditions around them, and navigational instruments, such as those for measuring the elevation of celestial objects. They also include non-physical devices such as songs and stories for memorizing the properties of stars, islands, and navigational routes.
Navigational techniques[edit]
Navigation relies heavily on constant observation and memorization; you must constantly be aware of your surroundings. You cannot simply look up at the stars and know where you are. You are only able to know where you are if you are able to memorize where you have sailed from. The sun was the main guide for voyagers because they could follow its exact points as it rose and set; then, at night time they'd switch to using the stars rising and setting points. With constant observation, comes the knowledge of knowing and remembering the speed of your canoe (when it speeds up and slows down), what direction you are facing, and what time of the day or night it is. In the ancient days, they did not have watches, compasses or speedometers but they had their minds and the ability to memorize their surroundings. When there are no stars because of a cloudy night or during midday, the navigator would use the winds and swells to guide them.[10] Polynesian navigators employed a whole range of techniques including use of the stars, the movement of ocean currents and wave patterns, the air and sea interference patterns caused by islands and atolls, the flight of birds, the winds and the weather.[11]
Bird observation[edit]
Certain seabirds such as the White tern and Noddy tern feed on fish in the morning and return to rest on land at night time. Navigators use these birds to guide them to land by following where the birds are flying from in the morning and flying toward at night. Birds habits change during nesting season which is another thing navigators must be mindful of when voyaging. Generally speaking, if a navigator can see a large group of birds, that is a much more reliable sign for land than following one, two or a small group of birds.[12] Harold Gatty suggested that long-distance Polynesian voyaging followed the seasonal paths of bird migrations. In "The Raft Book",[13] a survival guide he wrote for the U.S. military during World War II, Gatty outlined various Polynesian navigation techniques Allied sailors or aviators wrecked at sea could use to find their way to land. There are some references in their oral traditions to the flight of birds and some say that there were range marks onshore pointing to distant islands in line with the West Pacific Flyway. A voyage from Tahiti, the Tuamotus or the Cook Islands to New Zealand might have followed the migration of the long-tailed cuckoo (Eudynamys taitensis) just as the voyage from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi would coincide with the track of the Pacific golden plover (Pluvialis fulva) and the bristle-thighed curlew (Numenius tahitiensis). It is also believed that Polynesians employed shore-sighting birds as did many seafaring peoples. One theory is that they would have taken a frigatebird (Fregata) with them. These birds refuse to land on the water as their feathers will become waterlogged making it impossible to fly. When the voyagers thought they were close to land they may have released the bird, which would either fly towards land or else return to the canoe.[11]
Navigation by the stars[edit]
A photograph of a recreation of the star compass of Mau Piailug depicted with shells on sand, with Satawalese (See Trukic languages) text labels, as described and translated by the Polynesian Voyaging Society.[14] Shown here north-up. See annotations on Commons.
The positions of the stars helped guide Polynesians through their voyaging routes. Stars- as opposed to planets are able to hold a steady position year-round. The only thing that changes is the time the star rises which changes seasonally. Polynesian voyagers would follow stars near the horizon whether they were just rising or about to set and they used these specific stars for guidance. These stars were used to set the direction for their canoe up until the point when those stars rise too high and are no longer easy to follow. Once the star they've used to guide them rises too high, they use the next star that rises from the previous stars exact rising point to guide them next. The canoes latitude and the course being followed determines how many stars the navigator will need to get him to his destination.[12] For navigators near the equator celestial navigation is simplified since the whole celestial sphere is exposed. Any star that passes the zenith (overhead) is on the celestial equator, the basis of the equatorial coordinate system. Each star has a specific declination, and when they rise or set, they give a bearing for navigation. Stars are learned by compass point, making a star compass (star compasses list ~150 stars, in some systems[15]). A simplified compass might list only a couple of dozen stars.[16] For example, in the Caroline Islands Mau Piailug taught natural navigation using a star compass diagrammed here. The development of "sidereal compasses" has been studied[17] and theorized to have developed from an ancient pelorus.[11]
The Polynesians also took measurements of stellar elevation to determine their latitude. The latitudes of specific islands were also known, and the technique of "sailing down the latitude" was used.
Swell[edit]
The Polynesians also use wave and swell formations to navigate. Many of the habitable areas of the Pacific Ocean are groups of islands (or atolls) in chains hundreds of kilometers long. Island chains have predictable effects on waves and on currents. Navigators who lived within a group of islands would learn the effect various islands had on their shape, direction, and motion and would have been able to correct their path in accordance with the changes they perceived. When they arrived in the vicinity of a chain of islands they were unfamiliar with, they may have been able to transfer their experience and deduce that they were nearing a group of islands. Once they had arrived fairly close to a destination island, they would have been able to pinpoint its location by sightings of land-based birds, certain cloud formations, as well as the reflections shallow water made on the undersides of clouds. It is thought that the Polynesian navigators may have measured the time it took to sail between islands in "canoe-days" or a similar type of expression.[11] The energy that is transferred from the wind to the sea are wind waves. The waves that are created when the energy travels down away from the source area (like ripples) are known as swell. When the winds are strong at the source area, the swell is larger. The longer the wind blows, the longer the swell lasts. Because the swells of the ocean can remain consistent for days, navigators relied on them to carry their canoe in a straight line from one house on the star compass to a house of the same name on the opposite side of the horizon. Navigators were not always able to see stars; because of this, they relied on the swells of the ocean. Swell patterns are a much more reliable method of navigation than the actual waves which are determined by the local winds. Swells move in a straight direction which makes it easier for the navigator to determine whether the canoe is heading in the correct direction.[18]
Routes[edit]
Tupaia's chart of Polynesia within 3200km of Ra'iatea. 1769, preserved in the British Museum.
On his first voyage of Pacific exploration, Captain James Cook had the services of a Polynesian navigator, Tupaia, who drew a chart of the islands within a 2,000 miles (3,200 km) radius (to the north and west) of his home island of Ra'iatea. Tupaia had knowledge of 130 islands and named 74 on his chart.[19] Tupaia had navigated from Ra'iatea in short voyages to 13 islands. He had not visited western Polynesia, as since his grandfather's time the extent of voyaging by Raiateans had diminished to the islands of eastern Polynesia. His grandfather and father had passed to Tupaia the knowledge as to the location of the major islands of western Polynesia and the navigation information necessary to voyage to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.[20] Tupaia was hired by Joseph Banks, the ship's naturalist, who wrote that Cook ignored Tupaia's chart and his skills as a navigator.[21]
Subantarctic and Antarctica[edit]
Antarctica and surrounding islands, showing the Auckland Islands just above (south of) New Zealand, at the center bottom of the image
There is academic debate on the furthest southern extent of Polynesian expansion.
