International Space Station
The International Space Station is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. Its first component was launched into orbit in 1998, with the first long-term residents arriving in November 2000, it has been inhabited continuously since that date. The last pressurised module was fitted in 2011, an experimental inflatable space habitat was added in 2016; the station is expected to operate until 2030. Development and assembly of the station continues, with several new elements scheduled for launch in 2019; the ISS is the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit and can be seen with the naked eye from Earth. The ISS consists of pressurised habitation modules, structural trusses, solar arrays, docking ports, experiment bays and robotic arms. ISS components have been launched by American Space Shuttles; the ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, astronomy and other fields.
The station is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars. The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft, it circles the Earth in 92 minutes and completes 15.5 orbits per day. The ISS programme is a joint project between five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, CSA; the ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station is divided into two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment and the United States Orbital Segment, shared by many nations; as of January 2018, operations of the American segment were funded until 2025. Roscosmos has endorsed the continued operation of ISS through 2024, but has proposed using elements of the Russian segment to construct a new Russian space station called OPSEK; the ISS is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and Russian Salyut and Mir stations as well as Skylab from the US.
The station has been continuously occupied for 18 years and 161 days since the arrival of Expedition 1 on 2 November 2000. This is the longest continuous human presence in low Earth orbit, having surpassed the previous record of 9 years and 357 days held by Mir, it has been visited by astronauts and space tourists from 18 different nations. After the American Space Shuttle programme ended in 2011, Soyuz rockets became the only provider of transport for astronauts at the ISS; the station is serviced by a variety of visiting spacecraft: the Russian Soyuz and Progress, the American Dragon and Cygnus, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle, the American Space Shuttle and the European Automated Transfer Vehicle. The Dragon spacecraft allows the return of pressurised cargo to Earth, used for example to repatriate scientific experiments for further analysis; the Soyuz return capsule has minimal downmass capability next to the astronauts. As of 14 March 2019, 236 people from 18 countries had visited the space station, many of them multiple times.
The United States sent 149 people, Russia sent 47, nine were Japanese, eight were Canadian, five were Italian, four were French, three were German, there were one each from Belgium, Denmark, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom. According to the original Memorandum of Understanding between NASA and Rosaviakosmos, the International Space Station was intended to be a laboratory and factory in low Earth orbit, it was planned to provide transportation and act as a staging base for possible future missions to the Moon and asteroids. In the 2010 United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given additional roles of serving commercial and educational purposes; the ISS provides a platform to conduct scientific research. Small unmanned spacecraft can provide platforms for zero gravity and exposure to space, but space stations offer a long-term environment where studies can be performed for decades, combined with ready access by human researchers over periods that exceed the capabilities of manned spacecraft.
The ISS simplifies individual experiments by eliminating the need for separate rocket launches and research staff. The wide variety of research fields include astrobiology, human research including space medicine and life sciences, physical sciences, materials science, space weather, weather on Earth. Scientists on Earth have access to the crew's data and can modify experiments or launch new ones, which are benefits unavailable on unmanned spacecraft. Crews fly expeditions of several months' duration, providing 160-man-hours per week of labour with a crew of 6. To detect dark matter and answer other fundamental questions about our universe and scientists from all over the world built the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which NASA compares to the Hubble Space Telescope, says could not be accommodated on a free flying satellite platform because of its power requirements and data bandwidth needs. On 3 April 2013, NASA scientists reported that hints of dark matter may have been detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
According to the scientists, "The first results from the space-borne Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer confirm an unexplained excess of high-energy positrons in Earth-bound cosmic rays." The space environment is hostile to life. Unprotected presence in space is characterised by an intense radiation field (consisting pr
Republic of Ireland
Ireland known as the Republic of Ireland, is a country in north-western Europe occupying 26 of 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, located on the eastern part of the island, whose metropolitan area is home to around a third of the country's over 4.8 million inhabitants. The sovereign state shares its only land border with a part of the United Kingdom, it is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south-east, the Irish Sea to the east. It is a parliamentary republic; the legislature, the Oireachtas, consists of a lower house, Dáil Éireann, an upper house, Seanad Éireann, an elected President who serves as the ceremonial head of state, but with some important powers and duties. The head of government is the Taoiseach, elected by the Dáil and appointed by the President; the state was created as the Irish Free State in 1922 as a result of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It had the status of Dominion until 1937 when a new constitution was adopted, in which the state was named "Ireland" and became a republic, with an elected non-executive president as head of state.
