Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

[** If you think the post is useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. **] European Heritage Open Days rolled round once again in early September. This year I said that I was going to be ready. This year we would get involved. This year we would get out and see some stuff! I downloaded the brochure and made my list – this year we were going to concentrate on what is on our own doorstep: East Belfast. Despite my best intentions, fate (and work) intervened to ensure that I only got to see one heritage building … but what a building it is ! With the creation of the Northern Ireland home rule region in the Government of Ireland Act 1920 there was a need to provide the province with a dedicated building for parliamentary debate. The building that we see today was designed by Sir Arnold Thornely, though it had originally been envisaged as but one component of a much grander complex. The original plan was to create a large, domed building with two side buildin...

[**  If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the button at the end.  If you think the post is useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. **] On the 28th of September 1912 Sir Edward Carson became the first person to sign the Ulster Covenant . I’m writing this on the 29th of September 2012 in East Belfast. As the closest Saturday to the anniversary, Ulster’s Loyal Orders and their associated bands are out in force. Even here, sheltered from the Upper Newtownards Road, I can still hear the pounding drum beats and the high, tinny sound of the fife. In my back garden you can clearly hear the drone of the police helicopter high above, obscured somewhere in the broken cloud.  Personally, I don’t ‘do’ politics. These days, all I’m looking for in my elected representatives is to ensure that I can go on living a quiet, peaceful life and that we are never again dragged into the dark days of sectarian m...