There is material evidence of Polynesian visits to some of the subantarctic islands to the south of New Zealand, which are outside Polynesia proper. Remains of a Polynesian settlement dating back to the 13th century were found on Enderby Island in the Auckland Islands.[22][23][24][25] Descriptions of a shard of early Polynesian pottery buried on the Antipodes Islands[26] are unsubstantiated, and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, where it was supposedly stored, has stated that "The Museum has not been able to locate such a shard in its collection, and the original reference[27] to the object in the Museum's collection documentation indicates no reference to Polynesian influences."
Oral history describes Ui-te-Rangiora, around the year 650, leading a fleet of Waka Tīwai south until they reached, "a place of bitter cold where rock-like structures rose from a solid sea".[28] The brief description might match the Ross Ice Shelf or possibly the Antarctic mainland,[29] but may be a description of icebergs surrounded by sea Ice found in the Southern Ocean.[30][31] The account also describes snow.
Pre-Columbian contact with the Americas[edit]
Main article: Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
In the mid-20th century, Thor Heyerdahl proposed a new theory of Polynesian origins (one which did not win general acceptance), arguing that the Polynesians had migrated from South America on balsa-log boats.[32][33]
The presence in the Cook Islands of sweet potato that is a plant native to the Americas (called kūmara in Māori), which have been radiocarbon-dated to 1000 CE, has been cited as evidence that Americans could have traveled to Oceania. The current thinking is that sweet potato was brought to central Polynesia circa 700 CE and spread across Polynesia from there, possibly by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back.[34] An alternative explanation posits biological dispersal; plants and/or seeds could float across the Pacific without any human contact.[35]
A 2007 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined chicken bones at El Arenal near the Arauco Peninsula, Arauco Province, Chile. The results suggested Oceania-to-America contact. Chickens originated in southern Asia and the Araucana breed of Chile was thought to have been brought by Spaniards around 1500. However, the bones found in Chile were radiocarbon-dated to between 1304 and 1424, well before the documented arrival of the Spanish. DNA sequences taken were exact matches to those of chickens from the same period in American Samoa and Tonga, both over 5000 miles (8000 kilometers) away from Chile. The genetic sequences were also similar to those found in Hawaiʻi and Easter Island, the closest island at only 2500 miles (4000 kilometers), and unlike any breed of European chicken.[36][37][38] Although this initial report suggested a Polynesian pre-Columbian origin a later report looking at the same specimens concluded:
A published, apparently pre-Columbian, Chilean specimen and six pre-European Polynesian specimens also cluster with the same European/Indian subcontinental/Southeast Asian sequences, providing no support for a Polynesian introduction of chickens to South America. In contrast, sequences from two archaeological sites on Easter Island group with an uncommon haplogroup from Indonesia, Japan, and China and may represent a genetic signature of an early Polynesian dispersal. Modeling of the potential marine carbon contribution to the Chilean archaeological specimen casts further doubt on claims for pre-Columbian chickens, and definitive proof will require further analyses of ancient DNA sequences and radiocarbon and stable isotope data from archaeological excavations within both Chile and Polynesia.[39]
In the last 20 years, the dates and anatomical features of human remains found in Mexico and South America have led some archaeologists[who?] to propose that those regions were first populated by people who crossed the Pacific several millennia before the Ice Age migrations; according to this theory, these would have been either eliminated or absorbed by the Siberian immigrants. However, current archaeological evidence for human migration to and settlement of remote Oceania (i.e., the Pacific Ocean eastwards of the Solomon Islands) is dated to no earlier than approximately 3,500 BP;[40] trans-Pacific contact with the Americas coinciding with or pre-dating the Beringia migrations of at least 11,500 BP is highly problematic, except for movement along intercoastal routes.
Recently, linguist Kathryn A. Klar of University of California, Berkeley and archaeologist Terry L. Jones of California Polytechnic State University have proposed contacts between Polynesians and the Chumash and Gabrielino of Southern California, between 500 and 700. Their primary evidence consists of the advanced sewn-plank canoe design, which is used throughout the Polynesian Islands, but is unknown in North America – except for those two tribes. Moreover, the Chumash word for "sewn-plank canoe", tomolo'o, may have been derived from kumulaa'au, a Hawaiian word meaning "useful tree".
In 2008, an expedition starting on the Philippines sailed two modern Wharram-designed catamarans loosely based on a Polynesian catamaran found in Auckland Museum New Zealand. The boats were built in the Philippines by an experienced boat builder to Wharram designs using modern strip plank with epoxy resin glue built over plywood frames. The catamarans had modern Dacron sails, Terylene stays and sheets with modern roller blocks. Wharram says he used Polynesian navigation to sail along the coast of Northern New Guinea and then sailed 150 miles to an island for which he had modern charts, proving that it is possible to sail a modern catamaran along the path of the Lapita Pacific migration.[41] Unlike many other modern Polynesian "replica" voyages the Wharram catamarans were not towed or escorted by a modern vessel with modern GPS navigation system, nor were they fitted with a motor.
Polynesian contact with the prehispanic Mapuche culture in central-south Chile has been suggested because of apparently similar cultural traits, including words like toki (stone axes and adzes), hand clubs similar to the Māori wahaika, the sewn-plank canoe as used on Chiloe island, the curanto earth oven (Polynesian umu) common in southern Chile, fishing techniques such as stone wall enclosures, a hockey-like game, and other potential parallels. Some strong westerlies and El Niño wind blow directly from central-east Polynesia to the Mapuche region, between Concepcion and Chiloe. A direct connection from New Zealand is possible, sailing with the Roaring Forties. In 1834, some escapees from Tasmania arrived at Chiloe Island after sailing for 43 days.[42][43]
Revival[edit]
The first settlers who sailed to the Hawaiian Islands are said to have arrived as early as 400 C.E by Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands. Captain James Cook was the first European to arrive to the island of Kaua’i in 1778. He returned a year later and was killed in an altercation with natives at Kealakekua Bay. In 1973, Ben Finney established the Polynesian Voyaging Society to test the contentious question of how Polynesians found their islands. The team claimed to be able to replicate ancient Hawaiian double-hulled canoes capable of sailing across the ocean using strictly traditional voyaging techniques.[44] In 1980, a Hawaiian named Nainoa Thompson invented a new method of non-instrument navigation (called the "modern Hawaiian wayfinding system"), enabling him to complete the voyage from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti and back. In 1987, a Māori named Matahi Whakataka (Greg Brightwell) and his mentor Francis Cowan sailed from Tahiti to Aotearoa without instruments.
