{"id":591531,"date":"2026-08-13T01:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/591531\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T01:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T01:44:20","slug":"thousands-gather-to-watch-rare-solar-eclipse-across-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/591531\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands gather to watch rare solar eclipse across Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of people have gathered across the island of Ireland to watch a rare partial solar eclipse.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest gatherings was at Phoenix Park in Dublin where huge crowds came out to experience the once-in-a-generation astronomical event.<\/p>\n

Crowds also gathered at Queen\u2019s University in Belfast for a watch-along event under cloudy skies, as well as at the Armagh Observatory and a number of other locations.<\/p>\n

In Phoenix Park, crowds cheered and clapped as the skies darkened at the moment the moon covered the sun.<\/p>\n

A telescope had been erected to give people a safe view of the eclipse while others brought their own homemade viewing devices fashioned from cereal boxes.<\/p>\n

Colm Healey, from Dublin, said he came because it would be the only chance in his lifetime to see the rare celestial event.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt is great to see the crowds here and so many people that are interested. I have got my eclipse glasses so I\u2019m well prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Donovan and Paul Cantwell had travelled from Wicklow.<\/p>\n

Mr Cantwell said: \u201cWe wanted to come because we\u2019ll never see anything like it again. It\u2019s such a rare occasion, it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t got glasses but we\u2019ll hopefully get a view through the telescope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SolarStewards wearing welding helmets to watch the solar eclipse ahead of a pre-season match at Croke Park, Dublin (Niall Carson\/PA)<\/p>\n

At Croke Park in Dublin, crowds watched the eclipse before the friendly football match between Manchester United and Leeds United.<\/p>\n

Two enterprising stewards had brought along welding masks to watch the eclipse safely.<\/p>\n

Earlier, hundreds of people brought a Dublin city centre street close to a standstill as they queued to buy glasses to view the eclipse.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday afternoon, the queue outside the Designist shop in George\u2019s Street snaked for hundreds of yards.<\/p>\n

Some of those in the queue said they had been waiting for up to two hours to get the glasses, on sale for 10 euro, to enable them to view the rare astronomical event.<\/p>\n

The last eclipse which was visible in Ireland was in 1999.<\/p>\n

\"QueueThe queue continued for hundreds of yards (Jonathan McCambridge\/PA)<\/p>\n

The eclipse was visible just after 6pm in Irish skies with maximum coverage of the sun occurring shortly after 7pm.<\/p>\n

Among those in the queue was Kim Olin, who said she did not mind having to wait.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI want to get a pair of glasses to look at the eclipse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next one won\u2019t be until 2090 and I won\u2019t be alive by then so this is my last chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea how long I\u2019ll have to wait, the queue is very long.<\/p>\n

\"Kim Olin in the queue in George\u2019s Street in Dublin to buy specialist glasses to watch the eclipse (Jonathan McCambridge\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want one pair, so as long as they don\u2019t run out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bobby McQuillan said he had been waiting in the queue for more than an hour.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt will be worth it in the end. It is a once-in-a-lifetime event, and the forecast is that we will have a good view of it in Dublin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the solar eclipse also generated excitement in Co Armagh as families gathered to observe the \u201cremarkable astronomical event\u201d.<\/p>\n

The director of Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, Professor Michael Burton, said visitors feel part of the \u201ccosmic happening\u201d as the moon was set to cover more than 90% of the sun.<\/p>\n

It was described as likely to be the deepest eclipse seen from the region since the total eclipse of August 1999 and the last time that such an eclipse will be seen here until 2090.<\/p>\n

The west and south of Ireland were to see 98% coverage of the sun while this was expected to be around 94% in the east and north of the island.<\/p>\n

Some areas of the world are expected to see a total eclipse, including parts of Spain, Greenland and Iceland.<\/p>\n

Armagh Observatory joined those in Dunsink, in Dublin, and Blackrock Castle in Cork in organising viewing events.<\/p>\n

\"Eclipse(PA Graphics)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having one of these remarkable astronomical events, which tells us that we live on a spaceship \u2013 spaceship Earth \u2013 and it\u2019s travelling around our solar system,\u201d Mr Burton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going to happen tonight is that the moon is going to come between the Earth and the sun, and the moon is just about the same angular size as the sun is, and it\u2019s going to just about block it all out and so we\u2019re going to get an eclipse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a total eclipse. It\u2019s not going to go totally dark, but about 94\/95% of the sun will be blocked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Burton said the planetarium in Armagh was \u201cpacked out\u201d in anticipation of the eclipse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does remind us that we are a small part of the universe, and this is a cosmic happening out there, and we are part of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"ArmaghPeople have flocked to Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, organisers said (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the time, the stars are looking cleverly distant, and we don\u2019t really feel like we relate for them. But an eclipse is one of those occasions where we know we\u2019re part of a greater sphere, we\u2019re part of major events in our solar system.<\/p>\n

Dr Rok Nezic, conducting science communication and outreach at the Armagh Observatory & Planetarium, said the anticipation had been building for hours before the eclipse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something that can excite you about space because while eclipses are kind of common, to have them near you is very rare, and so it\u2019s always nice to see the excitement around that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will say, it\u2019s always also hard to judge how much people get excited because we\u2019re always excited, it\u2019s our job, but it\u2019s been so far fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Nezic said he \u201creally hopes\u201d this eclipse will inspire the next generation of astronomers, adding: \u201cJust a couple days ago, I was talking to someone from America who, as a high school student, experienced an eclipse over in the states, and she was saying, she\u2019s been chasing them again ever since, so she\u2019s now going to Spain to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people have gathered across the island of Ireland to watch a rare partial solar eclipse. One…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-591531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}