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| Building Stone in Ireland |
In the 2 months since I had volunteered to
produce the GSI stand at the inaugural Dublin Stone Show, I had seen a lot of
the geology of Ireland and its associated ancient monuments and historic
buildings and I now felt well prepared for this unique event.
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| Niahm Redmond and Matthew Parkes at the GSI trade exhibition stand |
Working with Niahm Redmond, our role was principally to promote the GSI’s
expertise in petrographic analysis and sourcing of building stones for the
repair of the nation’s historic stone monuments, as well as various support
services to the quarrying industry.
Held over 2 days at the Citywest Hotel, on the outskirts of Dublin, the venue was perhaps more suited to
general conferences than an international stone show and the decor was a distraction from the exhibits themselves; however, it proved to be a well attended event – by both exhibitors and a wide variety of visitors from
all over the world.Although much smaller in scale than similar events that I had attended in London, a full range of materials and products were on display. From Ireland, there were several suppliers of Irish Blue Limestone, Liscannor Stone and Donegal Quartzite, whose riven texture makes it especially good for paving and internal flooring, where a non-slip surface is required.
From the UK, a few major stone suppliers
exhibited a wide range of sandstones and, as usual at these events, a wide
variety of polished granites and marbles and other stones from all over the
world were on display, with German and Italian stone producers featuring
prominently.
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| Jura limestone from Germany |
Manning the stand for most of the days, and
answering questions from a wide variety of professionals and members
of the general public, I didn’t have much opportunity to talk to the various
exhibitors, except to introduce my friend Giovanni to the suppliers of Irish
Blue Limestone.
Having stayed in Dublin for 2 months in the summer, to learn
English, he had come back especially to this event to source potential suppliers
of this stone for his own stonemasonry business back in Florence.
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| Un tavolo in pietra lavica ceramizzata |
At the end of the event, I was pleasantly
surprised to discover that he had been talking to a supplier of Mt. Etna basalt
from Sicily who, at the end of the event, had decided to leave their products behind
and that I could have anything that I wanted.
Taking advantage of this "once in a blue moon" opportunity, a phone call was all that was needed, before a helping hand arrived. The ceramicised basalt table now takes pride
of place in my living room and the slabs add continental
flavour to the garden of my supervisor.
A couple of days after, the director came up
to me and congratulated me on the success of the Dublin Stone Show. Whilst very
happy to know that our efforts were appreciated, I felt a little embarrassed,
because shortly after arriving at the GSI, he had come up to me and introduced
himself. Having seen so many new faces and so many new offices, I just blurted out “haven’t we already met?”. It was not my best introduction to a new boss!
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| A report on the Dublin Stone Show |