It was declared a republic in 1949, following the Republic of Ireland Act 1948. Ireland became a member of the United Nations in December 1955, it joined the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union, in 1973. The state had no formal relations with Northern Ireland for most of the twentieth century, but during the 1980s and 1990s the British and Irish governments worked with the Northern Ireland parties towards a resolution to "the Troubles". Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the Irish government and Northern Ireland Executive have co-operated on a number of policy areas under the North-South Ministerial Council created by the Agreement. Ireland ranks among the top twenty-five wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP per capita, as the tenth most prosperous country in the world according to The Legatum Prosperity Index 2015. After joining the EEC, Ireland enacted a series of liberal economic policies that resulted in rapid economic growth.
The country achieved considerable prosperity between the years of 1995 and 2007, which became known as the Celtic Tiger period. This was halted by an unprecedented financial crisis that began in 2008, in conjunction with the concurrent global economic crash. However, as the Irish economy was the fastest growing in the EU in 2015, Ireland is again ascending league tables comparing wealth and prosperity internationally. For example, in 2015, Ireland was ranked as the joint sixth most developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index, it performs well in several national performance metrics, including freedom of the press, economic freedom and civil liberties. Ireland is a member of the European Union and is a founding member of the Council of Europe and the OECD; the Irish government has followed a policy of military neutrality through non-alignment since prior to World War II and the country is not a member of NATO, although it is a member of Partnership for Peace. The 1922 state, comprising 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, was "styled and known as the Irish Free State".
The Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, provides that "the name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland". Section 2 of the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 states, "It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland." The 1948 Act does not name the state as "Republic of Ireland", because to have done so would have put it in conflict with the Constitution. The government of the United Kingdom used the name "Eire" and, from 1949, "Republic of Ireland", for the state; as well as "Ireland", "Éire" or "the Republic of Ireland", the state is referred to as "the Republic", "Southern Ireland" or "the South". In an Irish republican context it is referred to as "the Free State" or "the 26 Counties". From the Act of Union on 1 January 1801, until 6 December 1922, the island of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. During the Great Famine, from 1845 to 1849, the island's population of over 8 million fell by 30%. One million Irish died of starvation and/or disease and another 1.5 million emigrated to the United States.
This set the pattern of emigration for the century to come, resulting in constant population decline up to the 1960s. From 1874, under Charles Stewart Parnell from 1880, the Irish Parliamentary Party gained prominence; this was firstly through widespread agrarian agitation via the Irish Land League, that won land reforms for tenants in the form of the Irish Land Acts, secondly through its attempts to achieve Home Rule, via two unsuccessful bills which would have granted Ireland limited national autonomy. These led to "grass-roots" control of national affairs, under the Local Government Act 1898, in the hands of landlord-dominated grand juries of the Protestant Ascendancy. Home Rule seemed certain when the Parliament Act 1911 abolished the veto of the House of Lords, John Redmond secured the Third Home Rule Act in 1914. However, the Unionist movement had been growing since 1886 among Irish Protestants after the introduction of the first home rule bill, fearing discrimination and loss of economic and social privileges if Irish Catholics achieved real political power
Rahinnane Castle
Rahinnane Castle is a tower house and National Monument located in County Kerry, Ireland. Rahinnane Castle is located 1.73 km northwest in the west of the Dingle Peninsula. The ringfort on the site was built in the 7th or 8th century AD; the Irish name was Rath Fhionnáin — Finan's ringfort. Local tradition once claimed that this piece of land was the last in Ireland held by the Vikings, as it was so defended; the stone tower house was built in the 15th or 16th century by the FitzGeralds, hereditary Knights of Kerry. In 1602, towards the end of the Nine Years' War, the castle was taken by Sir Charles Wilmot, it was ruined during the Cromwellian conquest. The ancient earthwork featured a 9 metres deep ditch, an entrance in the southwest and a souterrain in the southeast; the castle was rectangular and three storeys tall. Most of the outer walls remain. Two corner turrets are visible. Rahinnane Castle was built in the 16th century by the Knight of Kerry, it is a large ruinous rectangular tower inside a massive circular earthwork.