In New Zealand, a leading Māori navigator and ship builder is Hector Busby who was also inspired and influenced by Nainoa Thompson and Hokulea's voyage there in 1985.[45][46]
Post-colonial research history[edit]
Navigator Mau Piailug (1932–2010) of Satawal island, Micronesia
Knowledge of the traditional Polynesian methods of navigation was widely lost after contact with and colonization by Europeans. This caused debates over the reasons for the presence of the Polynesians in such isolated and scattered parts of the Pacific. According to Andrew Sharp, the explorer Captain James Cook, already familiar with Charles de Brosses's accounts of large groups of Pacific islanders who were driven off course in storms and ended up hundreds of miles away with no idea where they were, encountered in the course of one of his own voyages a castaway group of Tahitians who had become lost at sea in a gale and blown 1000 miles away to the island of Atiu. Cook wrote that this incident "will serve to explain, better than the thousand conjectures of speculative reasoners, how the detached parts of the earth, and, in particular, how the South Seas, may have been peopled".[47]
By the late 19th century to the early 20th century, a more generous view of Polynesian navigation had come into favor, creating a much romanticized view of their seamanship, canoes, and navigational expertise. Late 19th and early 20th centuries writers such as Abraham Fornander and Percy Smith told of heroic Polynesians migrating in great coordinated fleets from Asia far and wide into present-day Polynesia.[33]
Another view was presented by Andrew Sharp who challenged the "heroic vision" hypothesis, asserting instead that Polynesian maritime expertise was severely limited in the field of exploration and that as a result the settlement of Polynesia had been the result of luck, random island sightings, and drifting, rather than as organized voyages of colonization. Thereafter the oral knowledge passed down for generations allowed for eventual mastery of traveling between known locations.[48] Sharp's reassessment caused a huge amount of controversy and led to a stalemate between the romantic and the skeptical views.[33]
Doubled hulled vaka in Rarotonga, 2010.
By the mid-to-late 1960s it was time for a new hands-on approach. Anthropologist David Lewis sailed his catamaran from Tahiti to New Zealand using stellar navigation without instruments.[49] Anthropologist and historian Ben Finney built Nalehia, a 40-foot (12 m) replica of a Hawaiian double canoe. Finney tested the canoe in a series of sailing and paddling experiments in Hawaiian waters. At the same time, ethnographic research in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia brought to light the fact that traditional stellar navigational methods were still very much in everyday use there. The building and testing of proa canoes (wa) inspired by traditional designs, the harnessing of knowledge from skilled Micronesians, as well as voyages using stellar navigation, allowed practical conclusions about the seaworthiness and handling capabilities of traditional Polynesian canoes and allowed a better understanding of the navigational methods that were likely to have been used by the Polynesians and of how they, as people, were adapted to seafaring.[50] Recent re-creations of Polynesian voyaging have used methods based largely on Micronesian methods and the teachings of a Micronesian navigator, Mau Piailug.[51]
In accordance with Polynesian oral tradition, the geography of Polynesian navigation pathways are said to resemble the geometric qualities of an octopus with head centred on Ra'iātea (French Polynesia) and tentacles spread out across the Pacific.[52] In oral tradition the octopus is known by various names such as Taumata-Fe'e-Fa'atupu-Hau (Grand Octopus of Prosperity), Tumu-Ra'i-Fenua (Beginning-of-Heaven-and-Earth) and Te Wheke-a-Muturangi (The Octopus of Muturangi).
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Clark, Liesl (15 February 2000). "Polynesia's Genius Navigators". Retrieved 17 November 2016.
Jump up ^ Howe, K. R (2006), Vaka Moana: Voyages of the Ancestors – the discovery and settlement of the Pacific, Albany, Auckland: David Bateman, pp. 92–98
Jump up ^ Bellwood 1987, pp. 45–65.
Jump up ^ "Lapita culture: ancestors of Polynesians, Micronesians, and some coastal areas of Melanesia". Originalpeople.org. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
Jump up ^ Bellwood 1987, pp. 29, 54.
Jump up ^ Bayard, D. T. (1976). The Cultural Relationships of the Polynesian Outiers. Otago University, Studies in Prehistoric Anthropology, Vol. 9.
Jump up ^ Kirch, P. V. (1984). "The Polynesian Outliers: Continuity, change, and replacement". Journal of Pacific History. 19 (4): 224–238. doi:10.1080/00223348408572496.
Jump up ^ Bellwood, Peter (1978). The Polynesians Prehistory of an Island People. NY: Thames and Hudson. p. 39. ISBN 9780500020937.
Jump up ^ Bellwood, Peter (1978). The Polynesians Prehistory of an Island People. NY: Thames and Hudson. p. 42. ISBN 9780500020937.
Jump up ^ Thompson, Nainoa. "On Wayfinding". Polynesian Voyaging Society. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Gatty 1958.
^ Jump up to: a b Lewis, David (1972). We, the Navigators. HI: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824802295.
Jump up ^ "Be Your Own Navigator," Smithsonian Libraries Unbound, 11 February 2016.
Jump up ^ "Star Compasses". Polynesian Voyaging Society. Archived from the original on 5 August 2010.
Jump up ^ Harold Gatty (1958). Nature Is Your Guide, p. 45
Jump up ^ Star Compass diagrams with translations
Jump up ^ Halpern, M. D. (1985) The Origins of the Carolinian Sidereal Compass, Master's thesis, Texas A & M University
Jump up ^ Gooley, Tristan (2016). How to Read Water: Clues, Signs & Patterns from Puddles to the Sea. NY: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9781473615205.
Jump up ^ Druett, Joan (1987). Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator. New Zealand: Random House. pp. 226–227.
Jump up ^ Druett, Joan (1987). Tupaia – The Remarkable Story of Captain Cook's Polynesian Navigator. New Zealand: Random House. pp. 218–233.
Jump up ^ O'Sullivan, Dan (2008). In search of Captain Cook. I.B. Taurus. p. 148. ISBN 9781845114831.
