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The Petitswood meteorite of 1779

Last week, up to 1,000 people were injured - mainly by flying glass - after a meteorite crashed to earth in Russia.

It may surprise many to know that Mullingar has had its own meteorite experience - although it was 234 years ago.

Just six meteorites have fallen in Ireland, and the Mullingar one is believed to have fallen in 1779, and landed in a meadow at Petitswood. No traces of the 5oz stone that fell are known to remain.

An account was carried some 17 years later in The Gentleman’s Magazine by a William Bingley, who not alone witnessed the fall, but who had at the time, two pieces, of what he termed the “concretion”.

Bingley lived at the time at what was known as The Windmill Hill, on the Dublin Road.

The “concretion” had, he wrote, “actually descended, in a loud-peal of thunder, upon a meadow, situate at Pettiswood, Co Westmeath, in the kingdom of Ireland”.

He continued: “The size and form of this cake, as nearly as any thing I can compare it to, is that of a twopenny heart-cake, supposing all the parts were together.

“The two pieces of the cake I am describing weigh three ounces and a half, and, I suppose, form two thirds of the whole.

“Be the composition of this stone what else it may, it has been adjudged to be neither fossil, pyrite, nor petrifaction; and, I doubt nor, were it put into water, it would dissolve, and spread to the bottom of its own proper natural element; in short, it is not any mineral substance, nor is it similar to any stone known in the country; it is, as before stated, nothing more than a cake of concreted sand, containing small particles of white sparkling shells, the same as is to be found on the shores and beds of the lakes near which it descended”.

The writer had earlier asked if it would not be a “reasonable conjecture” that such items, which fall from the atmosphere, were not in fact “the sands and other contents found at the bottom of lakes and large rivers and from the shores of the sea”.

He theorised that they had been sucked up into the clouds, and “concseted” before returning to earth.

The writer had actually witnessed the object falling to earth:

“At the instant this rude lump descended, our little village was enveloped with the fumes of sulphur, which continued about six minutes.

“To its descent five witnesses are now living; three of whom reside in London.

“It lighted upon the wooden part of a harness, called a stradle, belonging to a filly drawing manure to a meadow, and broke into three pieces.

“At the same instant the affrighted beast fell to the earth, under her load; as did the two equally affrighted gassoons (boys), the drivers, who, in good Irish, came crying to me, with two pieces of the stone, declaring that themselves and the filly were all murdered by this thunderbolt; none of whom, however, received the least injury.

“The two pieces, when I received them, after the resurrection of the boys, were warm as milk just from the cow; whence it may be naturally be concluded, that the cake came from a scorching atmosphere, and pretty well accounts for the outside of it, in its formation, and during its stay there, having been tinged to a whitish brown, whereas internally it is of a silver white, exactly like the materials whence it originated, supposing my conjecture a fact.”