County Donegal Heritage Office, Cultural Services & Roads & Transportation Directorate Donegal County Council presents

Care & Conservation of
Historic Graveyards

Free Seminar

Ionad an Mhachaire,
An Machaire / Maghery, County Donegal
Saturday, October 22, 2011
9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Burial grounds are sites of heritage, cultural, religious and personal interest to members of the public. As such, they provide an ideal opportunity to engage the public in built, cultural and natural heritage management at the local level. Historic graveyards also provide Donegal residents, visitors, tourists and our diaspora with an essential link in connecting people to the material heritage of our ancestors. Like Donegal County Council, many community and ecclesiastical groups are involved in managing historic graveyards on the Record of Monuments and Places.
There is a need to raise awareness of the built, cultural and natural heritage in historic graveyards so that community groups are equipped to employ best conservation practice in their activities so that the protection afforded these sites under the National Monuments Acts is observed.
The ‘Care & Conservation of Historic Graveyards’ seminar is organised by the County Donegal Heritage Office, Cultural Services and the Roads & Transportation Directorate of Donegal County Council in association with the Teampall Cróine Conservation Group & the Peadar O’Donnell Weekend.

The seminar is free but booking is required:
John Kerrigan
Heritage Research Assistant, County Donegal Heritage Office, Donegal County Council,
Station Island, Lifford, County Donegal.
Telephone: (074) 917 2359
E-mail: hra@donegalcoco.ie

The event is aimed at community groups, burial ground committees, heritage groups, historical societies, ecclesiastical groups, ‘Tidy Towns’ committees, Rural Social Scheme participants, FÁS employees, local authority staff and anyone who has an interest in local heritage and history.

Programme

9:00 a.m. Registration
9:30 a.m. Welcome
Cllr. Noel McBride, Mayor of County Donegal
9:40 a.m. The Dos & Don’ts of Graveyard Maintenance
Victor Buckley, National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
10:00 a.m. C ooley Graveyard, Moville
Martin Hopkins, Cooley Cross Heritage, Development Committee
10:10 a.m. Graveyards – Full of Life:
The Management of Flora, Fauna & Wildlife Habitats
Ralph Sheppard, Donegal Biodiversity Project
10:40 a.m. Symbols of Death – Recording Graveyard Memorials
Caimin O’Brien, Archaeological Survey of Ireland
11:10 a.m. Tea & Coffee
11:40 a.m. Templecrone Historic Graveyard, Termon, Maghery
Nóirín Farren, Teampall Cróine
Conservation Group
11:50 a.m. The Conservation of Architectural and Ecclesiastical Ruins
Duncan McLaren, Dedalus Architecture
12:20 p.m. St. Catherine’s Church & Graveyard
Hugh Boyle, Killybegs Local Training Initiative
12:30 p.m. The Care of Historic Graveyards – A Local Authority Perspective
Joseph Gallagher, Heritage Officer, Donegal County Council
12:50 p.m. Open Forum – Questions & Answers
1:20 p.m. Lunch: Soup & Sandwiches
1:50 p.m. Site Visit to Templecrone, Historic Graveyard
Termon, Maghery

Download the Seminar Brochure

Earls, Gunners & Tourists

The Past and Future of Carrickfergus Castle

Carrickfergus Town Hall
Friday 28 October 2011

Carrickfergus Castle

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency has combined with the Castle Studies Group and Carrickfergus Borough Council to organise a conference about Carrickfergus Castle. It was first built at the end of the 12th century (probably started in 1177-9) and was continuously occupied from then until 1927 when the army handed it over to the Northern Ireland Government as an Ancient Monument. It was built on a rocky promontory projecting into the sea with three wards; the inner one is dominated by a Great Tower; the outer by the double-towered gatehouse.

The castle is in need of a full review of the state of its research, conservation and presentation. The aim of the conference is to inform the local community and the wider academic one of the plans for this, concentrating on the Great Tower, which needs urgent physical conservation.

Papers are intended to cover the wider context of the castle and the Great Tower, the evidence for its development and ideas for conservation.

Saturday Workshops

There are specialist workshops in the Great Tower for the Castle Study Group on the Saturday morning following the conference. As space is very limited, these are by invitation only.

