Nationalism, Archaeology and the Historic Built
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Constructing Irishness: Nationalism, Archaeology and the Historic Built Environment in an Independent State RAMONA USHER A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2014 Copyright statement: This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights. 1 Abstract The accepted underlying principle held for the destruction of certain elements of architectural heritage in Ireland has been nationalism. The explicit manifestation of this was the destruction of Dublin’s Georgian architecture in the 1960s and 70s. Such architecture has been naturally associated with British imperialism: formal architecture represented the British Protestant upper classes, a division of society to which the native Catholic Irish did not apparently ascribe, or from which they were excluded. Assessments of value made by reactive amenity bodies such as the Irish Georgian Society did little to dispel the notion that formal architecture did not accord with Irishness, as such appraisals were being made by the elite. Additionally, independent Ireland was keen to emphasise a native Irish identity, based in the west, and reinforced by icons of tradition including thatched vernacular houses and rural living. Such identity was underpinned by the archaeological record: the pre-dominant cultural-historical theoretical approach and the invasion hypothesis reinforced distinctions between the various cultures entering the country by both the physical movements of people and the diffusion of culture. However, such assessments of value become untenable in the face of economic development, as demonstrated by the Hill of Tara and the M3 motorway debate. This research provides a nuanced appraisal of Ireland’s selection and neglect of certain aspects of its material culture by evaluating the fluid nature of ‘heritage’. This is achieved through a methodology which utilises archival material from the National Archives and Office of Public Works, assesses archaeological excavations and historic buildings through fieldwork and examines the politicisation of architectural destruction in the literature. The research concludes that assessments of heritage value need to be taken beyond simple selectivity based on the tenets of nationalism, and expedient factors need to be given more credibility when assessing how and why Irish material culture is protected. It also concludes that the material culture which embodies Irishness is most at risk. 2 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION 8 1.1 Research background 9 1.2 Nationalism and Irish identity 11 1.2.1 Irish Nationalism 13 1.2.2 Irish Language 14 1.2.3 Irish Catholic Identity 15 1.2.4 Ethnicity 16 1.2.5 Material Culture 17 1.2.6 Memory 19 1.3 Archaeology 21 1.3.1 Archaeology and ‘academic neutrality’ 23 1.3.2 Archaeological theory 24 1.3.3 Uses and abuses of Irish archaeology 25 1.4 Postcolonialism 30 1.4.1 Ireland and Postcolonialism 31 1.5 Vernacular Architecture 33 1.5.1 Irish vernacular architecture 36 1.6 Conservation 44 1.6.1 Ireland and Conservation 46 1.6.2 The Legislation 49 1.6.2.1 National Monuments Act, 1930 49 1.6.3 Conservation today 50 1.7 Methodology 54 1.7.1 Structure 57 CHAPTER TWO - ORIGINS 2.1 Introduction 59 2.2 Origins 60 2.2.1 Harvard Archaeological Mission 62 2.2.2 The Roman rejection 65 2.3 Written in Stone 68 2.3.1 ‘Totally authentic’ World Heritage 71 2.4 Newgrange Passage Tomb 73 2.4.1 Reclaiming Newgrange 74 2.4.2 ‘West world pyramid’ 76 2.4.3 Reconstructing Newgrange 77 2.4.4 Vandalism at Newgrange 81 2.4.5 Acceptance of Newgrange 84 2.4.6 ‘Amazing technology for its time’ 86 2.4.7 Performance and Newgrange 89 2.5 Knowth 91 2.5.1 Conservation and Reconstruction 92 2.5.2 Archaeological Outcomes 95 2.6 Carrickmines Castle, Co. Dublin 96 2.7 M3 and the Hill of Tara 99 2.7.1 Tara and Irish identity 100 2.7.2 ‘Save’ Tara 101 2.7.3 Protest 102 2.7.4 The destruction of landscape 104 4 2.8 The ‘Ethnographic Present’ 105 2.9 Return to Positivism: ‘Blood of the Irish’ 106 2.9.1 The Basque illusion 109 2.9.2 Ireland’s ethnic nationalism 110 2.10 Conclusion 112 CHAPTER THREE - LITTLE HOUSES IN THE WEST 3.1 Introduction 114 3.2 19th century narratives 114 3.3 Vernacular buildings and the Famine narrative 117 3.3.1 The National Museum’s ‘Irish Folklife Collection’ 118 3.3.2 Locating Irishness 121 3.3.3 Strokestown Park, County Roscommon 122 3.3.4 Deserted Village, County Mayo 125 3.3.4.1 Unintentional monuments 127 3.4 Post-independence longing 129 3.4.1 The Vernacular