There is a huge bank and ditch 9m deep. More than half the outer walls of the three-storey castle remain
Kilmalkedar
Kilmalkedar is a medieval ecclesiastical site and National Monument located in County Kerry, Ireland. Kilmalkedar is on the Dingle Peninsula, 4.8 km east of Ballyferriter and 6.7 km northwest of Dingle. Kilmalkedar is traditionally associated with Saint Brendan, but with a local saint, Maolcethair; the surviving church dates with the chancel extended c. 1200. It was a traditional assembly site for pilgrims, who followed the Saint's Road northeast to Mount Brandon; some of the rituals carried out by locals, like performing nine clockwise circuits of the site on Easter Sunday, or the boring of holes in standing stones, suggest remnants of Celtic religion. The church resembles Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel, its nave is 8.28 m × 9.4 m with steep gables. The chancel is 5.72 m × 5.1 m externally. The doorway is a notable Hiberno-Romanesque piece. A hole in the east wall of the chancel is called "the eye of the needle". Pre-Romanesque remains include a corbelled building a monastic cell. One of the bullauns is associated with the mythical cow Glas Gaibhnenn.
The alphabet stone is the Latin alphabet in uncial script, carved c. AD 550–600; the Ogham stone reads dates to c. AD 600
Peninsula
A peninsula is a landform surrounded by water on the majority of its border while being connected to a mainland from which it extends. The surrounding water is understood to be continuous, though not named as a single body of water. Peninsulas are not always named as such. A point is considered a tapering piece of land projecting into a body of water, less prominent than a cape. A river which courses through a tight meander is sometimes said to form a "peninsula" within the loop of water. In English, the plural versions of peninsula are peninsulas and, less peninsulae. List of peninsulas Isthmus
Clochán
A clochán or beehive hut is a dry-stone hut with a corbelled roof associated with the south-western Irish seaboard. The precise construction date of most of these structures is unknown with any degree of certainty. According to archaeologist Lloyd Laing, "There can be little doubt that these buildings belong to a long-established Celtic tradition, though there is at present no direct evidence to date the surviving examples before c. AD 700"; some associated with religious sites may be pre-Romanesque, he considers most intact structures to date after the 12th century or later. They are most round beehive huts, but rectangular plans are known as well, it has been suggested that the rectangular footprints date to a era. Some clochans are not built of stone and may have possessed a thatched roof; the walls are thick, up to 1.5 metres. Sometimes several clochans are joined together by their walls. Clochans are found in the Southwest of Ireland, for example at Skellig Michael, Church Island off Beginish Island, Glanfahan and Reask in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry.
Many occur in religious contexts such as used by the monks following Saint Patrick. There are others in ringforts that are interpreted as secular dwellings. Elaborate dry walled stone churches like the Gallarus Oratory may derive from clochans; the clochan has been described in the 7th to 8th-century law Críth Gablach. Parts of the 2017 film Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was filmed using the beehive huts on the island of Skellig Michael; because of the restrictions regarding filming on the island, a set of replica beehive huts were built in 2016 at Ceann Sibéal, near Ballyferriter, on the Dingle Peninsula. Beehive house Christian monasticism Chysauster Romano-British settlement in southwest Britain Cleit Dry stone Hermits Vernacular architecture B. Olsen, Sacred Places North America, CCC Publishing, Santa Cruz, California Edwards, Nancy The archaeology of early medieval Ireland, London. Aalen, F. H. A. Clochans as Transhumance Dwellings in the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry Henry, Françoise Early Irish Monasteries, Boat-Shaped Oratories and Beehive Huts Henry, Françoise Early Monasteries, Beehive Huts, Dry-Stone Houses in the Neighbourhood of Caherciveen and Waterville Harbison, How old is Gallarus oratory?
