Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

I was recently part of an online conversation about how archaeology is portrayed in the media. A number of us had somewhat bridled at seeing yet another newspaper headline where ‘archaeologists stumbled upon’ some great find or other. It’s another iteration of the tired ‘baffled boffins’ headline that appears to be almost ubiquitous when the mass media discuss archaeology. You don’t get similar treatment for other professions – no ‘mystified medics promoting a possible cure’ or ‘elated estate agents accidentally sell a house’ … maybe there are instances of these, but it’s the archaeology-related ones that we seem to notice most. In part, this can be traced back to the difficulties of an individual archaeologist (often with precious little experience in dealing with the media) describing the complexities of the planning and mitigation process to a journalist just looking to write a straightforward account for a general readership. True, there may have been no surface indications of a...

It is my great pleasure to introduce the first blog post of the New Year. Sean Murray runs the Laois Archaeology Facebook Page [ here ]. He recently approached me with the desire to revisit the events surrounding the partial collapse and subsequent demolition of the Coolbanagher Hall house in early February 2014 [ here ], and offer some thoughts on the future prospects for similar structures – of great cultural significance, but in need of urgent repair – around the country. I commend the piece to your attention Robert M Chapple *           *           * Coolbanagher Castle Revisited Sean Murray Looking back on 2014, it was quiet a sad year with regard to a number of our National Monuments. In particular the loss of a 13th century  Hall House at Coolbanagher, Co. Laois during storm Darwin in February, struck the local community and the wider public to the core....

Following the publication of John O’Keeffe’s statement on the NIEA’s state of preparedness for dealing with archives from archaeological consultancies in Northern Ireland, I though it advisable to seek out a different perspective. To this end, I contacted Edward Bourke, Senior Archaeologist at the National Monuments Service, within the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. I posed him the same two questions I asked Dr O’Keefe: “I would be grateful if you could confirm what, if any, preparations have been made by the NMS: 1) To investigate the possibility of any of the archaeological consultancies no longer being able to continue in business? 2) To develop contingency plans for the safe retrieval, storage, and curation of the whole range of physical and digital cultural assets, from artefacts, soil samples, paper records, and computer files etc?” Excavation reports being loaded into the Tambour Units I received the following reply, published here in full: ...

A conference focused on the medieval history and archaeology of northeast Cork will be held at Fermoy Community and Youth Centre , Fermoy , Co. Cork from May 2nd to 4th 2014. The Programme Friday May 2nd Dr. Paul MacCotter (Keynote speaker): Críchad an Chaoilli, a remarkable window into the past . Saturday May 3rd Eamonn Cotter: Introducing medieval Fermoy. Dagmar O’Riain-Raedel: Ballyhoura saints: at home and abroad . Tomás O’Carragáin: Críchad an Chaoilli and the Early Churches of Fir Máige . Dr. Breda Lynch: Reform to Reformation; The Cistercians in Medieval Ireland . Dr. Paul MacCotter: Anglo-Norman Fermoy, the Roches and the Condons . Dr. Tadhg O’Keeffe: The Anglo-Norman castles of Glanworth and Ballyderown in context . Regina Sexton: Food and Identity in Later Medieval Ireland . M. A. Monk: An exploration of change in environment and agriculture in Ireland between the 10th and 13th centuries AD: the broader context for the archaeological evidence...

Coolbanagher Castle  was a Hall House on the outskirts of Portlaoise. It was originally built in the 13th or early 14th Century as part of the Anglo-Norman line of defence which extended into Co. Laois. The Tower may have been part of an outer defence line of the stronghold of Dunamase . It was built of locally-sourced limestone and extended to four stories in height with a stringcourse lining its upper reaches. There was defensive base batter which prevented battering rams from being effective in times of Medieval sieges. The Castle seems to have fallen into disrepair by the 15th Century but was leased and a grant was provided for improvements to Robert Hartpole (Governor of Queens County) in 1563. The last mention of the castle was in the 1650's when it came into the ownership of Sir Richard Parsons of Birr Castle, Co. Offaly. Coolbanagher Castle as it was before the storm.  Image © Mike Searle ( Source ) The southern facade of the castle fell to during storm Darw...

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the button at the end. If you think it is interesting or useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. **] The Turoe Stone as it was Even though I grew up only a few miles away from the famous Turoe Stone , I’ve only visited it a small number of times. If you’re not familiar with it, the Turoe Stone is the largest and most complete of only a small group of  La Tène decorated stones, which include Castlestrange , Co. Roscommon, and Killycluggin , Co. Cavan. All this meant very little to me when I was a child – as far as I was concerned, it was just a big stone in a field somewhere … it was the west of Ireland … we had loads of them! It was only when I got to university that I first got to visit it – on an Archaeology Society field trip, led by the late Prof. Etienne Rynne. A few years later I managed to get out there again, this time in the company of Daniel Büchner (ch...