Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 30 July 2015

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 29)

Skeletons beneath our Feet

    Previously, we discussed the Dominican Abbey at what is now Crosses Green. Exciting finds were unearthed in 1993 during the placing of foundations for the Crosses Green Apartment Complex. Excavated remains of buildings were discovered associated with the abbey especially the church, cloister or central walking area and other attached domestic buildings. Among these buildings, many medieval objects were found as well as one of the most preserved graveyards ever found in post medieval archaeological studies. All were studied under the watchful eye at the time of former City Archaeologist, Maurice Hurley and Cathy Sheehan (1995, see local studies in the City Library for their insightful excavation report)

    Part of the finds included the remains of medieval pottery. Clare McCutcheon in her section in the excavation report noted that the largest assemblage came from the south-west of France from the Saintonge area and were early thirteenth to fourteenth century in date. In addition, native Cork type pottery was discovered as well as Redcliffe pottery from Bristol.

    Nearly a half a dozen bone and antler artefacts turned up. These included a modified antler tine or an object used in some manufacturing or shaping process of bone or antler. A broken needle associated with medieval weaving was found along with what is described as a type of toggle to hold clothes together. Rosary beads or paternosters were found. Forty-two beads were, all bone in nature. The beads were found in relation with the torso of a skeleton in a grave.

   Metal objects were discovered of which many were bronze in nature. These included several bronze pins, a needle, an ear spoon (from a toilet set or a surgical instrument set), a ring brooch, which would been used to fasten the cloaks of the monks, a buckle, the hand guard of a dagger, a tweezers, and an iron knife blade. Lead objects included nine lead rods, which were part of stylii or writing leads. Only one medieval coin of a medieval date was found, fourteenth to fifteenth century in date. One piece of structural timber was found, which was said to maybe part of a quay front revetment, a bridge, or a scaffolding piece used in the construction of the priory.

   A total of two hundred graves were found. Under the careful excavation of Catyrn Power, the majority of the graves were discovered within the boundaries of buildings especially within the church and cloister area. Since, the abbey was built on a marshy island, there was a lack of acid in the underlining soil which resulted in little deterioration of the bones of skeletons found. All were reburied appropriately and safely. The majority were excellently preserved and therefore most of the graves comprised of intact comprehensible skeletons. Incidently the first graves associated with the Dominican Abbey are recorded as being located in 1804 when a Mr Walker unearthed several stone lined graves. He was building his own distillery at the time chose not to disturb the burials to any great extent.

   Catyrn in her report notes three main types of graves discovered, which give an insight into the social structure around the area of the abbey. These types included shallow unlined graves which the majority of burials consisted of. In a few unlined graves, an unusual burial practice was noted. Small stones known as pillow stones or other skulls were placed on either side of the skull of the main skeleton in order to keep the skull itself from collapsing to one side.

   The second type of grave found on the grounds of the Dominican Abbey was related to the evidence for charred coffins. In England, during the medieval period, charred coffins were utilised so that the decomposition of wood would be deterred. Stone-lined graves with slab capstones also made up a large part of the burials at Crosses Green. Associated with several of these type of graves on top of them were tomb slabs and effigies (carved statues in stone).

   Three-quarters of the individual skeletons were found to be adults – the largest number being aged in their twenties There seemed to be slightly more males than females excavated. The mortality rate was found to be low and through present day research on medieval times, numerous reasons have for this have come to the forefront such as diet and living standards of the time. Poor living conditions in the nearby walled town and the abbey led to breeding grounds for rats and infectious diseases. In the town overcrowding was common in poorly ventilated dwellings with thatched roofs that had a clay floor which was an attraction to rats and fleas. The water supply was always subject to contamination from sewage and rubbish. Household waste was thrown onto the streets and laneways. Even dead animals were left to decay where they fell. Clothing and hair provided shelter from fleas and lice. Life was tough in medieval Cork.

    In the case of the skeletons excavated and analysed at Crosses Green, just less than half were found to have degenerative joint disease or some form of arthritis. In several individual skeletons, nutritional deficiencies, tumours, dental diseases were noted along with infections. All these can be detected due to their changing effect on the shape and strength of the bone.

