Celebrating the First Twenty Years of the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland Chairperson’S Statement

Celebrating the First Twenty Years of The Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland Chairperson’s Statement The first industry in Ireland was the quarrying of flint and other stone for tool-making by early settlers over 12,000 years ago. In more recent times our mining and quarrying industry has produced a wealth of materials for our benefit such as metallic ores, industrial minerals, construction materials and fuels. Even the page you are now reading contains minerals such as kaolin, talc or calcium carbonate, which have all been produced in Ireland at one time or other. Today about 6,000 people work directly in the mining and quarrying industry on this island. The provision of materials for our civilisation has left a physical legacy of mining and quarrying sites, processing sites and transport routes, and a cultural legacy of migration and settlement, historical records, personal memories, poetry and songs. This heritage is now appreciated by archaeologists, historians, geologists, ecologists, engineers, people who work in mines or quarries, and people who live in areas where the industries have developed. However, this was not always the case, as the heritage was under-researched prior to the formation of the MHSI, while the development of mining heritage sites and facilities was virtually non-existent. The MHSI was formed to address these issues and to provide a focus for the varied interests noted above. In the following pages you will find excellent personal perspectives on the development of the MHTI and impressive accounts of our activities and achievements. The publication ends with a look towards the future, and I hope that after reading this, you will feel inspired to support our aims and activities. On behalf of the members of the MHTI, I thank everyone who has contributed towards this publication and who created, developed or otherwise assisted the organisation in its progress over the last twenty years. Alastair Lings, MHTI Chairperson 2 Foreword It really is an honour to have been asked to provide Nothing could be further from the truth and this the foreword for this wonderfully illustrated and publication is further evidence of the openness informative publication. There are many ways and the willingness amongst the mining heritage in today’s world in which we can have access community to share and inform others. to information and to share knowledge but, as Of course mining communities in Ireland are is befitting of an organisation that is rooted in rarer now than previously. You only have to think, our industrial heritage, the printed word and Glendalough, Castlecomer, Allihies or Silvermines publishing obviously still has a very important to see how local and widespread they were in and valuable role to play. To say that the printed the past. But they still exist today – even if the word delights me on both a professional and industrial scale on which they operated is different personal basis would be an understatement. My to the likes of Tara today. They too, however, show first introduction to industrial heritage was to the significance of mining to local communities Gray’s Printing press in Strabane, the town where and, on the basis of my understanding, the I was born. As a child the stories and significance closeness of the bond that exists within those of Grays was not lost on any child in Strabane and communities. That is an important part of our there is no doubt that the ink was indelible. The living heritage and marries the enthusiasm and interest has remained ever since. commitment of the modern day volunteer and It is quite amazing how such childhood enthusiast with those professionally involved in experiences shape us. I have no doubt whatsoever mining. Those links are important to keep as we that the eloquence of the descriptions of our create the heritage enthusiasts of the future. mining heritage that appear in the celebratory Everyone associated is to be congratulated. publication have their roots in a mine of youthful We can all plan our future better with the experiences and enjoyment. Clambering and knowledge that has been made available to us in exploring. Hammering and tapping and all with a this publication. The physical interventions that view to find out more about what shaped not only mining has brought to our landscapes have stood the mines in a physical sense but also the people the test of time and captured our imagination. that shaped the mines. This is where the work This publication adds even greater depth and will of groups such as the Mining Heritage Trust of inspire even more people to become involved. Ireland is so valuable. Their interest and expertise is inspiring and opens the imagination of new Michael Starrett generations. Sometimes heritage expertise gets Chief Executive labelled as inherently selfish and inward looking. The Heritage Council Celebrating the First Twenty Years of The Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland 