Drumclay Crannog Report | Light at the end of the trench?

As I reported previously, I again wrote to Minister Durkan on September 15th, enquiring as to the status of the ‘Review of the context of the excavation of a crannog in Drumclay townland, Co. Fermanagh on the route of the Cherrymount Link Road’.

Drumclay Crannog open day - educating the next generation
about the importance of our heritage

This afternoon (October 1st) I received the following reply from Dr John O'Keeffe:


True, there's still no actual report, but the phrase 'I do expect that to happen very soon' feels much better than the previous reply that stated:

'the Minister has considered the contents of this report, and is in the process of sharing its content with Executive colleagues and the Chairs of the Environment and the Culture, Arts and Leisure Committees.  Following on from this, he hopes to make the contents of the Review more widely available'.

O'Keeffe mentions that he was pleased to see me at the conference last weekend in Enniskillen. Personally, I'm always delighted to see a friendly face, but I was especially delighted with some of the points discussed by Dr O'Keeffe in the general Q&A sections. Without going into too much detail, it was clear that the impact of Dr Cooney's review is being felt and (more importantly) acted upon. The NIEA have been reexamining the levels of protection given to crannogs, both in terms of legislative powers, and the physical areas that they occupy that may be scheduled. From his comments, it also appears that the NIEA are in the midst of a serious examination of how archaeological works are carried out in Northern Ireland, generally. From the tasters given at the conference, O'Keeffe and his team appear to be attempting to enact large-scale, positive change. While we wait to get a comprehensive view of how these changes will be enacted (along with the publication of Prof Cooney's report), I am hopeful - more hopeful than I have been in a long, long time - that lessons have been learned from the Drumclay fiasco and that such an egregious situation will never happen again.

I'm still holding out for an Alternative Ulster, but I'm willing to start with an Alternative NIEA!

Robert
Location: Belfast, Belfast, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Always remember to draw the swastika turning to the right": Some thoughts on swastika directionality in Early Medieval Irish Art

Image
Swastikas are, for a number of reasons, endlessly fascinating symbols. Like all symbols, they are only invested with the meanings we give them. Otherwise they are just little shapes and drawings that mean nothing in and of themselves. Owing to its long history and brief (if traumatic) association with Nazism, the swastika probably has a stronger resonance than most. You won’t spend long on the internet attempting to discuss the swastika before someone, trying to be helpful, notes that the Nazi version rotated counter-clockwise (elbows pointing left) and was bad, but the good Buddhist/Hindu version rotated clockwise. They may be trying to be helpful, but they are invariably wrong. It’s true that the version Adolf Hitler designed for the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei only went one direction: counter-clockwise. What’s wrong is that not all other ( i.e. non-Nazi) swastikas turn the opposite direction (elbows pointing right). Rather than dutifully plod through a debun
Read more

The dreaded first test post!

Image
An irregularly updated blog about archaeology and related madness! ... might just be good! ** I'm always looking for guest writers! So if you have something that you want to say about archaeology, please get in touch! ** [** If you like any of the posts on this blog, please consider making a small donation. Each donation helps keep the Irish Radiocarbon & Dendrochronological Dates project going! **] <A HREF="http://ws.amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?rt=tf_sw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=GB&ID=V20070822%2FGB%2Frobmchaarc-21%2F8002%2Fb7e77064-bfea-4ba8-954d-a415ec05ad0c&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.co.uk Widgets</A>
Read more

Three Billboards Outside University College London: A case of approved plagiarism by Prof Andrew Bevan et al.

Image
Introduction The oft-recited adage is that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Going by this logic, there can be no higher praise from an academic than outright plagiarism of your work. I have had recent cause to be on the receiving end of just such praise and I can assure you, dear reader, that it doesn’t feel like a compliment at all. In fact, it sucks. I decided that, rather than meekly accept it, I was going to fight back for the recognition due to my work. To this end, I reached out to the two universities involved (University College London and Plymouth University) and the publishing journal (PNAS) and asked them to initiate investigations into the conduct of their employees/authors. I trusted that these institutions would be keen to ensure that their academics adhered to the highest standards and that any deviation would be met with swift correction. I was wrong and my trust was sorely misplaced. Until now I have only really discussed this issue with my cont
Read more