 Check out Catyrn Power’s excellent blog, https://corkarchaeologist.wordpress.com/

 To be continued…

Captions: 

803a. Excavating skeletons at Crosses Green, 1993 (pictures: Catyrn Power, https://corkarchaeologist.wordpress.com) 

803b. Excavating skeletons at Crosses Green, 1993 (pictures: Catyrn Power, https://corkarchaeologist.wordpress.com)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 9 July 2015

The Altar Stone of Gougane Barra

     I have spent many years admiring the old altar at Gougane Barra. I sat by it for many hours doing survey work four years ago. I interviewed the bones of 100 people who were honest and candid in what they experienced at the site, drawing on their memories and experiences. I often admired the person who picked up a pebble, paused, then carved a cross into the hard limestone slab, and then paused again in silent reflection, almost nodding to the power of the stone. The marks always looked fresh – always looked like a kind of ongoing process – always on top of the last marking – it was an unfinished beautiful artwork –there was no instruction booklet to it but the gut of almost each visitor to the pilgrimage island informed them to mark it with a cross.

   The stone’s recent stealing has disillusioned me. Who could take such a historic object? Who would intentionally in the dead of night (probably) conduct an operation to remove it from Gougane Barra. It’s not just because of its date that grieves me, the potential of being three hundred years – indeed it’s date of origin can be disputed – the actual story of the stone is muted for the most part by the haze of history – it reputedly belonged to an old stone walled church and eight celled pilgrimage complex and lodgings created by a Fr Denis O’Mahony in the early days of the penal laws in the early 1700s and all dedicated to continue the myth and legacy of Cork’s saint Finbarre. Fr O’Mahony countered the penal laws in Ireland through building a pilgrimage site, thus defying the laws himself. The various acts of remembering were widened and reconstructed over several decades by Cork clerics and antiquarians. The erection of an inscribed stone c.1824, at the base of the front of the pilgrimage cell structure sets and lists the ritual via a rounds system of prayers to be completed around the pilgrimage island – a pathway around the small island, linking ideas and thoughts together about the different values offered by the place. Prayers at the old altar was parts of the rounds set.

    In particular I grieve for all those human marks on the stone – the chess board like cross carvings, centimetres deep into the stone. I grieve for all those people who took the time to mark their presence on the island – to carve their voices and as such a piece of their soul, memories and experiences as such into the stone. Whether you’re Christian minded or not, the marking of the stone for me at any rate marked and remembered many concepts – standing out is the celebration of human life, that we all travel the road of life together with all its ups and downs, opportunities and crosses we bear.

     The process of history has a terrible habit of distilling down the voices of the many, in favour of one voice. Cork history is riddled with questions with unknown answers, about the region’s historic development, the story of its people, and the role of Cork identity in regional and national stories. This week’s column is number 800, a long process of weekly writing since autumn 1999 and one which I continue to enjoy the journey and process of. One aspect arising from my research continues to emerge. There are the voices of thousands and thousands of people who lived their life in Cork and whose stories have never been recounted – then there are the stories collected by countless local historians that will never see the light of day. This stone represents a beacon or a lighthouse for the silent voices of the many who came to Gougane Barra in search of many things about themselves – to learn something about themselves and others.

    I can be honest and say that through a recent thesis using Gougane Barra as a case study, for two years, I fell out of love with the place. Like a jilted lover, I learned about what made Gougane Barra and its beauty tick, the raison d’etre behind each monument in the area. I opened its rattle and saw how much of Gougane Barra’s surface scenery in terms of its monuments and trees are all human-made, how all have a political purpose and meaning of sorts. But putting the rattle back together, I began to appreciate how all the parts work with other – how clever and thoughtful the makers were, the early eighteenth century pilgrimage cells, the early twentieth century oratory, the national park, the hotel, the old rounds system- that all have a role to play in invigorating the experience of people and vice versa, the experience of people invigorate these latter sites with a voice and continued and renewed vigour and interest.

    The stone helped in the experience of place in Gougane Barra – aided in the production of a sense of place, the appropriation, re-appropriation, sensing of the place, the acknowledgment and imagination of the place, the yearning for, contestation and identification of the place and much more. There is so much to the old and beautiful altar stone. If anyone knows where it is, please report it to Macroom Garda Station, 026 20590. It is a matter of all the above thoughts and much more – it is a valued part of our cultural heritage.

