Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

[** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the secure button at the right. If you think it is interesting or useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. To help keep the site in operation, please use the amazon search portal at the right - each purchase earns a small amount of advertising revenue **] Nendrum was an early Christian monastery on Mahee Island in Strangford Lough, just outside the village of Comber [ map ]. It is Northern Ireland’s best surviving example on a pre-Norman monastery. Mahee Island is named for the traditional founder of the site, St Mochaoi, a disciple of St Patrick, who is believed to have established a monastery here in the 5th century. However, no excavated finds suggest that there was a monastery here any earlier than the 7th century. From historical sources, the monastery is believed to have continued in operation until sometime between 974 and 1178. Sometime after 1177, John de Courcy esta...

Summer 2012. ISSN 0790-892x [** If you think the review is useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc . **] Sometimes it’s the little things that make you realise your age – and not always in a good way. The grey hair, the aching joints, your colleagues disbelief that ‘you’re how old?’ … these are definitely not great ways to be reminded of your advancing years. But there are other ways, too. Ways that make you proud to have been part of something; that allow you to say ‘yes I was there … and yes, I am that old!’ I would definitely put the arrival of the 100th issue of Archaeology Ireland into that latter category! While the inception of the magazine was (just) before my entry into archaeology, I have been a long-time reader, subscriber and occasional contributor to it. I remember the first time I saw it for sale – it was in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop in Galway (not the current fantastic temple to the printed word in Middle Street, but its much more humble ...

Sheelagh Conran, Ed Danaher & Michael Stanley (eds.).  National Roads Authority, Dublin, 2011. 170pp. Colour illustrations and plates throughout. ISBN 978-0-9564180-5-0. ISSN 1694-3540. €25. [** If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the button at the end.  If you think the review is useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc.**] This is the eighth instalment of the ‘Archaeology and the National Roads Authority Monograph Series’ and presents the results of nine papers given at a public seminar held at the Gresham Hotel , Dublin, in 2010. Despite such opulent surroundings, the theme for the seminar was more in keeping with current economic concerns of the vicissitudes of life and wealth – never let it be said that archaeologists are disconnected from the modern world around us! As I noted in my review of the preceding monograph, Creative Minds , the focus is less on individual sites and more towards the crea...