Programme Schedule

Location:    Carrickfergus Town Hall - The Jubilee Hall

09:00 Registration & Reception
09:40 Welcome Address to Conference by Mayor Alderman Jim McClurg
09:50 Terence Reeves-Smyth (NIEA) - Lecture  ‘Carrickfergus Great Tower and its Roof - Problems and Opportunities’
10:30 Pamela Marshall ‘Great Towers in Context’
11:10 Tea & Coffee
11:40 John Goodall (Country Life) - ‘Evidence and Preconception: Restoring and Presenting Great Towers’
12:20 Kathryn Roberts  ‘Castle Conservation in Practice – Cheptow and Harlech’
13:00 Lunch  (a light lunch is provided)
14:00 Con Manning (Dept. Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht) - ‘The Great Tower in Ireland’
14:40 Dermot MacRandal (NIEA) - ‘Practicalities of Creating Replica Historic Roofs’
15:20 Tea & Coffee
15:50 Tom NcNeill - ‘Carrickfergus Castle.  The Evidence and A Way Forward’
16:30 -17.30 Discussion

Download the Conferece Brochure

Heritage is a fundamental contributor to our economy, supporting employment across a range of sectors including tourism, agriculture, forestry, culture and provides resources for research and innovation across the country.

This conference will explore how heritage contributes to our identity and economy but will also explore how we can sustainably use heritage resources to deliver employment, healthier lifestyle, sustainable tourism and creativity. Speakers will address how heritage and culture provide competitive differentiation in a globalized world.

Place as resource

Heritage: Inspiring Innovation for Economic Growth

Heritage Innovation Conference
Thursday October 27^th 2011

Royal Collage of Physicians, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Introduction

Mr. Conor Newman, Chair, The Heritage Council

Opening of Conference

Mr. Jimmy Deenihan T.D., Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs

SESSIONS

The Heritage Economy

Mr. John O’Brien, Head of Business Strategy, The Industrial Development Agency
The Value of Heritage as an Incentive for Foreign Direct Investment

Dr. Guido Licciardi, Urban Specialist, The World Bank
(Presentation Topic to be Announced)

Mr. Chris Whitfield, Associate Director (Policy & Research), Ecorys, UK
The Economic Value of Ireland’s Historic Environment

Mr. Brian Williams, Assistant Director, Northern Ireland Environment Agency
The Economic Value of Northern Ireland’s Historic Environment

Heritage and Innovation

Dr. Finbarr Bradley, Economist
Leveraging Distinctive Resources for Innovation

Mr. Gearóid Ó Riain, Managing Director, Compass Infomatics
Compass highlights the role that heritage plays in the innovation economy, combining critical information and data systems to become a recognised leader in the area

Mr. Michael Hoey, Country Crest foods Company
Country Crest highlight how the application of environmental management and renewable energies gives companies a competitive advantage

Mr. Michael Feerick, CEO, ALISON
South East Galway Diaspora Project: Archives and 21stC tourism

Heritage-led Urban Regeneration

Mr. David Geddes, Principal Consultant, Locum Consulting
The impacts that heritage environments have on towns and cities

Ms. Liz Cameron, Executive Member for Business and the Economy, Glasgow City Council
Glasgow: How Glasgow’s Heritage is Core to its International Reputation as a Key Tourism Destination

Mr. Eamonn McEneaney, Director, Waterford Museum of Treasures
How Waterford is utilising its heritage assets to forge a new identity and tourism opportunities for the city

5.00pm – 6.30pm Reception

Place are limited, booking is essential.

To book e-mail abarcoe@heritagecouncile.ie or phone 056-7770777

Cost: a fee of €50, includes lunch and reception

Mount St Joseph Abbey, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary

49th Consecutive Conference: Friday 4th – Sunday 6th November 2011

Theme: Art and Devotion in Medieval Ireland

FRIDAY 4th NOVEMBER

6.00 Snack supper and registration

6.45 Reception hosted by Roscrea Heritage Society

7.25 Welcome: Dom Richard Purcell, OCSO, Abbot of Mt St Joseph

7.40 Seeing the Sacred: the religious image and the late medieval Irish devotional World

Professor Salvador Ryan, Professor of Ecclesiatical History, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth

8.15 The Cloths of Heaven: Eucharistic Vestments in Late Medieval Ireland

Dr Colmán Ó Clabaigh, OSB, Glenstal Abbey

8.50 Discussion

9.15 Hospitium

SATURDAY 5th NOVEMBER

8.45 Optional rise for vigils

9.30 Visualising Christianity in sixteenth-century Ireland: the Seanchas Búrcach manuscript

Dr Bernadette Cunningham, Deputy Librarian, RIA

9.55 Reliquaries in Saints’Lives

Professor Raymond Gillespie, NUI Maynooth

10.20 The Miracle of Lismore

Dr Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel, UCC

10.45 Discussion

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Image and Idol: Devotional Statues in Medieval Ireland

Dr Rachel Moss, RIA and TCD.

