Irish Times letter

The following letter appeared in the Irish Times on August 5th, and I was happy to add my signature to it. Whether you agree with every detail or not, Maggie Ronayne’s stand against  the destruction of archaeological heritage for short-term economic gain along with the collaboration in this process by private archaeological firms is very much worth supporting.

Archaeology in Ireland

Madam, – Margaret Gowen (“Archaeology in Ireland can be proud of its standards”, July 22nd)) was responding to the latest protest from professionals internationally against the Market’s domination (“Archaeology needs to recover its core principles and ethics”, July 15th). The general public understands that to be “market-led”, as Ms Gowen justifies, is to undermine a “deep and genuine interest” in principles and public accountability.

Yes, colleagues in the private sector struggle to care for cultural heritage and uphold standards, but those whom Ms Gowen represents have hardly supported such efforts. We agree that archaeological landscapes need to be protected and we wish that for Tara’s landscape. That’s why we call for a halt to construction work on the M3 motorway and an inquiry into all the circumstances that brought it about. We regret that Ms Gowen’s company did not defend Tara’s landscape in the same way during the M3 planning process and that work and testimony by her company, particularly the reversal in the later stages of their earlier warnings on the high significance of this area, facilitated this motorway going ahead.

“Minimising the impact of a development” is hardly a standard for archaeologists, but a compromise with their fundamental ethic: preservation of cultural heritage. We aim far higher, towards the prevention of any destructive development. Much money goes into dressing up development to make cultural destruction palatable.

As professionals we must say no deal. There has been an international debate on ethics in many other professions for years. Independent regulation, or returning archaeology to the public sector, are practical and ethical. In France, the profession refused privatisation.

We understand there is currently a debate within the Minister for the Environment’s heritage advisory committee about changing the structures of the profession to try to address recent problems: the public must be told what exactly is being considered.

Professionals are trying to figure out how best to work with the public: it’s a crucial question. Countries have passed laws and many professional bodies have codes of ethics requiring archaeologists, for example, to take account of community concerns. Tara does not belong to archaeologists, still less to one sector of the profession or to the NRA and other developers. It belongs to the people of Ireland and the world.

These archaeology debates have found parallels in all professions. There is, for example, a trend away from the great misery caused to communities, culture and the environment by privatisation. Communities and professionals accountable to them rather than any developer must determine what happens to every culture and every heritage. The hope is for professionals to stick to principles and to refuse to serve mammon. – Yours, etc.,

Maggie Ronayne, Lecturer in Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Dr. Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin, Lecturer in Celtic Studies, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland

Dr John Allison, Anthropologist (retired), Farmington, New Mexico, USA

John Arden, playwright and Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature, Galway, Ireland

Dr Jenny Blain, Applied Social Sciences, Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Geoff Carver, PhD student, State University of New York at Buffalo, New York, USA

Dr. Raymond Cormier, Department of English & Modern Languages, Longwood University, Virginia, USA

Margaretta D’Arcy, member of the Aosdána, Galway, Ireland

Professor Philip Duke, Department of Anthropology, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado, USA

Emeritus Professor Dr. Doris R. Edel, formerly Celtic Languages and Civilization at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

Dr David Edwards, Senior Lecturer, Department of History, University College Cork, Ireland

Joanne Findon, Associate Professor, Department of English Literature, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

Professor Tadhg Foley, Department of English & Chair, Board of the Centre for Irish Studies, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Emily Forster, PhD student, School of Geography, University of Southampton, UK

Dr Oona Frawley, Research Associate, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Paula Geraghty, Member of the Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland

Jayne Gidlow, teacher and former field archaeologist, Madrid, Spain

Brian Hole, MPhil/PhD student, Institute of Archaeology, University College London, UK

Dr Willy Kitchen, Foundation Programme Director, Institute for Lifelong Learning, University of Sheffield, UK

Dr Nikos Kourampas, Research Assistant, School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Scotland

Theresa McDonald, Archaeology Centre, Achill Archaeological Field School, Achill Island, County Mayo, Ireland

Paul Muldoon, Fund for Irish Studies, Princeton University, USA

Dr Sue North-Bates, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Faculty of Development and Society, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Charles E. Orser, Jr., Curator of Historical Archaeology, New York State Museum, New York, USA

Professor Emeritus Eamonn O Carragáin, Member of the Royal Irish Academy and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, University College Cork, Ireland

Eamon Ó Ciardha, University of Ulster, Ireland

Dr Breandán Ó Cíobháin, Co. Kerry, Ireland

Dr Rachel Pope, Lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, UK

Dr. Timothy Renner, Professor of Classics & General Humanities, Montclair State University, New Jersey, USA

Dr Simon Rodway, Lecturer in Celtic Studies, University of Aberystwyth, Wales

Rebecca Roseff, Honorary Research Fellow, Birmingham University and Member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists, UK

Professor Dean J. Saitta, Department of Anthropology, University of Denver, Colorado, USA

Dr. Ali K. Saysel, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey

Rab Swannock Fulton, Storyteller, Galway, Ireland

Colm Toibín, Novelist

Sarah Viner, PhD student, Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, UK

Professor John Waddell, Department of Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Dr. Robert J. Wallis, Associate Professor of Visual Culture, Richmond University, UK

Dr Christina Welch, Lecturer in Theology & Religious Studies, University of Winchester, UK

archaeology ethics irelandarchaeology ethics ireland Published: 8.10.08 / 7pm
Tags: archaeology, ethics, ireland