3 Above; Skip descending the man engine shaft of the Mountain Mine, Allihies, Co. Cork, when it was dewatered in 1958 (Image courtesy of Jim McCannell) 4 Mining in Ireland: A Brief History By Sharron P. Schwartz The extraction and use of the Earth’s resources the complexity of the temporal spread of mining has played a highly significant role long before interests from Ireland to neighbouring Britain. It is the dawn of recorded time, shaping both the regrettable that there is no dedicated interpretation environment and the economies and societies of centre in SW Ireland to tell this truly remarkable people worldwide. The island of Ireland has a long story and to place on public display some of the and varied history of both quarrying and mining. incredible Bronze Age finds made by archaeologist, Before the mining and working of metals, man Professor William O’Brien, at Ross Island and quarried stone for many thousands of years for use Mount Gabriel. as microliths, axes and hammers. Two prehistoric Prior to the eighteenth century, records of opencast flint mines are recognised in Ireland: mining in Ireland are sparse. But the occasional at Ballygalley Head and Ballycoos, both to the nineteenth century discovery of subterranean northwest of Larne, Co. Antrim. Notable sites of excavations point to there having been quarrying during the Neolithic for porcellanite, a undocumented mining activity before and after the very hard, blue-gray dense rock somewhat similar Anglo-Norman conquest of the twelfth century. in appearance to unglazed porcelain, include the Described in antiquarian literature as ‘Dane’s Brockley Plug on Rathlin Island and Tievebulliagh Workings’ (after the Viking settlers thought to be in Antrim. The axes manufactured from this stone responsible for them), these ‘old men’s workings’ were widely distributed within Ireland and also sometimes contained evidence of fire setting and exported to neighbouring Britain. Also notable is mining implements of great antiquity (such as the quarrying of andesite at Lambay Island off the hammer stones and oak shovels). coast of Co. Dublin. This quarry site is unusual Interest by the English Crown in identifying in Ireland for being the only Neolithic stone axe and exploiting silver resources in Ireland (from quarry with evidence for all stages of production, argentiferous galena deposits) is evident by the from quarrying to final polishing. early 1200s. This interest continued into the The earliest evidence of metal mining in Ireland fourteenth century and has been linked to workings is provided by Bronze Age copper workings at in Counties Tipperary and Waterford. Moreover, Ross Island, Co. Kerry in southwest Ireland. it is highly likely that small-scale silver mining Dating from between 2,400 and 2,000 BC, these was also occurring in areas outside the influence workings constitute the oldest recognised copper of the Crown. Indeed, workings in Galway, Mayo, mines in north-western Europe. Moreover, there Cork and Limerick were recorded by sixteenth is further evidence of primitive copper workings century Plantation settlers. Certainly during the on the Iveragh, Beara and Mizen Head peninsulas, sixteenth century, Clonmines in Co. Wexford was placing Irish copper mining at the very vanguard of being reworked by the Crown for silver with the aid exploitation in north-western Europe. It is possible of immigrant German mineworkers, while other that new sites await discovery in this island, as ventures were reported in Waterford. ground breaking scientific techniques in the fast Also of importance were small-scale iron moving field of Bronze Age archaeology uncover workings, known to have flourished in the Celebrating the First Twenty Years of The Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland 5 experienced a much publicised gold rush. For a short period in 1795, some 80 kg of alluvial gold is estimated to have been recovered from what subsequently became known as the Gold Mines River near Avoca, by many hundreds of people who flocked to Wicklow to chance their luck with the wash pan and long tom. Following the inevitable state intervention and subsequent dispersal of the gold diggers during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the exploitation of alluvial gold was carried out by the Government for some five years, after which the local populace and private companies continued to work the river. The total amount of gold recovered is calculated at some 300 kg, although the true figure may be much higher. The Irish mining industry flourished in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, triggered by the demand for minerals during the Industrial Revolution in Britain. During the febrile atmosphere of the mid-1820s ‘mining boom’, four Irish mining companies set up by parliamentary bills appeared on the London Stock Exchange. Numerous private companies were also organised as Ireland was turned over end to end in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries across Ireland, the search for minerals.

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