Northern Ireland

Dippy the dinosaur sets foot in Belfast

Dippy the Dinosaur has arrived at the Ulster Museum in Belfast. Picture by Darren Kidd, Press Eye
Dippy the Dinosaur has arrived at the Ulster Museum in Belfast. Picture by Darren Kidd, Press Eye Dippy the Dinosaur has arrived at the Ulster Museum in Belfast. Picture by Darren Kidd, Press Eye

A PALAEONTOLOGIST whose obsession with one of the world's most famous dinosaurs started as a seven-year-old saw his childhood dreams become reality when Dippy the Diplodocus arrived in Belfast.

Dr Mike Simms, who still has a drawing he made after visiting Dippy in the Natural History Museum in London 50 years ago, was full of pride yesterday as the huge skeleton cast was unveiled in the Ulster Museum.

The museum is the third of Dippy's eight stop tour of the UK. At 26 metres long, he is the largest dinosaur cast to ever go on display in the island of Ireland.

"It's kind of going full circle," said Dr Simms, who is senior curator of natural sciences at National Museums Northern Ireland

"I became interested in fossils when I was six, more than 50 years ago and I met Dippy in 1968 when I was seven and really from that moment I wanted to work in a museum, I loved dinosaurs.

"I've been at this one for 22 years and amazingly Dippy has followed me here - it's almost unreal."

Dippy is a plaster cast of the fossilised bones of a Diplodocus found by railway workers in Wyoming, USA, in 1898.

It took a team of four technicians and two conservators from the Natural History Museum a full week to build the exhibit.

On his last stop - in Birmingham - 255,000 people visited Dippy.

Dippy's tour has been organised by the Natural History Museum in partnership with the Garfield Weston Foundation.

The exhibition will be at the Ulster Museum until January 6. To book tickets visit nmni.com/dippy.