Jump up ^ O'Connor, Tom Polynesians in the Southern Ocean: Occupation of the Auckland Islands in Prehistory in New Zealand Geographic 69 (September–October 2004): 6–8
Jump up ^ Anderson, Atholl J., & Gerard R. O'Regan "To the Final Shore: Prehistoric Colonisation of the Subantarctic Islands in South Polynesia" in Australian Archaeologist: Collected Papers in Honour of Jim Allen Canberra: Australian National University, 2000. 440–454.
Jump up ^ Anderson, Atholl J., & Gerard R. O'Regan The Polynesian Archaeology of the Subantarctic Islands: An Initial Report on Enderby Island Southern Margins Project Report. Dunedin: Ngai Tahu Development Report, 1999
Jump up ^ Anderson, Atholl J. (2005). "Subpolar Settlement in South Polynesia". Antiquity. 79 (306): 791–800. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00114930.
Jump up ^ "Nga-Iwi-o-Aotea". Te Ao Hou (59): 43. 1967.
Jump up ^ "Captain Fairchild to the Secretary, Marine Department, Wellington". Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1886 Session I, H-24 Page 6.
Jump up ^ "Expedition Cruises Fathom Expeditions Custom Cruise". Archived from the original on 23 June 2010. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
Jump up ^ "All About Antarctica". Retrieved 2 March 2016.
Jump up ^ "The Left Coaster: freeze frame". Retrieved 2 March 2016.
Jump up ^ "Ui-te-Rangiora". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
Jump up ^ Sharp 1963, pp. 122–128.
^ Jump up to: a b c Finney 1963, p. 5.
Jump up ^ Van Tilburg, Jo Anne (1994). Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology and Culture. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Jump up ^ Montenegro, A.; et al. "Modeling the prehistoric arrival of the sweet potato in Polynesia" (PDF). Journal of Archaeological Science. University of Victoria. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 June 2011. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
Jump up ^ Whipps, Heather (4 June 2007), "Chicken Bones Suggest Polynesians Found Americas Before Columbus", Live Science, retrieved 5 June 2007.
Jump up ^ Maugh, Thomas H., II (5 June 2007). "Polynesians beat Spaniards to South America, study shows". Los Angeles Times.
Jump up ^ Storey, A. A.; et al. (2007). "Radiocarbon and DNA evidence for a pre-Columbian introduction of Polynesian chickens to Chile". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (25): 10335–10339. doi:10.1073/pnas.0703993104. PMC 1965514.
Jump up ^ Gongora, J.; et al. (2008). "Indo-European and Asian origins for Chilean and Pacific chickens revealed by mtDNA". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (30): 10308–10313. doi:10.1073/pnas.0801991105. PMC 2492461.
Jump up ^ Kirch, Patrick V. Background to Pacific Archaeology and Prehistory Archived 9 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine., Oceanic Archaeology Laboratory, Univ. California, Berkeley.
Jump up ^ Hympendahl, Klaus. "Lapita Voyage – The first expedition following the migration route of the ancient Polynesians". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
Jump up ^ "Rapa Nui" (in Spanish). Retrieved 5 June 2007.
Jump up ^ Lewis, David (1972). We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific. Canberra: Australian National University Press.
Jump up ^ Finney, Ben. "Voyaging into Polynesia's Past The Founding of the Polynesian Voyaging Society". Hokule'a. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
Jump up ^ "Profile: Hekenukumai (Hector) Busby". Toi Māori Aotearoa. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
Jump up ^ "Waka Tapu Canoes". NZMACI & Taitokerau Tarai Waka. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
Jump up ^ Sharp 1963, p. 16.
Jump up ^ Sharp 1963.
Jump up ^ Lewis 1976.
Jump up ^ Finney 1963, pp. 6–9.
Jump up ^ See also: Polynesian Voyaging Society, Hokulea.
Jump up ^ E. Tetahiotupa, Au gré des vents et des courants (Éditions des Mers Australes) 2009, https://www.tahiti-infos.com/Pourquoi-le-Triangle-polynesien-est-une-pieuvre_a135121.html
References[edit]
Bellwood, Peter (1987). The Polynesians – Prehistory of an Island People. Thames and Hudson. pp. 45–65. ISBN 9780500274507.
Downes, Lawrence (16 July 2010), Star Man, New York Times .
Finney, Ben R (1963), "New, Non-Armchair Research", in Finney, Ben R, Pacific Navigation and Voyaging, The Polynesian Society .
Finney, Ben R, ed. (1976), Pacific Navigation and Voyaging, The Polynesian Society .
Gatty, Harold (1943), The Raft Book: Lore of Sea and Sky, U.S. Air Force .
Gatty, Harold (1958), Finding Your Ways Without Map or Compass, Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-40613-X .
Kayser, M.; Brauer, S.; Weiss, G.; Underhill, P.A.; Roewer, L.; Schiefenhövel, W.; Stoneking, M. (2000), Melanesian Origin of Polynesian Y Chromosomes, 10 (20), Current Biology, pp. 1237–1246, doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(00)00734-X .
Kayser, M.; Brauer, S.; Weiss, G.; Underhill, P.A.; Roewer, L.; Schiefenhövel, W.; Stoneking, M. (2001), Correction: Melanesian Origin of Polynesian Y Chromosomes, 11 (2), Current Biology, doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(01)00029-X .
King, Michael (2003), History of New Zealand, Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-301867-1 .
Lewis, David (1963), "A Return Voyage Between Puluwat and Saipan Using Micronesian Navigational Techniques", in Finney, Ben R, Pacific Navigation and Voyaging, The Polynesian Society .
Lewis, David (1994), We the Navigators: The Ancient art of Landfinding in the Pacific, University of Hawaii Press .
Lusby, et al. (2009/2010) "Navigation and Discovery in the Polynesian Oceanic Empire" Hydrographic Journal Nos. 131, 132, 134.
Sharp, Andrew (1963), Ancient Voyagers in Polynesia, Longman Paul Ltd. .
Sutton, Douglas G., ed. (1994), The Origins of the First New Zealanders, Auckland University Press .
