Archaeological Inventory of County Cork, Vol.1 (West Cork), Vol.2 (East and South Cork) Denis Power (comp.) (Stationary Office, £20 each) Guide to the Archives of the Office of Public Works, Rena Lohan (Stationary Office) Irish Archives Journal (Spring 1995) (Irish Society of Archives, £4.95) In recent years, there has been a massive splurge of spending … Read more
History was uncovered right on the doorstep of HI’s offices in South Earl Street, in Dublin’s Liberties, recently. A short ten-day archaeological dig in advance of redevelopment uncovered part of the southern precinct of Saint Thomas’s Abbey. The boundary in this area was formed by a ditch, almost two-and-a-half metres deep, which varied from seven … Read more
In a parliament which met at Dublin in 1460 a famous statute was passed in which it was stated that the land of Ireland is, and at all times has been, corporate of itself by the ancient laws and customs used in the same, freed of the burden of any special law of the realm … Read more
A tower house is a fortified medieval residence of stone, usually four or more stories in height. Like most of the surviving monuments of our medieval past, the majority of Irish tower houses are in poor condition, with collapsed walls and ivy shrouded exteriors reflecting centuries of neglect. Yet these ruins, the remnants of a … Read more
Philomena Connolly On 11 July 1332, Sir William Bermingham was taken from Dublin Castle where he had been imprisoned, and was hanged by order of Anthony Lucy, the justiciar. The Dublin annalist was horrified at this deed: ‘Alas, alas,’ he lamented, ‘who can contain their tears when they remember his death?’ The shock of the … Read more