Captions:

800a. Altar stone, Gougane Barra, insitu before it was stolen (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

800b. Gougane Barra in late spring (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent,  2 July 2015

Cork Harbour Memories (Part 28) 

The Dominicans in Early Cork

     Following on from a previous article, by 1721 it is detailed that the Dominican order had moved from St Marie’s of the Isle to Shandon to establish a new church site. By the 1830s they were campaigning and fundraising for the beautiful St Mary’s Dominican Church, Pope’s Quay. It is unfortunate that due to progress, nearly all that remains of the Dominican Abbey has been destroyed. However, in recent years, much archaeological work has been done on the site of the Dominican Abbey, now Crosses Green Apartments. In 1988, test trenches outside the environs of the abbey revealed wattle fencing of thirteenth century in date. This is the earliest evidence, (apart from the Dominicans), of people living outside the walled town on the adjacent marshy islands. In the early 1990s, an archaeological survey of the site revealed information that at least five carved stones belonging to a window and cloister area or the central walking area from the abbey were located at a private residence on Boreenmanna Road in the city.

     It is also believed that the entrance doorway from the Dominican Church formed the entrance to the previous St Finbarre’s Cathedral before the cathedral itself was rebuilt in the 1860s. It is said that it is now built into the boundary wall of the present day St Finbarre’s Cathedral, known as the Dean’s Door.

    The most revealing excavation of the site though occurred in 1993 during the placing of foundations for the Crosses Green Apartment Complex. It was during this construction that large sections of the lower portions of the church, cloister and other domestic buildings were discovered under the watchful eye at the time of former City Archaeologist, Maurice Hurley and Cathy Sheehan (1995, see local studies in the City Library for the insightful excavation report).

    In a a-typical Dominican Abbey, the main focus of the abbey was a church which had a central tower dividing the altar from the public area. The church was at least one storey high. Connected to the church area were various religious and domestic rooms. These included a sacristy, a reading room or chapter room, a kitchen, a dining area or refectory, cellars and dormitories. These rooms would have also encompassed a central walking area or cloister area. In the case of the Dominican Abbey, excavations in 1993 revealed the part of the lower bases of the church, part of the cloister area and some associated domestic buildings. There was also evidence for two distinct phases of construction. The first phase was associated with the construction of the initial abbey while the second phase was associated with several modifications to the physical form of the abbey itself.

   The initial church was found to be rectangular in plan. It was noted in phase two that a tower was added in the fifteenth century along with an extra aisle, after the southern wall of the church was extended. There was no evidence for a formal floor in phase 1 but it is argued through the presence of gritty lime mortar that a tiled surface existed in phase two. The lime mortar would have held the tiles in place. In the case of the cloister area or the claustral range, the excavations revealed evidence of burning of vegetation before the foundation trenches were laid. What is interesting is that the foundation of the wall here was built on wooden planks and in one section, vertically driven planks into the ground could be seen which prevented the wall built on it from subsiding. The walkway or ambulatories around the cloister was seemed to narrow in width when modifications (phase two) occurred in the fifteenth century.

    Regarding the domestic buildings, a small room was found along with the refectory or the dining area. Within the refectory, evidence for stone benches and a well were discovered along with a border of stones which would have been used as foot pace or rests. During the extension phase or phase two in the fifteenth century, the excavations revealed evidence that the refectory was increased in size and certain walls were made thicker in order to strengthen them.  

     The excavations also revealed that most of the walls were limestone in nature and were primarily dressed or smoothened on their outer faces. Nevertheless, there were pieces found that were sculptured in essence that were used in the ornate surrounds of a window or door jambs. What is interesting is that the early architectural stones at Crosses Green were from Somerset in England. Known as Dundry stone, this stone was imported in substantial amounts to Ireland during the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, mainly because it was easy to transport this stone from England by sea rather than transport stone in Ireland by land. Many Anglo-Norman port towns imported this stone to be used in various architectural features. Dundry stone was high quality, durable, easily carved and when fresh gave an attractive yellow colour. In the case of the Dominican Abbey, during the extension phase or phase two, there was a changeover to more hardened limestone. The reason is unknown but it could have been to continue and re-highlight to the local community their commitment in serving and working with it.

 To be continued…

Captions:

 799a. St Marie’s of the Isle and Elizabeth Fort from A description of the Cittie of Cork/ Plan of Cork, circa 1602 by George Carew (source: Hardiman Atlas, Library of Trinity College Dublin)

799b. St Mary’s Dominican Church, Pope’s Quay (picture: Kieran McCarthy)