See also[edit]
Fautasi
Hokulea
External links[edit]
Kawaharada, Dennis. "Wayfinding: Modern Methods and Techniques of Non-Instrument Navigation, Based on Pacific Traditions". Wayfinding Strategies and Tactics. Honolulu, HI, USA: Polynesian Voyaging Society. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
"Wayfinding". Honolulu, HI, USA: Polynesian Voyaging Society. Archived from the original on 17 September 2009. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
Exploratorium. "Never Lost | Polynesian Navigation" (Flash). San Francisco, CA, USA: Exploratorium. Retrieved 26 November 2012. An interactive presentation with English and Hawaiian language options.
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Thallium poisoning
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Thallium poisoning
Thallium
Classification and external resources
Specialty
emergency medicine
ICD-10
T60.4
ICD-9-CM
985.8
DiseasesDB
13009
[edit on Wikidata]
Thallium and its compounds are often highly toxic.[1] Contact with skin is dangerous, and adequate ventilation should be provided when melting this metal.[2] Many thallium(I) compounds are highly soluble in water and are readily absorbed through the skin.[citation needed] Exposure to them should not exceed 0.1 mg per m2 of skin in an 8-hour time-weighted average (40-hour work week). Thallium is a suspected human carcinogen.[2]
Part of the reason for thallium's high toxicity is that, when present in aqueous solution as the univalent thallium(I) ion (Tl+), it exhibits some similarities with essential alkali metal cations, particularly potassium (due to similar ionic radii). It can thus enter the body via potassium uptake pathways.[3] Other aspects of thallium's chemistry differ strongly from that of the alkali metals, such as its high affinity for sulfur ligands. Thus, this substitution disrupts many cellular processes (for instance, thallium may attack sulfur-containing proteins such as cysteine residues and ferredoxins).[4] Thallium's toxicity has led to its use (now discontinued in many countries) as a rat and ant poison.[1]
Among the distinctive effects of thallium poisoning are hair loss (which led to its initial use as a depilatory before its toxicity was properly appreciated) and damage to peripheral nerves (victims may experience a sensation of walking on hot coals), although the loss of hair only generally occurs in low doses; in high doses the thallium kills before this can take effect.[5] Thallium was once an effective murder weapon before its effects became understood and an antidote (Prussian blue) discovered.[6] Indeed, thallium poisoning has been called the "poisoner's poison" since thallium is colorless, odorless and tasteless; its slow-acting, painful and wide-ranging symptoms are often suggestive of a host of other illnesses and conditions.[7]
Contents
[hide]
1 Treatment and internal decontamination
2 Bioconcentration
3 Thallium compounds
4 Detection in body fluids
5 Famous uses as a poison
5.1 Australia's "Thallium Craze"
5.2 Other notable cases
5.3 In fiction
6 References
7 External links
8 See also
Treatment and internal decontamination[edit]
There are two main methods of removing both radioactive and stable isotopes of thallium from humans. First known was to use Prussian blue, which is a solid ion exchange material, which absorbs thallium. Up to 20 g per day of Prussian blue is fed by mouth to the person, and it passes through their digestive system and comes out in the stool. Hemodialysis and hemoperfusion are also used to remove thallium from the blood serum. At later stage of the treatment additional potassium is used to mobilize thallium from the tissue.[8][9]
Bioconcentration[edit]
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), thallium release to the environment was reported in Texas and Ohio. This may indicate bioconcentration in aquatic ecosystems.[2]
Thallium compounds[edit]
The odorless and tasteless thallium sulfate was also used as rat poison and ant killer. Since 1975, this use in the United States and many other countries is prohibited due to safety concerns.[10]
Detection in body fluids[edit]
Thallium may be quantitated in blood or urine as a diagnostic tool in clinical poisoning situations or to aid in the medicolegal investigation of suspicious deaths. Normal background blood and urine concentrations in healthy persons are usually less than 1 μg/litre, but they are often in the 1–10 mg/litre range in survivors of acute intoxication.[11][12]
Famous uses as a poison[edit]
There are numerous recorded cases of fatal thallium poisoning.[13] Because of its use for murder, thallium has gained the nicknames "The Poisoner's Poison" and "Inheritance Powder" (alongside arsenic).
Australia's "Thallium Craze"[edit]
In Australia, in the early 1950s, there was a notable spate of cases of murder or attempted murder by thallium poisoning. At this time, due to the chronic rat infestation problems in overcrowded inner-city suburbs (notably in Sydney), and thallium's effectiveness as a rat poison, it was still readily available over the counter in New South Wales, where thallium sulphate was marketed as a commercial rat bait, under the brand "Thall-rat".
In September 1952, Yvonne Gladys Fletcher, a housewife and mother of two from the inner Sydney suburb of Newtown, was charged and tried for the murders of both her first husband, Desmond Butler (who died in 1948) and her abusive second husband, Bertrand "Bluey" Fletcher, a rat bait layer, from whom Yvonne had obtained the thallium poison that she used to kill him earlier that year. Suspicions were raised after it became obvious to friends and neighbours that Bluey Fletcher was suffering from the same fatal illness that had killed Yvonne's first husband. A police investigation led to the exhumation and testing of Desmond Butler's remains, which showed clear evidence of thallium, and this led to Yvonne being convicted of Butler's murder. She was sentenced to death, but this was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment after the NSW Government abolished the death penalty; she was eventually released in 1964. At the time of the trial, it was reported that this was the first known case in Australia of a person being convicted of murder by administering thallium.[14][15] The Fletcher case is also notable for the fact that one of the arresting officers was Sydney detective Fred Krahe, who later became notorious for his suspected close involvement with elements of Sydney's organised crime scene and his alleged involvement in the disappearance of social activist Juanita Nielsen.
A month later, in October 1952, Bathurst grandmother Ruby Norton was tried for the murder of her daughter's fiancė Allen Williams, who died of thallium poisoning at Cowra Hospital in July 1952. Despite allegations that Norton hated all the men in her family and Williams was an unwanted son-in-law, Norton was acquitted.[15]
In 1953, Sydney woman Veronica Monty, 45, was tried for the attempted murder of her son-in-law, noted Balmain and Australian rugby league player Bob Lulham, who was treated for thallium poisoning in 1952. After separating from her husband, Monty had moved in with her daughter Judy and Judy's husband, Bob Lulham. The sensational trial revealed that Lulham and Monty had an "intimate relationship" while Lulham's wife was at Sunday mass. Monty was found not guilty; Judy Lulham divorced her husband as a result of the revelations about his affair, and Veronica Monty killed herself with thallium in 1955.[15]
In July 1953, Sydney woman Beryl Hague was tried for "maliciously administering thallium and endangering her husband's life". Hague confessed to buying Thall-rat from a corner shop and putting it in her husband's tea, because she wanted to "give him a headache to repay the many headaches he had given me" in violent disputes[15]
In 1953, Australian Caroline Grills was sentenced to life in prison after three family members and a close family friend died. Authorities found thallium in tea that she had given to two additional family members. Grills spent the rest of her life in Sydney's Long Bay Gaol, where fellow inmates dubbed her "Aunt Thally".[15][16][17]
The Australian TV documentary Recipe for Murder, released in 2011, examined three of the most sensational and widely reported Australian thallium poisonings, the Fletcher, Monty and Grills cases.
