People and Their Worlds | UCD Archaeological Research Seminar

| Part II

Originally posted online on 14 November 2014 at rmchapple.blogspot.com

(http://rmchapple.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/people-and-their-worlds-ucd.html)

< Part I | Part III >

Loughmoe Castle, Co. Tipperary (Source)

Welcome back to Session 2, of UCDs Archaeological Research Seminar People and
Their Worlds, dedicated to Medieval Europe. Suitably refreshed after a cup of warm,
nourishing coffee we were immediately into the first of the sessions papers
on Loughmoe Castle and the end of the middle ages by Prof. Tadhg OKeeffe. He began
by noting that Loughmoe Castle, near Templemore, Co. Tipperary, is quite familiar to
passengers on the Dublin-Cork train, as the railway passes quite close-by. He
described the structure as the most spectacular example in Ireland of an early modern
incastellated house incorporating a late medieval tower-house. Despite it being a
National Monument in State Care, it has received relatively little research attention
and there is no available analysis of its design, nor its importance in understanding
the transitional phase from the middle ages to the early modern period in Ireland. And
that's just what he intended to do! Just so were quite clear: this is no small task that
OKeeffe has set himself, and all the more impressive that he intended to get it done in
the allotted quarter-hour! He describes it as not medieval and, yet, not post-medieval.
He sees the structure as somewhere in the middle between the two and will go so far
as to call it transitional, but stipulates that it must be with a small t and in inverted
commas! The site has two main phases, the first is a tower house and the second is the
incastellated house added to the front of the earlier building. In terms of date, the
tower house is probably of the late 15th century and, in many respects, is typical of
Munster tower houses. The later house is more difficult to date as there are no
surviving architectural records etc. However, OKeeffe dates it, on stylistic grounds, to
the middle of the first half of the 17th century, c.1620-30. An examination of the inside
of the house shows that all the floors were of timber and are now gone, leaving the
thin-walled structure in danger of collapse. At around the same time as the building of
the house, a new, inscribed, fireplace was inserted into the tower house.
Taking Graystown Castle, Co. Tipperary, as his example, OKeeffe noted that at the end
of the Middle Ages the layout of Irish castles was typically one where the room at the
top of the structure was a private space and that an adjacent building was used as the
public hall. By c.1600 we see a new architecture that is without precedent in Ireland
(e.g. Mallow Castle, Co. Cork probably the first Elizabethan house in Ireland). This
is, essentially, the start of the Georgian architectural order and encompasses
integration where the hall is brought back into the main building; symmetry a
word that should really be a palindrome!; and exteriority, a concept OKeeffe explains
in terms of the placing of, say, windows with more of an interest on how they will
appear on the exterior of the building, rather than where they are necessary on the
inside. At Loughmoe there is the evidence for all of these three aspects, but it is the
exteriority that is key to understanding the structure. For example, stringcourses are
used to clearly demonstrate to the viewer the number of stories in the structure. The
putative back of the building is actually a display faade while the front is slightly
asymmetrical. OKeeffe notes that this form of asymmetry is not found in any similar
structures either before or after this time. He argues that this may be a deliberate
attempt to create a new great chamber for an audience familiar with the old
architectural order. As such, Loughmoe may be seen as a truly transitional building
looking back as well as forward to bridge the gap between the medieval and the
modern.

Then it was the turn of the magnificent and wonderful Aidan OSullivan (Heritage
Council/INSTAR) (then just Dr. now Prof.) to talk about: Early medieval Ireland in
northwest Europe, AD 300-1100 - or, whats next for the Early Medieval Archaeology
Project (EMAP)? His stated aim was to reflect on seven years of research and where
we should go next. He was quick to point out that this latter point was extremely
significant and that decisions made now could take another seven years to fulfill
potentially a significant portion of a researchers career. Going back to the pre-Celtic
Tiger days, OSullivan noted that we had knowledge of c.47,000 raths/ringforts &
cashels, c.2,000 crannogs, c.5,500 Early Christian church sites, and a general
understanding that something extraordinary was going on in Ireland from the 6th
century onwards. Since then we have carried out literally thousands of excavations of
Early Christian sites of one kind or another, though most were unpublished and only
available as grey literature. By 2007 a looming publication crisis had been identified
by a UCD foresight committee, in conjunction with the Royal Irish Academy etc, and
was part of the genesis of the INSTAR approach. EMAP was the first INSTAR project
and was a collaboration between UCD and Queens University Belfast that produced
12 PhD scholarships, c.28 peer reviewed papers, and 52 conference papers. Nine major
EMAP reports have been published online and OSullivan stressed the projects
commitment to open access and their firm belief that open access does not harm
formal publication. In 2008 they made available a database of c.3,300 Early Christian
sites. In the following year they published a detailed bibliography for the topic,
followed in 2010 by a 2 volume synthesis of the entire period. In 2011 they published
an account of the archaeology of livestock and cereal production, with a volume in the
following year on rural secular sites. In 2013 they published on the economy of Early
Medieval Ireland. In 2014 they have published one vast volume with the RIA: Early
Medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100: The Evidence from Archaeological Excavations and
another volume in the BAR International Series: Early medieval Dwellings and
Settlements in Ireland, AD 400-1100, BAR S2604. If that werent impressive enough,
there are a further three volumes due to be published with BAR [see here for
the reports, and here for a list of the publications].

With this truly significant body of publications as its basis, OSullivan believes that we
are ready to start formulating new sets of research questions. The first of his questions
that could drive the future direction of Early Christian research is: who were the people
of Early Medieval Ireland? and more importantly who did they think they were?
Such a research pathway would take in their understandings of religious beliefs, along
with other notions of identity, including gender and ethnicity. Next on the list is how
did people live together? Our understanding now is that the vast majority of people
lived in enclosures and that the large numbers of unenclosed settlements have never
been found because they dont exist. The third potential question is: do we see the
emergence of villages in the 9th century? and how do such entities relate to the
economy? Related to this is OSullivans argument that much work remains to be done
on our understanding of the Viking towns. Next on his research shopping list is: how
was agriculture organised? We now know that dairying existed in Ireland in the 6th
and 7th centuries and is not the revolutionary introduction it was once thought to have
been. Other aspects that could be examined are the ways in which people interacted
with natively produced and imported wares (including Gaulish E ware). Other models
that could be examined include the agencies of entrepreneurial merchants or coastal
communities. He also suggests looking at whats being exported from Ireland at this
time, including shoes, slaves, and butter the last attested in a letter that complains
of the sudden scarcity of the commodity in Bobbio, in north-western Italy. Thus, we
should be looking to Europe for distinctively Irish artefacts and evidence of exports.
While we are mulling over which of these interesting and exciting avenues to pursue,
OSullivan notes that current projects include a large-scale review of the various Viking
excavations and another of Liam dePaors excavations at Inis Cealtra. The overall
feeling from OSullivans presentation was that weve done so much important work to
collect the material together and were now at a point where some really interesting
and fundamental questions can be framed, that simply could not have been conceived
of in the pre-Celtic Tiger world.

With the presentation tight up against it for time, we broke for lunch and I think Ill
leave my review here for the present.
< Part I | Part III >