The Minister for Heritage has announced that the Historic Astronomical Observatories of Ireland have been added to the World Heritage Tentative List, in a bid to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The sites comprise Dunsink Observatory House in Dublin, Birr Castle and Demesne in Co Offaly and Armagh Planetarium and Observatory.
A Tentative List is an inventory of heritage sites with "potential outstanding universal value" that are worthy of conservation and preservation, according to Dr Eucharia Meehan, Chief Executive of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS).
The addition of the sites, on World Heritage Day, is the fourth entry on Ireland's UNESCO Tentative List.
The other entries are the Neolithic Passage Tomb Landscape of Co Sligo, as well as the Transatlantic Cable Ensemble and the Royal Sites of Ireland both of which cover several sites.
Minister James Browne said the addition of the observatories to the list was the "first formal step on an exciting journey towards World Heritage inscription for three remarkable observatories".
"These places of trailblazing scientific endeavour epitomise historical collaboration across the island," he said.
The announcement has been welcomed by the Astronomical Observatories of Ireland, which said that achieving the UNESCO World Heritage Status would elevate the observatories to "a status comparable to other iconic landmarks".
The DIAS Dunsink Observatory has been a centre for astronomical research and public engagement in Ireland since it was built in 1785.
The Armagh Observatory was first established in 1790 and is the oldest scientific institution in Northern Ireland.
The Great Telescope, also known as The Leviathan of Parsonstown, was built at Birr Castle Demesne in the 1840s by the Third Earl of Rosse. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Dr Meehan described the development as "very important" and said they had "always believed" in the heritage value of the observatories.
She said a "new and innovative feature" was added during the design of Dunsink, which is one of the reasons it is now being designated as having the potential for UNESCO status.
"Before that time, astronomical observations would have been done, in effect, perhaps from domes that were just opened or out of windows," she explained.
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"But the new innovation was that there was a designated dome, designated plinth, which went down into the ground and in which the telescope could sit and be steady and fixed, within a revolving dome, and this enabled greater enhanced observations.
"That design effectively influenced subsequent designs," she said.
"Armagh built their observatory using the same designs. Birr took a different approach, but an equally innovative approach, around the creation of the large telescope known to some as the Leviathan."
Dr Meehan said a preliminary assessment submission to UNESCO will now be prepared.
She said the entire process takes approximately six years and they are "very much at the start" of the journey.