Other notable cases[edit]
Félix-Roland Moumié, a Cameroonian leader, was assassinated in Geneva on 3 November 1960 by the SDECE (French secret service) with thallium.
In 1971, thallium was the main poison that Graham Frederick Young used to poison around 70 people in the English village of Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, of whom three died.[18]
From 1976 to late 1979, thallium was used as a chemical warfare agent, most notably by a unit of the British South Africa Police (BSAP) attached to the Selous Scouts during the Rhodesian Bush War.[19]
In 1977, a 19-month-old girl living in Qatar fell ill due to thallium poisoning (from pesticides used by her parents). While doctors were unable to identify the cause, a nurse named Marsha Maitland managed to do it from the description of the symptoms given in The Pale Horse.[20]
In 1987, in Kiev, a woman named Tamara Ivanutina was arrested along with her older sister and parents. They were found guilty of 40 cases of poisoning (13 of them lethal) with Clerici solution obtained from an acquaintance working at a geology institute. Tamara (guilty of nine deaths, including four children) was executed; one of the three documented cases of women receiving the capital punishment in post-Stalin Soviet Union. Her relatives received prison terms, the parents dying in jail.[21]
In 1988, members of the Carr family from Alturas, Polk County, Florida, fell ill from what appeared to be thallium poisoning. Peggy Carr, the mother, died slowly and painfully from the poison. Her son and stepson were critically ill but eventually recovered. The Carrs' neighbor, chemist George J. Trepal, was convicted of murdering Mrs. Carr and attempting to murder her family and sentenced to death. The thallium was slipped into bottles of Coca-Cola at the Carr and Trepal homes.[22]
Thallium was the poison of choice for Saddam Hussein to use on dissidents, which even allowed for them to emigrate before dying.[23]
In 1995, Zhu Ling was the victim of an unsolved attempted thallium poisoning in Beijing, China. In 1994, Zhu Ling was a sophomore studying Physical Chemistry at Tsinghua University in Beijing. She began to show strange and debilitating symptoms at the end of 1994, when she reported experiencing acute stomach pain and extensive hair loss. Ultimately she was diagnosed on Usenet with poisoning by thallium. To this day, there is still speculation as to the poisoner's identity among Chinese expatriates overseas. The primary (and only) suspect of the police investigation, Sun Wei, is a member of a family with high-level political connections, which may have been used to halt and suppress the results of the investigation. Sun Wei was Zhu Ling's classmate and roommate in Tsinghua University from 1992 to 1997. Tsinghua University also said she was the only student who had access to thallium compound at the school. The investigation's results have never been released to Zhu Ling's parents or the general public. However, Tsinghua University declined to issue Sun Wei's B. S. certificate and refused to provide her with the documentation needed to get a passport or visa in 1997.
In 1999, Norwegian Terje Wiik was sentenced to 21 years prison for poisoning his girlfriend with thallium.
In June 2004, 25 Russian soldiers earned Honorable Mentions in the Darwin Awards after becoming ill from thallium exposure when they found a can of mysterious white powder in a rubbish dump on their base at Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East. Oblivious to the danger of misusing an unidentified white powder from a military dump site, the conscripts added it to tobacco, and used it as a substitute for talcum powder on their feet.[24]
In 2005, a 17-year-old girl in Izunokuni, Shizuoka, Japan admitted to attempting to murder her mother by lacing her tea with thallium, causing a national scandal.[25]
In February 2007, two Americans, Marina and Yana Kovalevsky, a mother and daughter, visiting Russia were hospitalized for thallium poisoning. Both had emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1991 and had made several trips to Russia since then.[26]
In February 2008, members of an Iraqi air force club and some of their children were poisoned by cake laced with thallium.[27] Two of the children died.
In 2011, a chemist at Bristol-Myers Squibb in New Jersey, Li Tianle, was charged with the murder of her husband. According to an investigation by the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, Li Tianle was able to obtain a chemical containing thallium and fed it to her husband.[28] Li was a chemistry student at Beijing University at the time of the highly publicized thallium poisoning of Zhu Ling in 1995 at neighboring Tsinghua University.[29]
In 2012 a chemistry postgraduate student at the University of Southampton, UK, was found to be suffering from the effects of thallium and arsenic poisoning after presenting with neurological symptoms.[30] The student underwent an intensive course of treatment and—although they have shown improvement—faces an uncertain long-term prognosis for the recovery of full locomotion. Urine screening revealed elevated thallium levels in a small number of other members of the chemistry department, though none were at toxic levels. The source of the poisoning remains unknown, and although police investigations were fruitless, foul play is strongly suspected.[citation needed]
In fiction[edit]
Ngaio Marsh used thallium acetate in her 1947 detective novel, Final Curtain. It was being used legitimately for scalp problems in a group of school children just after World War Two, housed in a private estate. A relative living there used it in place of the heart medicine intended for the owner.
Agatha Christie, who worked as a pharmacist, used thallium in 1961 as the agent of murder in her detective fiction novel The Pale Horse — the first clue to the murder method coming from the hair loss of the victims. This novel is notable as being credited with having saved at least two lives after readers recognised the symptoms of thallium poisoning that Christie described.[31] The Pale Horse was found among possessions of convicted thallium poisoner George Trepal's wife, the orthopedic surgeon Dr. Diana Carr (see above), who was herself considered a suspect in the Peggy Carr (no relation) murder for a time.
In Nigel Williams' 1990 novel The Wimbledon Poisoner, Henry Far uses thallium to baste a roast chicken in a failed attempt to murder his wife.
Thallium figures prominently in the 1995 film The Young Poisoner's Handbook, a dark comedy loosely based on the life of Graham Frederick Young.
In Big Nothing, Josie is the Wyoming Widow; a murderer who befriended men and killed them with whiskey laced with highly concentrated thallium.
