Robert M Chapple, Archaeologist

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...

On the 15 th of September 2011 Billy Dunlop died. With his passing I, and many of the readers of this blog, lost a good friend, mentor, and stalwart of the Northern Irish archaeological scene. I have already recounted some details of his life and my memories of him and do not propose to do the same again. My reason in writing this piece is to place on record some events that have occurred since his death, which I think Billy would have heartily approved of. Shortly after his passing, I got talking to his daughter, Maggie, who asked if I would be interested in taking some books from her father’s library. As a committed bibliophile, I jumped at the offer, even though Billy had already been incredibly generous in his gifts of books to me. After further discussions with his family, his good friend Ken and I agreed to assist in the dispersal of the remainder of his personal library to various charity shops. Ken took a number of car-loads to the National Trust book shop at Cast...

Michael Stanley, Ed Danaher & James Eogan (eds.).  National Roads Authority, Dublin, 2010. 146pp. Colour illustrations and plates throughout. ISBN 978-0-9564180-2-9. 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.**] Creative Minds is the result of a 2009 public seminar on archaeological results from National Road Authority schemes in the Republic of Ireland. The volume is also the seventh in the ‘Archaeology and the National Roads Authority Monograph Series’ publications of conference papers. To anyone involved in Irish archaeology over the last decade, these volumes have become a staple source for the dissemination of the latest results and ideas on some of the major excavations of our times. It is inevitable that, with the completion of many road schemes, coupled with the general downturn ...