12.05 Easter and the Eucharist: A study in Franciscan iconography

Dr Malgorzata Krasnodebska-D’Aughton, UCC

12.40 Making the Arma Christi speak: text and image in late medieval Ireland

Salvador Ryan

1.10 Snack Lunch

2.30 Optional field trips

a) view the relics, stained glass and library of Mount St Joseph Abbey

b) Roscrea Heritage

c) Monaincha

5.30 Vespers

5.55 Sherry Reception hosted by Roscrea Credit Union. Midland launch of Pádraig Ó Riain’s A Dictionary of Irish Saints (Four Courts Press).

Dom Laurence Walsh OCSO

Also honouring the publication of Glendalough - City of God

6.35 Dinner

8.00 Wish I had been present - lecturers share a wish or a comment

8.40 Saturday Colophon

George Cunningham

9.10 Hospitium

SUNDAY 6th NOVEMBER

9.30 In hoc signo vinces: the story of Holycross Abbey

Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel

9.55 Relics and pilgrims: pilgrimage as a cultural and religious experience

Malgorzata D’Aughton

10.20 Discussion

10.30 Concelebrated High Mass

11.30 Coffee

11.55 European religious imagery in Anthony Gearnon’s

Parrthas an Anma (Louvain, 1645)

Bernadette Cunningham

12.20 Purgatory and Prayer: Some Devotional Imagery

on Irish Tombs

Rachel Moss

12.45 Passports to Paradise: the monastic habit in Late Medieval Ireland

Colmán Ó Clabaigh

1.10 What if?

Raymond Gillespie

1.30 Discussion on conference theme

1.40 Summing up and close of conference

George Cunningham

1.55 Lunch

Download Conference Brochure

Raiders, Traders and Innovators – The Vikings and County Louth

Major Viking Exhibition and Conference
County Museum, Dundalk, Ireland

Friday October 21st running to February 2012

Following the discovery of the Viking site in Annagassan last year, the County Museum, Dundalk has announced details of a major exhibition entitled Raiders, Traders and Innovators – The Vikings and County Louth.  The exhibition will examine the impact that the Vikings had in the county, will open on Friday October 21st running to February 2012.  Featuring objects from the National Museum and the County Museum’s own collection the exhibition will highlight the nature and extent of Viking activity under a variety of different topics during their period in the county.  It will also feature the story behind the discovery and ultimate identification of the Linn Duachaill site in Annagassan.

Coinciding with the exhibition a conference highlighting the nature of Viking longphorts will be held the weekend of October 22nd and 23rd at the Town Hall Theatre.  With speakers from Ireland and Britain the conference will highlight the importance of the discovery of the Linn Duachaill site at Annagassan, making comparisons with other sites located throughout the country, as well as several sites in Britain.

Amongst those scheduled to contribute include Dr. Donnchadh Ó Corráin (UCC); Dr. Eamonn Kelly ; Dr. Howard Clark, Dr. Cathy Swift (University of Limerick), Dr. John Sheehan (UCC), Dr. Mark Clinton, Dr. Gareth Williams (British Museum) and Linzi Simpson.

The weekend will also feature a guided tour of the Annagassan site.  A conference fee of €45 will be charged, this includes conference lunch and banquet at the Crown Plaza (an alternative price of €20 will be charged for those who do not wish to attend the banquet).

More information about the conference may be had by contacting Brian Walsh at  00 353  042 9327056.

Building on the NRA & IAI Communicating Archaeology I in Galway is the following. The emphasis is very much on the ‘how to’ with interactive and discursive elements.

Communicating Archaeology II

INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGISTS OF IRELAND CPD PROGRAMME 2011(02)

10 CPD POINTS

VENUE: Board Room, NRA, St Martin’s House, Waterloo Road, Dublin 4

Wednesday 28th September 2011

9.30        Registration

9.45        Introduction

10.00      Practicalities of Publishing with Nick Maxwell

About Nick Maxwell: Nick is a fixture in the archaeological publishing world having run Wordwell Press for decades, publishing some of the major archaeological titles, as well as the quarterly magazine Archaeology Ireland.

10.45     Publishing Q & A

11.00     Coffee

11. 15    Social Media; Why? What? How? with Damian Shiels

Topics will include the importance social media is important, its education and business applications; an interactive workshop/demonstration on a number of the different social medias-how to get started, how to maintain your accounts, and how to optimise your social media tools to suit your needs.