In the 2010 episode "Whatever It Takes" of House, a character uses thallium to poison a patient to mimic the effects of polio, then appear to cure it with ultra high doses of vitamin C.
In the NCIS episode "Dead Man Walking" (2007), thallium-laced cigars are used to murder a Naval officer.
"Page Turner", a 2008 episode of CSI: NY, has radioactive thallium poisoning as its central theme.[32]
In the 2010 film Edge of Darkness, thallium is used to poison both the main character and his daughter.
In the 2015 James Bond Film SPECTRE, the organisation of the same name used thallium to poison 'Mr White' by lacing his mobile (cell) phone with it.
In Season 3 of Royal Pains, the mysterious German billionaire Boris Kuester von Jurgens-Ratenicz was poisoned by thallium added to his pool's water.
Drop Dead Diva episode "Ashes to Ashes", thallium was used to murder a client's husband, affecting the client when she ate the cremation remains.
In 2016 TVB drama Two Steps From Heaven, thallium was used to poison Bosco Wong's character.
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b Thallium Toxicity at eMedicine
^ Jump up to: a b "Biology of Thallium". webelemnts. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
Jump up ^ A Homogenous Thallium Flux Assay for High Throughput Screen of Potassium Channels
Jump up ^ Eliminating Thallium (poisoning)
Jump up ^ Blum, The Poisoner's Handbook, 256
Jump up ^ Douglas, K. T.; Bunni, M. A.; Baindur, S. R. (1990). "Thallium in biochemistry". International Journal of Biochemistry. 22 (5): 429–438. doi:10.1016/0020-711X(90)90254-Z.
Jump up ^ Amy Ellis Nutt & Sue Epstein, A 15-year-old case yields a timely clue in deadly thallium poisoning, The Star-Ledger, February 13, 2011
Jump up ^ Prussian blue fact sheet from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Jump up ^ Malbrain, M. L.; Lambrecht, G. L.; Zandijk, E.; Demedts, P. A.; Neels, H. M.; Lambert, W.; de Leenheer, A. P.; Lins, R. L.; Daelemans, R. (1997). "Treatment of Severe Thallium Intoxication". Clinical Toxicology. 35 (1): 97–100. PMID 9022660. doi:10.3109/15563659709001173.
Jump up ^ "Chemical fact sheet — Thallium". Spectrum Laboratories. April 2001. Retrieved 2008-02-02.
Jump up ^ Zhao, Guohua; Ding, Meiping; Zhang, Baorong; Lv, Wen; Yin, Houmin; Zhang, Liang; Ying, Zhilin; Zhang, Qiong (2008). "Clinical Manifestations and Management of Acute Thallium Poisoning". European Neurology. 60 (6): 292–7. PMID 18824857. doi:10.1159/000157883.
Jump up ^ Baselt, Randall Clint (2008). Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemicals in Man (8th ed.). Foster City, CA: Biomedical Publications. pp. 1522–4.
Jump up ^ http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/thallium_is_favored_method_of.html
Jump up ^ Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 1952. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Marea Donnelly, "Post-war days of thallium and old lace", Daily Telegraph, 23 May 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
Jump up ^ What is thallium?, BBC, November 19, 2006. Retrieved November 21, 2006.
Jump up ^ Marea Donnelly, "Post-war days of thallium and old lace", Daily Telegraph, 23 May 2011
Jump up ^ Cavanagh, J. B. (1991). "What have we learnt from Graham Frederick Young? Reflections on the mechanism of thallium neurotoxicity". Neuropathology and Applied Neurobiology. 17 (1): 3–9. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2990.1991.tb00687.x.
Jump up ^ Glenn Cross, "Dirty War: Rhodesia and Chemical Biological Warfare, 1975-1980," Solihull, UK: Helion & Company(2017)
Jump up ^ The Elements of Murder : A History of Poison
Jump up ^ Tamara Ivanyutina and Her Family of Serial Killers - Bizarrepedia
Jump up ^ "The Case of TREPAL, George (W/M)". The Commission on Capital Cases. Retrieved 2007-11-29.
Jump up ^ https://www.google.com/#q=thallium+saddam
Jump up ^ White Russians at DarwinAwards.com
Jump up ^ Ruling on Japan poison-diary girl, "BBC News", Monday, 1 May 2006.
Jump up ^ Embassy Confirms Hospitalization of Two Americans for Thallium Poisoning, Foxnews.com, March 7, 2007. Retrieved March 7, 2007.
Jump up ^ Poison cake kills Iraqi children, news.bbc.co.uk, February 9, 2008. Retrieved February 9, 2008.
Jump up ^ [1] NBC New York, February 8, 2011.
Jump up ^ A 15-year-old case yields a timely clue in deadly thallium poisoning, NJ.com News, February 13, 2011.
Jump up ^ "Southampton University labs shut after student poisoning". BBC News. 14 September 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
Jump up ^ Aronson, Jeff (2007). "When I use a word: Colourful metals". British Medical Journal. 334 (334): 205. doi:10.1136/bmj.39091.708981.BE.
Jump up ^ Huntley, Kristine. "CSI: NEW YORK--'PAGE TURNER'". csifiles.com. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
External links[edit]
Look up thallium in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Slow-acting killer that was Saddam's favourite instrument of vengeance
NLM Hazardous Substances Databank – Thallium, Elemental
[3]
Cyril Wecht, Thallium, Robert Curley
ATSDR - ToxFAQs
The Guardian reports: Two Iraqi children die from Thallium poisoning: 9 February 2008
[show]
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See also[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thallium.
Glenn Cross (2017), Dirty War: Rhodesia and Chemical Biological Warfare, 1975-1980, Solihull: Helion & Company
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Public holidays in the Republic of Ireland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
These are the public holidays observed in Ireland.[1] Public holidays in Ireland (as in other countries) may commemorate a special day or other event, such as Saint Patrick's Day or Christmas Day. On public holidays (sometimes also referred to as bank holidays - a colloquialism), most businesses and schools close. Other services, for example, public transport, still operate but often with reduced schedules.
The nine public holidays in Ireland each year are as follows:
Date
English Name
Irish Name
Notes
1 January New Year's Day Lá Caille or
Lá Bliana Nua Most also take time off work for New Year's Eve (Oíche Chinn Bliana).