A reappraisal of its role in early Irish architecture, Medieval Archeology, Vol. XIV, p. 34-59
Corcu Duibne
The Corcu Duibne, which means "seed or tribe of Duibhne", was a notable kingdom in prehistoric and medieval County Kerry, Ireland which included the Dingle Peninsula, the Iveragh Peninsula and connecting lands. The tribe belonged to the Érainn and claimed descent from the legendary Conaire Mór making them distant cousins of such far off kingdoms as Dál Riata in Ulster and Scotland, as well as the closer Múscraige and Corcu Baiscind. All the tribes belonged to the Síl Conairi of legend and traced their descent from the Clanna Dedad; the ruling septs of the Corcu Duibne were O'Shea and O'Falvey, O'Connell. Noted creators of ogham inscriptions, with over one third of all Irish inscriptions found in their region, the existence of the Corcu Duibne is attested as early as the 5th century; these tell us they claimed descent from a female ancestor DOVINIA. The Iron Age mountaintop fortress Caherconree, preserving the name of the legendary Cú Roí, a cousin of Conaire Mór, is found on the Dingle Peninsula, the name of which in Modern Irish is Corca Dhuibhne.
Relations between the Corcu Duibne and the nearby Eóganacht Locha Léin are poorly understood, but it appears they spent at least some period of time under the nominal overlordship of the latter in the powerful, but short-lived Kingdom of Iarmuman. Rule from distant overkingdom of Eóganacht Chaisil is not apparent and so it is that the Corcu Duibne kingdom had an independent, if remote, existence in the first millennium; the 8th-century text known as The Expulsion of the Déisi attributes to the Corcu Duibne an eponymous founder, Corc Duibne, a scion of the branch of the Érainn royal line called the Síl Conairi, after Conaire Mór. In particular, the "B version" of the text includes a lengthy episode describing Corc's birth and childhood deeds. Corc and his twin brother Cormac are born of incest to Coirpre Músc and Duihind, children of Conaire Cóem, a descendant of Conaire Mór, their conception causes the crops to fail, the people determine to immolate them to remove their curse. However, a druid steps in and offers to take Corc to an offshore island so that the abomination is out of Ireland.
Reciting a poem predicting great things for Corc's descendants, the druid and his wife Boí take the boy to the remote island of Inis Boí. Every morning for the next year, Boí performs a purification ritual in which she gives Corc an ablution while he is seated on the back of an otherworldly white cow with red ears. One morning Corc's curse leaves him and enters the cow, who jumps into the ocean and turns to stone, becoming the rock of Bó Boí. Boí takes Corc to his grandmother, Sárait, daughter of Conn Cétchathach, convinces her to take him back; when he is older Corc is sent to serve as hostage in the court of King of Tara. There he is fostered by a leader of the Déisi; when Óengus and his people are expelled from Tara over a bloody dispute with the king's son, Corc absconds from hostageship and joins his foster-father, fighting beside him in many battles. The Déisi wander to the southern coast, come to the island where Corc was reared, he tries to convince them to settle there. Corc remains, founds his dynasty.
AI989.4 Congal son of Anrudán, king of Corcu Duibne, dies. AI1013.4 Mac Raith son of Congal, king of Corcu Duibne dies. AI1027.2 Death of Crínán son of Fáilbe, king of Corcu Duibne. AI1041.9 Ua Ségda, king of Corcu Duibne was slain. AI1042.4 Mathgamain Ua Fáilbi, royal heir of Corcu Duibne was slain. AI1062.4 Two of the Uí Fháilbi, royal heirs of Corcu Duibne, were slain by the Uí Echach in Baí Bérre. AI1063.4 Cú Dub Ua Fáilbe, king of Corcu Duibne dies. AI1064.6 A great foray by Tairdelbach into Corcu Duibne and Eógan acht, it is impossible to enumerate all the cows and other cattle taken on that raid. AI1066.3 Loingsech Ua Domnaill, another king of Uí Echach, was slain by the Corcu Duibne. AI1096.5 Mathgamain Ua Ségda, king of Corcu Duibne, rested in Christ. AI1115.7 The slaying of Lochlainn Ua Fáilbi by Murchad Ua Ségda. AI1118.6 Tadc Ua Ségda was slain by the foreigners of Luimnech and by Ua Fáilbi, each having committed treachery against the other. AI1127.5 Murchad Ua Ségda, In Gilla Manntach Ua Fáilbi, Cathal Ua Cathuil were slain
Dingle Peninsula travel guide from Wikivoyage