About Damian Shiels: Damian is a Company Director with Headland Archaelogy (Ireland) Ltd and Know Thy Place Ltd. He specialises in Conflict Archaeology, a topic on which he has published a number of papers. Previously he was part of the Curatorial team that developed the ‘Soldiers & Chiefs’ military history exhibition in the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks. Damian currently coordinates the social media output for Headland Archaeology and Know Thy Place, as well as his personal site on Irish involvement in the American Civil War: @irishacw

12.45      Lunch

1.30       Headlines & Deadlines - How to make the media work for you with Paul Daly

Topics will include: Structure of Irish media; Shaping your message; Press releases and feature pieces; Radio interview tips

About Paul Daly: Paul was a founding director of DHR Communications, a public relations agency primarily focused on the public and not-for-profit sector. In January 2007 he established his own communications and public affairs consultancy dalyconsult@gmail.com . Paul also lectures part-time on political communication in DCU and recently published the best-selling book Creating Ireland’ which examined Ireland’s political development through the cut and thrust of Dáil debates.  An occasional media contributor on political and communication affairs, Paul’s work has been published in The Irish Times, Magill Magazine and Inside Government.  Paul has also contributed to RTE’s Week in Politics programme and a number of radio programmes.

4.30        Finish

Fees (to be paid on registering at info@iai.ie):

€30 IAI Members; €15 Student/Unwaged IAI Members; €45 Non-Members.

Minimum Participants: 10

REGISTER (info@iai.ie) BEFORE FRIDAY September 21^st 2011

A series of geophysical surveys commissioned by Eachtra Archaeological Projects was conducted at 5 sites outside the C.P.O. boundary of the new N7 Castletown to Nenagh road scheme.  The survey areas were located adjacent to significant archaeological remains that were excavated within the C.P.O. boundary of the road scheme.

A combination of fluxgate gradiometer and magnetic susceptibility surveys were undertaken on the selected sites. The fluxgate gradiometer surveys were undertaken at a sampling resolution of 1 x 0.25 m and magnetic susceptibility survey at a 5 x 5m sampling resolution.

The bedrock geology along the scheme consists of a mixture of greywacke, siltstone, sandstone and mudstone all of which are suitable for magnetic surveys although very weak magnetic responses were noted across most sites. The majority of the survey areas was covered in short grass or cut crops at the time of survey.

A  number  of  ditches  were  detected  at  Busherstown  1  which  appear  to  represent  a continuation  of  the  archaeological  activity  revealed  during  the  excavation. An arcing enclosure ditch has been identified to the south of the excavation.

Three possible ditches were detected across the Drumbaun 2 survey area. These appear to represent a continuation of the possible medieval boundary identified on the northern edge of the excavation. A continuation of a possible prehistoric boundary was also identified. Two possible pits were also identified within the confines of the medieval boundary.

A number of possible ditches were detected at Drumroe 1 which have a direct relationship to the archaeological excavation results. The edge of the probable zone of archaeological activity was also established with the detection of an arcing enclosure ditch.

A continuation to the medieval oval-shaped enclosure ditch was identified at Killeisk 1.

The mapped components of the ditched enclosure, from both excavation and geophysics, measures  95  m  NW-SE  and  41  m  NE-SW,  enclosing  a  total  area  of  0.335  hectares. A continuation of parts of the droveway was also identified along with a number of other possible ditches and a relict field boundary.

A possible boundary ditch was identified at Park 1. The remains of a “finger-shaped” ditch, which could be interpreted as a cursus monument, were also identified on the western edge of the survey area.

Author: Earthsound Archaeological Geophysics

Download the report

The following report details a survey undertaken to record the architectural components and features of importance of nine study areas along the route of the proposed N7 Castletown to Nenagh road scheme (Contract 1, West). The study also sought to ascertain any phasing of construction that may be evident i.e. various extensions, additions or modifications to the various properties which have been carried out over time. Cartographic and documentary research was also carried out in order to provide a date range of the original construction and any subsequent additions.

A total of 15 architectural heritage sites were identified in the EIS over the area covered by Contract 1.  Six of these sites were modern and were surveyed by Niall Roycroft, Project Archaeologist. The remaining nine areas of Architectural Heritage (AH) interest form the study.

The study site of Lissanisky House and associated features are listed in the Record of Protected Structures (RPS) of the Tipperary North County Development Plan 2004-2010 (RPS No. S258) and the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage for County Tipperary. Inclusion in the RPS affords the house and the pillared entrance statutory protection under the Planning and Development Acts 2000-2002.

This report has been carried out in advance of construction of the N7 Castletown to Nenagh road scheme (Contract 1, West). At an earlier stage of the design process, the EIS envisaged that either all or part of these study sites would be physically impacted upon during the course of the road construction works. As a result, the nine study sites are the subject of either a Level 1 or Level 2 architectural survey as directed by the NRA Project Archaeologist (Appendix 1).

Author: Alison McQueen

Download the report

John Tierney Keynote presentation at the Communicating Archaeology event, organized by the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland and the National Roads Authority.

Harbour Hotel, Galway, 16 June 2011

Digital futures of cultural heritage education: final workshop

Thursday 9 June 2011
John Tierney and Maurizio Toscano

Hi-tech, low-cost approaches to community heritage surveys: the case of historic graveyards