17 March Saint Patrick's Day Lá Fhéile Pádraig National day. First became an official public holiday in Ireland in 1903.[2]
Moveable Monday Easter Monday Luan Cásca The day after Easter Sunday (Domhnach Cásca) – also coincides with the commemoration of the Easter Rising. Good Friday (Aoine an Chéasta) is not a public holiday, though all state schools and some businesses close.
Moveable Monday May Day[3] Lá Bealtaine The first Monday in May. First observed in 1994.[4]
Moveable Monday June Holiday Lá Saoire i mí an Mheithimh The first Monday in June. Previously observed as Whit Monday until 1973.[5]
Moveable Monday August Holiday Lá Saoire i mí Lúnasa The first Monday in August.
Moveable Monday October Holiday Lá Saoire i mí Dheireadh Fómhair The last Monday in October. (Lá Saoire Oíche Shamhna). First observed in 1977.[6]
25 December Christmas Day Lá Nollag Most start Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve (Oíche Nollag), including taking time off work.
26 December St. Stephen's Day Lá Fhéile Stiofáin or Lá an Dreoilín The day after Christmas celebrating the feast day of Saint Stephen. Lá an Dreoilín translates as the Day of the Wren.
Note that where a public holiday falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, or possibly coincides with another public holiday, it is generally observed (as a day off work) on the next available weekday, even though the public holiday itself does not move. In such cases, an employee is entitled to at least one of the following (as chosen by the employer): a day off within a month, an additional day's paid annual leave or an additional day's pay. The usual practice is, however, to award a day off on the next available weekday.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
2 School holidays
2.1 Primary schools
2.2 Secondary schools
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
History[edit]
The United Kingdom Bank Holidays Act 1871 established the first Bank holidays in Ireland. The Act designated four Bank holidays in Ireland: Easter Monday; Whit Monday; St. Stephen's Day and the first Monday in August. As Good Friday and Christmas Day were traditional days of rest and Christian worship (as were Sundays), therefore it was felt unnecessary to include them in the Act as they were already recognised as common law holidays.[7]
In 1903, Saint Patrick's Day became an official public holiday in Ireland. This was due to the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament introduced by the Irish MP James O'Mara.[2]
In 1939, the Oireachtas passed the Holidays (Employees) Act 1939 which designated the public holidays as Christmas Day; St. Stephen's Day; St. Patrick's Day; Easter Monday; Whit Monday and the first Monday in August.[8] The Holidays (Employees) Act 1973, replaced the Whit Monday holiday with the first Monday in June.[5] New Year's Day was not listed in the Act but was added by Statutory Instrument in 1974.[9] The October Holiday was added in 1977.[6] The first Monday in May (commonly known as May Day) was added in 1993 and first observed in 1994.[4]
In 1997 the Oireachtas passed the Organisation of Working Time Act. This Act, among other things, transposed European Union directives on working times into Irish law. Schedule 2 of the Act specifies the nine public holidays to which employees in Ireland are entitled to receive time off work, time in-lieu or holiday pay depending on their terms of employment.[10]
School holidays[edit]
This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Primary schools[edit]
Life in Ireland
Culture[show]
Christianity
Cuisine
Culture
Customs
Holidays
Music
Religion
Sport
Tourism
Economy [show]
Communications
Economy
Taxation
Transport
General[show]
Architecture
Geography
History
Military
Recycling
Society[show]
Demographics
Education
Health care
Languages
Media
Politics[show]
Government
Law
Law enforcement
Politics
Foreign relations
Policies[show]
Abortion
Marriage equality
v
t
e
In Ireland the academic year in primary schools lasts from late August to late June.
The academic year is composed of 183 schooldays and schools are not open in July or August (though for flexibility school may open for the last two/three days of August).
The first mid-term break is always the last week of October (also called the Halloween break).
Most Catholic schools previously closed for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December, but however this has stopped.
The Christmas break lasts from the last schoolday before 23 December to the first weekday after 6 January (17–21 days).
The second mid-term break is a minimum of two days to a maximum of five days duration taken in the third week of February (also called the Shrove break).
The Easter break consists of a week before Easter to the 2nd Monday after Easter (10 school days or 16 days inclusive).
In the last term holidays are flexible and are generally arranged around the public holidays in May and June.
Secondary schools[edit]
In Ireland the academic year in secondary schools is composed of 167 school days and lasts from late August to early June.
The first mid-term break begins on the last weekend before 31 October and lasts for one week.
Many Catholic schools close for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December.
The Christmas break lasts from the last schoolday before 23 December to the first weekday after 6 January (10 school days or 15–18 days inclusive).
The second mid-term break begins on the last schoolday in the second week of February and lasts for one week.
The Easter break consists of a week before Easter to the second Monday after Easter (10 school days or 16 days inclusive).
The school year ends on the Friday before the June public holiday.
The state examinations (the Junior and Leaving Certificate examinations) begin the Wednesday after the June Holiday.
See also[edit]
Gaelic calendar
Public holidays in the United Kingdom for Northern Ireland
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973". Irish Statute Book. Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b "O'Mara". Retrieved 27 December 2014.
Jump up ^ This holiday has no official title in Ireland, it is called the first Monday in May.
^ Jump up to: a b "S.I. No. 91/1993 – Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973 (Public Holiday) Regulations, 1993". Irish Statute Book. Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b "Holidays (Employees) Act, 1961". Irish Statute Book. Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
^ Jump up to: a b "S.I. No. 193/1977 – Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973 (Public Holiday) Regulations, 1977". Irish Statute Book. Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
Jump up ^ "Bank Holiday Fact File" (PDF). TUC press release. 22 May 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
Jump up ^ "Holidays (Employees) Act, 1939". Irish Statute Book. Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
Jump up ^ "S.I. No. 341/1974 — Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973 (Public Holiday) Regulations, 1974". Irish Statute Book. Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
Jump up ^ "Organisation of Working Time Act 1997". Office of the Attorney General. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
External links[edit]
Public holidays in Ireland – Citizens Information website
[show]
v
t
e
Public holidays in the Republic of Ireland
New Year's Day
Saint Patrick's Day
Easter Monday
May Day
June Holiday
August Holiday
October Holiday
Christmas Day
Saint Stephen's Day
[show]
v
t
e
Public holidays in Europe
Sovereign states
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Bulgaria
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Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Public_holidays_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland&oldid=759894668"
Categories:
Lists of public holidays by country
Public holidays in the Republic of Ireland
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This page was last edited on 13 January 2017, at 19:05.
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