as National Monuments 130 3.5 Contemporary responses 133 3.5.1 Omission of Slate 136 3.5.2 Thatch and place-myth 138 3.5.3 The Anti-Scrape movement and the penchant for rubble 139 3.5.4 ‘Don’t get stoned, get plastered’ 142 3.5.5 Imagined vernacular 146 3.5.5.1 Imagined vernacular in Britain 148 3.6 Conservation in the 21st century 152 3.6.1 Mayglass Farmhouse, County Wexford 153 3.7. The consequences of Irishness and the rural idyll 159 3.7.1 The Celtic Tiger 162 3.8 Conclusion 164 CHAPTER FOUR - CONSTRUCTING THE IRISH NATION 4.1 Introduction 166 4.2 Easter Rising, 1916 168 4.2.1 The ‘steps’ 170 4.2.2 The ‘bullet holes’ 173 4.3 The Custom House 179 4.3.1 Portland stone debate 184 4.4 General Post Office: restoration 193 4.5 Four Courts 194 4.6 The appeal of stone 197 4.7 Framing 201 4.8 ‘Up went Nelson’ 203 4.9 Post boxes 205 4.10 Conclusion 211 CHAPTER FIVE - THE GEORGIAN DENIAL 5.1 Introduction 213 5.2 Dublin 213 5.3 Georgian Dublin 216 5.3.1 Domestic Georgian – dissonant heritage 220 5.3.2 ‘Belted earls’ 223 5.3.3 ‘I was glad to see them go. They stand for everything I 229 5 hate.’ 5.4 Motive, means and manner 230 5.4.1 International Modernism 231 5.5 Brick 235 5.5.1 Tuck pointing 240 5.6 Pastiche 242 5.7 The Battle for Moore Street 246 5.8 Dublin’s Victorian Heritage 248 5.9 Return to the countryside 251 5.10 Conservation today 253 5.10.1 Conservation and education 255 5.11 Conclusion 257 CHAPTER SIX – CONCLUSION 6.1 Irishness 258 6.2 Archaeology 259 6.3 Vernacular architecture 262 6.4 Georgian architecture 264 BIBLIOGRAPHY 267 TABLES Table 1: ‘Binarisms’ 66 Table 2: Under-graduate courses 255 Table 3: Post-graduate courses 256 IMAGES Image 1: ‘The Famine Memorial’, Custom House Quay, Dubin 39 Image 2: The Céide Fields - exposed Neolithic walls 69 Image 3: Exposed stone boundary wall, the Céide Fields 71 Image 4: Historic and contemporary graffiti, Ashby de la Zouch Castle 83 Image 5: A ‘setting’ outside the west tomb . 93 Image 6: M3 exit, Junction 6 102 Image 7: The Mound of the Hostages 103 Image 8: Ramona Usher’s mitochondrial DNA results 109 Image 9: National Museum of Ireland, Turlough, County Mayo 119 Image 10: Turlough House and the modern wing 122 Image 11: Strokestown House, County Roscommon 123 Image 12: Irish National Famine Museum, Strokestown House 124 Image 13: The Deserted Village, County Mayo. 126 Image 14: ‘Rent an Irish Cottage’, Achill Island, County Mayo. 127 Image 15: Exposed stone walls, the Deserted Village, County Mayo 128 Image 16: Abandoned vernacular house with slate roof, County Kerry 138 Image 17 and 18: St Brendan’s Church, County Kerry 141 Image 19: Victorian terraced house, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin 143 Image 20: 19th century rendered building, Ballyheigue, County Kerry 145 Image 21: 19th century building with render removed 145 6 Image 22: 21st century house, Banna, County Kerry 148 Image 23: Waterloo Promenade, Nottingham, UK 149 Image 24: 19th century building, render removed, Tralee, County Kerry 151 Image 25: New housing development, Mount Sorrell, Leicestershire, UK 152 Image 26: General Post Office, O’Connell Street, Dublin 172 Image 27 and 28: ‘Bullet holes’ 174 Image 29: Opera House, Timişoara, Romania 175 Image 30: Custom House, Dublin 179 Image 31: Gandon’s Dome in 2008 187 Image 32: Four Courts, Dublin 195 Image 33: Department of Industry and Commerce, Kildare Street, Dublin 199 Image 34: Post box, Kildare Street, Dublin 207 Image 35: ‘Souvenir Die Cast Metal Telephone Box & Post Box’ 210 Image 36: Merrion Square East, Dublin 218 Image 37: 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 218 Image 38 and Image 39: Plasterwork, Maynooth 219 Image 40: E.S.B. offices in Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin. 224 Image 41: ‘Georgian House Museum’, Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin 226 Image 42: Irish tuck pointing, Dublin 241 Image 43 and 44: 1960s ‘Georgian’ doorway and window 243 Image 45: Georgian building, Tralee, County Kerry 245 Image 46: Moore Street, Dublin 246 Image 47: Plaque commemorating 1916, Moore Street, Dublin 248 Image 48: Victorian alterations to Georgian buildings, The Quays, Dublin 249 Image 49: Kildare Street Club, Dublin 250 Image 50: Victorian lamp posts, Dublin 250 7 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION This research concerns the Republic of Ireland and its material culture, and the influence that nationalism has had on the selection and neglect of certain elements of that culture, principally upstanding archaeological remains and historic buildings.